Technical Sales Specialist Review

The placement was filled with great opportunities to gain new experience in areas I had not previously been exposed to. I had a chance to travel to sites in other countries, attend large industry tradeshows and give technical presentations to customers. I feel like I wouldn't have had these opportunities at other companies.

My colleagues treated me as a full employee and I felt like the work I was given was impactful for the company and valuable for me as experience. We received the same bonuses as other members of our team and had the chance to attend various extra-curricular activities, volunteering and more.

I didn't have too much support by my management, often I was assigned projects and expected to learn the skills myself as the technology I worked with was often new to the team as well as myself. Because of this I felt like I learnt a huge amount but this came from my own motivation in learning it. From a mentorship perspective, I received great advice on future careers and about my personal career path throughout the placement in regular meetings.

It really varied throughout my placement, there were some months that I was working at 50% capacity and others where I had to stay late to meet some project deadlines. It varied on the project, the customer and the difficulty of the task.

I was treated like a full member of the team, I was trusted to meet customers and give technical presentations to them on key products/technologies. Often I'd be asked for my input on key strategy decisions based on the unique experience I had compared to other roles in our team.

I have learnt a huge number of technical skills, many of which I anticipate will help me in my third year of Computer Science. I've also chosen my third-year project based on some of the experience I've gained this year.

There was a fantastic intern community that organised many socials out of work. There were four committees that are similar to university societies that you can get involved with. This gave us lots of chances to pursue other interests outside of our job roles. There were also site-wide volunteering and team-building exercises for everyone to take part in.

The placement was well structured with a six week handover period where old interns would train the new interns and induct them into the company. During this period there were a huge number of socials to integrate the new interns and make them feel welcome. It also allowed old interns to get experience with teaching and for new interns to feel comfortable in their role by the end of the internship.

There were several courses available for us to take part in to train our skills. In reality there wasn't much chance for us to go to these opportunities as the workload didn't really allow it. I personally had a great opportunity to attend training in the US for my team which was a fantastic experience.

There are very limited opportunities for hire-back in the UK. For technical interns, there are almost no opportunities to come back as a graduate in the UK unless you perform exceptionally. For the business interns there is a small graduate scheme that exclusively hires from the pool of previous interns but the role is quite low-level with worse responsibilities than an intern.

There was a fantastic social scene within the intern community with many socials organised and plenty of opportunities from nights out, bowling, charity fundraising, weekend trips and more. The community is highly inclusive and engaging and there are opportunities to help out and arrange all sorts of activities. There was also a handover period with at least two events a week in the first month of joining.

Swindon is quite cheap and the cost of living is pretty low, nights out in Old Town are more expensive but still affordable.

Swindon has a good range of bars but only two clubs which aren't great. This isn't a placement for those who live for nights out.

There were plenty of opportunities to organise and take part in events outside of work.