QA Intern Review

Working in Mentor Graphics has been a new and enjoyable experience. I have been able to get internal exposure in an Engineering company and therefore, had the chance to see how the work life as an engineer could be once I graduate. I also have met some interesting people and developed my working skills further. Most importantly, the placement has helped me in making my mind clearer in terms of what job I would like to get into.

Mentor's approach in the integration of the intern (me) in their respective team has been excellent. Colleague appreciation comes when the work performed is up to a standard, and the training (during the first month) to prepare the interns for such tasks is very thoughtful. Once that training period is over, the team members are very approachable to further clarify things. All this leads to colleagues which rely on you to perform QA tasks. This means that interns end up being a very valued team member in their respective teams.

Support and guidance have been excellent most of the time. Managers have been able to answer my questions and if they weren't, they have showed me who I could ask questions to get the right information. They have always offered to help if I ever had any problems, whether it was relating to work or anything else that you might face as an intern.

The nature of software QA work is that you have to wait until the developers have delivered their changes/implementation and then you can start testing them. Sometimes developers might have a very long task and you might have had a short test from the previous task. This meant that I had very busy weeks and a few weeks where I have had nothing to do but wait. But you can always ask for some more work from the other teams.

Most of the QA testing jobs in a team will be left for the QA interns to pick up, which meant that interns are given quite a lot of responsibility. You are not treated like an intern at all, but a fully integrated full time employee. This helps interns build their confidence in the working environment.

This placement will not have a big impact on my degree studies, due to the fact that the software is aimed at (electronic) thermal engineers instead of being a more general purpose CFD tool. However, I have gained a lot of experiences I can take away with me which will be useful in the future. The first has been the confidence I now have with the steps involved when carrying analytical jobs through software. These tend to be almost the same in different types of analysis (CFD, FEA...). Most importantly, I have learnt a lot in terms of working skills, such as how to communicate with different kind of people at work. These working skills will be applicable at any job I get in the future.

The office atmosphere is very easy going. Everyone works in an open floor space, managers included, which means you can just go up to anybody in the office and ask a question or talk about a problem you might be facing. There is also kitchen for whenever one needs a quick boost of energy.

This placement has been running for more than a decade now, which means that by now the whole internship has a very good structure throughout its 13 months. Even then, the managers listen to the interns each year so that they can improve the experience for the interns that join the following year.

The company sees their interns as a very valuable asset, one that could potentially join them in the future and wouldn't then require so much training as a new start. This means that they train you in the software you will be testing but also let you explore other products that Mentor offers.

For future employment with the company you'd have to go through the normal process of applying for a job. However, with the experience that an intern has it makes it easier to come back as a graduate in the future, specially if you have demonstrated good working qualities through the year.

There were three interns including myself, and I lived with one of them. We ended up socialising and going on a holiday together.

The Nottingham office is located in a Businnes Park outside nottingham, meaning that here isnt much to do around the office area. There is also a lack of places to eat. The cost isn't high, but I'd rather have a slightly higher cost and have something to do around an office then have just one cafe at a reasonable price.

There is NO Nightlife in the area around the office in Nottingham.

Activities with the people at work there weren't many, but otherwise Nottingham as a city had quite a lot to offer.