Software Engineer Intern Review

Working at Sage as a Software engineer has been an incredible experience. I have gained so many technical, personal and professional skills that will be invaluable in the future. I was a fully integrated member of the team and had a good relationship with everyone on my team and the whole office. I was never treated like an intern and rather an actual developer at Sage!

Particularly in my working team, we all had a very good relationship with each other - always having fun whilst maintaining a very high quality of work. I never felt unwanted or unneeded in the team and was always contributing as much to the team as the next developer. Everyone in the office was always friendly and willing to have a chat. I was also treated like a graduate throughout my time here, being invited to graduate training and having a community of graduates to talk to!

At Sage, they care a lot about your personal development. My manager in particular always cared about what my next step was going to be - even when I didn't know myself. We would have fortnightly meetings to discuss my goals for the quarter and how I am progressing. We would also talk about any issues I may have been having over the last 2 weeks. If I ever had an issue with my current task, he would always be more than happy to give a helping hand.

On a day to day basis - I always had something to do but never too much to the point where I was stressed or pressured and never bored. Towards the start I sometimes found I had nothing to do because I was doing training; however this training was essential to ensure that I could be a better contributing member of the team quicker!

I was treated like an full developer throughout my time at Sage, meaning that I was able to complete tasks on my own and wasn't being constantly monitored to see if I was doing something wrong! My manager was always willing to let me take on more responsibility, providing it didn't send me over a limit. For example, I took responsibility for organising our team's sprint reviews.

On a technical level, the programming languages, tools and methodologies I've learnt at Sage have been vast. Being able to learn in a practical environment and use these tools has really improved my overall knowledge of programming. However on a personal level, I've learnt a lot about myself in respect to how I react to certain situations and where I need to improve myself. The skills I've learnt at Sage will help me when I go back to University and the next step after that!

In the office I was seated with my team and we all had a good relationship and always had fun on a daily basis. You could always talk to anyone however and they were always more than happy to have a chat about anything whilst getting a coffee or tea!

Work placements, internships and graduate schemes are fairly new at Sage which meant that at times, sometimes the scheme felt a bit experimental but most of the time it was rewarding! The way it was set up was still very helpful in the way that there is 1-2 months of training before you jump into full work. In my team we did pair programming so I was able to just observe other members of the team to learn at the start when I got bored!

Sage gives you 5 day a year to dedicate to personal development on top of a subscription with LinkedIn learning which gives you access to a wide range of videos/resources to learn from. Sage always cared about your goals and how you were developing, allowing you to have frequent meetings with your manager as part of a L.E.A.D scheme!

The future employment prospects at Sage are very appealing in the sense that as long as you prove your worth whilst you're on the placement and there is space for you to come back, you will be offered a place on the graduate scheme after you've finished studying at University.

I was the only intern in my office, however there was two other graduates that started at the same time as me and we formed a good relationship. The office also organises parties sometimes for special occasions and our team always aimed to have one social outing at least once a quarter!

In my specific area, the cost of living was high - however this was my own fault because I decided to live towards the centre of Manchester. Manchester can also be quite expensive but at the same time it's the natural jump you make from being a student to day-to-day living!

In the area I was living (Central Manchester), I lived 2 minutes walk away from a strip of clubs and was never more than 10 minutes away from popular student bars meaning that the Nightlife was incredible. I never went out in the area near to the office however.