DevOps Engineer Intern Review

The experience was very fulfilling, it was challenging but also fun. I found that I learnt a lot and was able to apply myself to the real work that my team was doing. In such a short time I have made many great relationships with colleagues and other interns whilst learning so many new things.

Even though I did not come from a technical programming background, I found the team very supportive and they answered every question I had. This allowed me to develop and become a more reliable member of the team. Not only was my work valued but was also reviewed by other members so that I could improve. This was also true for when I reviewed other people's work to learn from them.

My line manager arranged many meetings for me to meet Directors to understand how the business worked and how other departments also functioned. Not only that but I was able to contact them with any questions or for any support/materials I needed to develop. They provided hands on teaching too and was supportive of choices I made in what I wanted to learn also whilst still contributing to the team.

I took part in a daily standup as part of the agile methodology, which meant that we sorted out our work for the day, in the morning every day, so I was never left bored. I was also given objectives set by HR and my line manager so that I could keep track of my development and meant that I could also vary my work to learn about other departments.

I was given access to many accounts and tools that the team regularly use and was expected to contribute by completing my own User Stories that other team members would use once completed. I was even given the opportunity to present to the wider team through a Show and Tell session, this was very fulfilling to present my projects that I had been working on

I believe that the skills I learnt have changed my thoughts on where I want my career to go and have sparked new interests into DevOps work and a more technical approach to development and the use of tools such as Jenkins and platforms like AWS. This doesn't directly apply to my course, but is definitely something I wish to keep up in my spare time to learn more and even aim for an AWS certification.

Very good balance of work and fun, and conversations could vary from work focused to more theoretical approaches to programming and development. Conversations about relevant topics such as blogs about Monzo and Chaos Engineering where raised and were great to participate in. Not only that but the relationship and interaction with other interns was also good and we have become good friends, even though many of us are in different departments.

There were delays in getting access to relevant software and resources but asides from that there were a good amount of learning sessions organised by HR to learn about other parts of the business and t give more context to the work we were carrying out. The use of objectives was also useful and meant that we could get formal feedback from our managers to improve.

We weren't allowed access to some resources such as Pluralsight since they were reserved for permanent employees but we were assigned mentors who we would meet regularly to ask for advice and for them to challenge us so that we could improve. Mentors are normally quite senior and give good advice on how to approach more challenging projects.

The graduate programme seems very appealing and would be a great opportunity to explore more of the company as 9 weeks is very short. With the graduate programme, there is the opportunity to use more resources like Pluralsight to learn faster and to also move around between projects and departments and find which environment and approach suits us.

Definitely, we were in a quite a large group but we were able to see each other in learning sessions and even a volunteering day which was very fun. We have grown quite close in my opinion and hope to keep in contact. HR also organised shadowing events to try to get us to meet each other, even in different departments. Outside of work, some of us also met up on weekends to hang out and have a more social and relaxed environment.

Northampton is reasonable and there are options to stay in Airbnbs since the internship is only 9 weeks, but there is also the choice to contact the local university to rent a room there during the summer which was manageable since the internship included a £2000 bursary for accommodation. Groceries and other expenses were not bad either.

Since there is a university there, there are some clubs and bars that are available. However, we would also hang out at each other's accommodations outside of work and watch movies or play games. There are a few good bars and pubs such as the Optimist and the Old Bank (which has a sign about Barclays inside hahaha)

There was a volunteering day, which many employees participate in throughout the year, that we were able to try. The idea was for Barclays to give back to the community, whether it's for charity or for a local school. We went to a country park to volunteer where we helped out with jobs to maintain the park as there were very little funds that kept the park going. It was very fun and rewarding.