Software Developer IP Review

I generally enjoyed the placement and was definitely challenged a lot in terms of the work I did. The people were very friendly and I always felt that I could approach them to ask questions. The atmosphere of the office was also very relaxed and everyone had a great work ethic.

I was treated very quickly like a regular employee and not just a placement student. Generally I was included and felt valued in meetings, although for part of the year I was doing something different to the rest of my team and was included less. However, I never felt that I was valued less than anyone else.

I wasn't given a huge amount of support at the very start as I wasn't given a placement buddy to help me settle in. It was also a bit of a struggle in the middle when I was moved to another team and the only other person in the team left, leaving me alone for a couple of months, but this improved massively when I was incorporated back into the team and given the guidance I needed.

I was busy at the start and always had something to do each sprint, however I had usually run out of things to do by the end. The middle of the placement was also tough being the only person in my team as a lot of the time it was hard to know what to do, but it improved in the second half as I was back in my original team and had a fair amount to do from then onwards.

I was given a lot of responsibility when I was the only one in my team. I had a couple of people helping me which did relieve a bit of the pressure but it was great to have that kind of responsibility and it pushed me to work even harder.

I have learnt a lot about the Agile methodology and what it is like to work in an office. I think the programming skills and people skills I have gained this year will really help me out in my final year and will give me a good start in pursuing a job after university.

The atmosphere was very friendly and people generally seemed to have pretty high morale most of the time. The games area in the middle of the room also played a huge factor as it was great for lowering stress levels and for bonding with the rest of the team. The open plan design of the office also played into this as it seemed more welcoming.

The induction we were given was good and there were a lot of meetings we attended that taught us all about the company infrastructure. I was not given a buddy at the start and began to fall behind my fellow interns as their buddies seemed to be a tremendous help getting them settled in. I was also a little isolated when put in my own team and I feel I should have had someone else with me.

The company really pushed for all of the interns to do an AWS Certification, which I thought was a really good thing as they are highly valued in this sort of industry. I passed my certification near the end of my placement and was very much encouraged the whole time I was there. We were also given the opportunity to go to an AWS Conference, which was a great experience. Other than that, I learnt many new programming languages (such as MDX and GoLang) and became familiar with lots of different technologies.

I would be happy to go back to Cognito as they have been great in teaching me a lot about work life and there is always a friendly atmosphere in the office. However, I would not want to be stuck in my own team again and I wasn't always overly busy. I did generally enjoy the work and would be interested in working with AWS again.

The company had plenty of social events - hackathons to learn new technologies, board game nights, yearly trips to Newbury Races, Christmas Party, weekly tennis in the summer and trips to the pub to celebrate people joining and deadlines being met. I was also quite friendly with some of the members in my team and the other interns and we often met up outside of work for social activities.

Newbury is definitely not a cheap area, as I found when trying to find some sort of flat near work. In the end I found a place on Spare Room and stayed with an older couple in their house. Restaurants in the area are also towards the more expensive side, but there are still some cheaper options.

The nightlife wasn't fantastic as there is only one club in Newbury. There are a few pubs which can get a bit more lively later into the night but in general it is a fairly quiet area. However, Reading and Basingstoke are not very far away and offer a much more vibrant nightlife.

Aside from work-related events and social outings with my colleagues, there isn't a great deal of things to do in Newbury. There are a couple of social groups for people who have recently moved to Newbury or already live there and opportunities to do evening classes (however these are generally quite expensive).