Commercial Intern Review

I really really enjoyed the placement at Redgate Software, I did a different placement last summer and this one was substantially more enjoyable in just about every aspect. The company culture made it so easy to settle in and the difficulty and scope of the work hit the right balance.

All my colleagues were easily approachable and were more than happy to give their time and advice in order to help out with the project I was working on. All of the team recognised the value of the project we worked on and how it could add value to the company once the internship had concluded

We had two daily catch ups with our manager throughout the internship to keep him up to date on the work we were doing and what our planned next steps were. This allowed us to make sure we stayed on task and could be redirected if we were going about something wrong. He was also available throughout the day if there was anything urgent

Because we were given quite a wide scope on our project we were able to keep ourselves busy pretty much the entire time as we could just explore new elements which we could possibly add to the project. Because of the nature of our project there was some downtime where we couldn't do much, but this has been discussed with management already.

We were given complete responsibility and authority for the entire duration of our project, from concept all the way through to delivery. We were allowed to decide which elements of the project we wanted to explore further and which we wanted to drop, advice was given throughout but we were allowed to make the final call

Redgate software gave great insight into a variety of different elements of their business throughout the summer placement. This has massively helped me prepare for the rest of my degree, but more specifically looking for future roles in business that I wasn't aware of before the internship started. The professional skills I developed will be hugely beneficial for me going forward

Redgate has a great office culture which leads to such an easy atmosphere to work in. There is no dress code, everyone is easily approachable and there is no stuffy, corporate culture anywhere. This atmosphere makes it so much easier to approach people for help, but also makes it easier to socialise and make contacts throughout the company

Before the internship I wasn't given too much information on what I'd be doing or the type of work I'd be carrying out at the company, but this was mostly because they wanted to discuss it with me when I first got here rather than decide for me, but I think in future they're going to send out more information prior to the internship to help the interns prepare

The company isn't particularly large so there was a limit to what they could invest in me. Obviously I had the time and effort of my colleagues invested in me and the work I was doing, but due to the size of the company and the limited length of the internship they were limited to what they could invest in me

Again, because of the size of the company and the department I did the internship in there isn't really an opportunity for me to return to the company for a graduate job. I know that other departments have offered jobs to their interns but that's more because their structure allows it

We developed a really good social group between all of the interns at the company which made it a lot easier to socialise outside of work. The company put us all in touch with each other before the internship started to we already kind of knew each other by the time we started the job

Cambridge isn't a cheap place to live or socialise. I managed to get pretty cheap accommodation but this showed in the poor quality of the house. It was also really expensive to do just about anything in the city, the cost of a pint makes a night out incredibly expensive but it wasn't the end of the world

The nightlife was ok at best. There was a decent number of pubs to choose from but not much in the way of clubs. This wasn't much of an issue as we were happy at pubs, but it might be an issue for some people. And like I said, a night in pubs can get rather expensive

There wasn't a whole lot of activities outside of work. We had our company day out in our first week which was really good fun and each department gets a day out paid for which gives you the opportunity to get up to something, but in terms of company sports teams there wasn't anything advertised