Go Abroad China Engineering Internship at Go Abroad China Review

I developed personal and professional skills through my internship. My confidence has increased and The placement offered exactly what I wanted to achieve in a year in industry which made it enjoyable and made me want to go to work every day. My placement provided me with such satisfaction that i always looked forward to going into work. This satisfaction came from the fact that I knew I was working on current and upcoming landmark products and as such would gain meaningful skills and experiences that I could apply to my university work.

I was treated like a proper team member. My opinion and ideas were listened to and I felt like the work I completed was appreciated by my team and management. My colleagues would often call on experience I had acquired over the course of my placement to assist in the planning of sprints and would ask me what was possible in a given time span

I was given support and guidance from not only management/supervisors but also other colleagues whenever I needed it. If I got stuck on a piece of work, I felt like I could easily ask another team member for help and they would sit with me until I was comfortable to move on. I had regular meetings with my line manager to discus my work and progress. My line manager regularly made time in his day to come over and see how i was getting on and check that I was getting sufficient support from those I was working with. My line manager took time to introduce me to the other developers in the department at the start of the placement and would answer any of my questions at any time , he would ensure that if i was stuck or lost on my work that I would know who in the department to go to for support.

On a daily basis, I was given time to learn on the job as well as complete real tasks. I was given more complex tickets as my skills and confidence grew. Mixed into some of the sprints was dedicated learning and development time giving me and other developers the chance to spend time developing our skills by completing tutorials and reading best practice materiel. If there were no tasks than I was encouraged to use the time as productively as possible and would carry out relevant tasks to better prepare myself for the next sprint and/or project.

I was gradually given more responsibility as I became more familiar with products and processes. I felt like the team fully trusted me to make correct decisions. I was also tasked with giving presentations to other teams in the use of new technologies that I had been working with. As my skills developed my responsibilities grew and the teams I moved into required me to take on larger tasks, such as creating proofs of concepts in technologies new to the team.

The placement helped guide the idea and technology choices for my final year project at university. I gained invaluable experience and skills during the year which I still use today in my job. Over the course of my placement I acquired new web development skills in the latest versions of the angular framework and general refinement to my basic web skills such as css and html. I was able to use this experience in my university work. I was able to write my efficient code when I returned to university and had more confidence in my coding abiltites which gave me a fresh enthusiasm for development and as such returned to university excited to tackle my final year modules.

The office is open-plan, well lit and teams are sat together. There are multiple whiteboards situated around the office to encourage teamwork and collaboration. The office is always noisy (in a good way) with colleagues sharing ideas and knowledge to try and complete work in the best way possible. Everyone is friendly and you can often find yourself having a conversation with someone who you don't usually work with at the kitchen area whilst making a cup of tea/coffee. An atmosphere of friendly cooperation was created by the departments multiple teams who would make jokes and walk across the room to lend support to other teams.

I was able to gain experience in each aspect which is what I wanted. I was offered the opportunity to move around various other teams to gain experience in other areas such as Application Delivery/DevOps, Security, Databases but I felt like I wanted to focus mainly on development so I chose not to move.During my first few weeks my line manager and colleagues work to ensure that I knew what I was doing and what was expected of me. My line manager would have regular one on one meeting with me to discus the placement and how I was finding it and to check that I was still enjoying the projects I was working on. The HR team was very good as they assisted me in completing the necessary paper work for joining the company etc... They were nice and encouraged me to ask any questions I might have about holidays , work benefit schemes etc...My line manager regularly took the time to come and see how I was getting on especially when I had just started and worked to ensure that I was confident in what I was doing and understood the value of the work I was doing and ensured that I knew who I could ask if I needed more technical help.

I was given every opportunity to learn whilst working and if needed I could have been sent on courses to enhance my skills further. They had me spend time pair programming with experienced developers in order to better develop my programming knowledge. I was given ample learning and development time to use as I saw fit but many of my colleagues were more than willing to provide great material and examples that I could learn from.

I left my placement sad as I knew I was going to miss everyone and at times at university found myself wondering what they were working on now. Having met several new starters over the course of my placement I learned from them how well landmarks Junior developer opportunities compared with other companies. I have also now looked at what roles would be available after i finish studying.

I made many friends on my placement and am still friends with them today. I would regularly spend my lunch hours and breaks with my colleagues and get to know them better. Over the course of my placement several opportunities for company socials such as go karting and Christmas meal. An atmosphere of friendly cooperation was created by the departments multiple teams who would make jokes and walk across the room to lend support to other teams.

I lived within a 15 minute drive of the office so the cost of petrol and socialising is fairly cheap but obviously depends on what you want to do. Though slightly more expensive than other cities in the south west but not overly priced. However the salary paid was more than sufficient to live. As it's quite a rural area it helps to live in one of the bigger towns around here in terms of socializing as the cost of taxis, trains etc back to my small town can be quite high after a night out.

I did not go out often but when I did the night life was good. the only real difference is that the clubs and bars closed slightly earlier than other cites I had been out in. It was very cheap.Definitely one of the cheapest place I have lived in.

There are also people who like to cycle on their lunch breaks/outside of work. Often there would be team nights out/drinks/meals. If you know where to look there is lots of things going on in this area, such as sports clubs, markets, marathons etc. If you managed your time at work well and didn't leave any work to be done at home, you'd have plenty of time left to get involved in external interests such as hobbies all week long.