Mobile Software Engineer Review

I really enjoyed my internship at Capital One, they have a great team that works on the internship program and have planned out many sessions both within and outside of work as both bonding, networking with some of the senior managers as well as graduates and fun days throughout to give us a really good idea of what the culture here is like.

In our time here I was not treated as an intern, but as an associate. Our feedback and opinions really mattered since we were coming to the business without any baggage and honest feedback was really appreciated. The work was meaningful and had a business impact that was tangible to us, and we were included in decision making regarding it.

A support network of a Buddy, a Mentor and a Manager while here gave me great points of contact for general business questions, technical questions and questions about what was expected of me. It was clear from the start what I was expected to do and learn by the end of the 10 weeks with periodic reviews each week to make sure that I was achieving my goals

I agreed a schedule with my manager to allow me to come in early, at 8 and then work through to 4pm with an hour for lunch in the middle. I was never asked to stay late, and was free to come and go within reason. Throughout this time I was kept busy with both a personal project and a group project done with with all of the interns.

I was given a lot of freedom to work on real business applications, as well as the projects that I had opted to do. We as a team were given a goal but it was completely up to us how we wanted to structure the completion of that goal. We were able to then use the infrastructure around us to ask questions, and guide us so that we could ensure that we were successful.

I learned a lot of technical skills while working on my project but outside of that a few Capital One University classes were run for us to help with interpersonal and presentation skills that would be useful throughout the remaining internship. We also learnt a lot about how to work in a Agile was as all teams within Capital One work that way.

The Nottingham office where I worked has an open plan layout and is overall very casual and is a fun place to work. At lunch various games such as table football and ping pong are usually played within the lunch breaks as well as while having informal discussions with other team members.

The first week was structured to plan out with activities, and meals out to help with team bonding. From there we were introduced to our mentors and managers who then supported us through the rest of the time that we were here with periodic talks about progress for both the personal development and project delivery date.

The company spend a considerable amount of time and resources in training and making sure that the take aways for us were great, the interview process is the same of that of a graduate and they treat you as if you were an associate. It truly seems that capital one cares about their associates as care is taken throughout the internship.

I think that the internship has sold me on working at Capital One full time, they take great care in their overall culture as a business and really invest in their associates. It is somewhere that I'd like to work in the future once I've completed my university course next year.

Both in London and Nottingham there is plenty to do with the other Interns, we planned many different events while we were here. The interns who worked in London would come up a lot of the time with the company so while we were all together we would find something to do as a group.

Nottingham is a cheap place to live, but there is plenty to do. There is lots of accommodation near to the office which can be rented out for the duration of the internship meaning that no lengthy contracts were needed. This also means that a lot of people end up living together which helps with the social aspect.

There are plenty of fun bars and clubs in Nottingham, Capital One get a discount at some of these places which is great. We also had some events put on by Capital One at a games room which was really fun and a good way to network with the graduates.

There was a five peaks challenge in the Lake District which fell within our internship at capital one, they offered us places and it was something that many of the interns took up as a way to give back and fund rase with a lot of the other associates. It was an event which was a success. There were other fun day which we took part in within our teams.