IT Intern Review

I enjoyed having a different experience from education. The first few months were difficult due to a lack of organisation within my team but once i got more familiar with my job and my team i enjoyed being at the company and taking on lots of new challenges.

At the very start i did not feel valued at all. This was due to the fact that i was being given very menial tasks and i felt they didn;t really respect the skills that i would be able to bring from my degree to this placement. This improved a little bit with time but it still felt they didn't look at progressing me with training or teaching me unless i specifically asked for this.

I was having a 1:1 meeting with my supervisor once a fortnight, to discuss how i was doing and what i was working on. Being honest, they didn't seem to interested in what i was working on until i began complaining that i had nothing to do and then there was more of an interest shown. In terms of my manager, i was never given any opportunity to talk and meet with him to discuss work as i found he was very busy but also very disorganised .

I can never say i was extremely busy at work but this was sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. At the start of my placement, my confidence was very low and i didn't like having to constantly ask people for work because i had none. The more i grew into the job however i found work for myself, as well as completing work for my university and so my confidence improved and i began getting a little more work but never enough to keep me always busy which i was disappointed about.

As time went on i was given more responsibility but in the beginning i had very little. i never felt they trusted me to make decisions until i proved that i was able to .

I think the training i was able to complete in my placement will be very beneficial to my future. I completed 10 weeks of training at the beginning for project management skills and then after this i didn't receive much from my department. However, i asked my manager and he allowed me to complete some accredited training courses which i am very pleased about as i know they will look great on my CV! I cannot stress enough how important it is to ask for things even if it seems unlikely you will get it. You dont know if you dont ask!

The atmosphere varied depending on the location i was working at as i was working across several sites. In general, it was very relaxed and friendly working environment. Sometimes it was a bit too quiet and almost felt intimidating if i was to ask another colleague a question but once my confidence grew this was less of an issue.

There was no organisation to my placement at all. When i first arrived i was sat at a desk not knowing what i should be doing and being told very little. The lack of organisation is not always a bad thing, as it allowed me to try new things and work in areas that i chose to take part in. However, for a placement year i dont think this was right and left me feeling stranded at times.

Very little effort from the company themselves to invest in my development as an intern. Clearly from the start there was no intention of a job after i have finished my degree, and it almost felt the company was just trying to bring in a skilled worker for cheap. My team themselves did give me the opportunity to develop, but again i only felt this happened after i complained and asked for this.

Not very appealing at all. I asked if there was any opportunity to be given a job if i do well after i graduate. Straight away i was told that this is very unlikely as not many graduates are hired in the department, instead they have apprentices.

I was never really involved in the social meetings with other interns as i lived an hour away and commuted into work everyday. As much as i was never enthusiastic to get involved with other interns because of this, i was also never really introduced so cant really say if there was much of a good social scene or not.

I was living at home and commuted to work everyday so this was not really an issue for me. An hour's commute at 6am wasn't enjoyable for me but it was better than living in the area i worked. Housing prices were ridiculous and so i was able to save lots of money on this placement and buy a nice car. Speaking to other people, they found it very difficult finding and paying for the accommodation they stayed in.

I never went on a night out in the area i was working in so I cannot really say whether it was any good or not.

There was very little activities outside of work to be getting involved in. The occasion persons leaving due or a Christmas work event which was nice but this wasn't usually organised by the company but by the team i was working within.