Software Engineer Intern Review

When I first came to Siemens, I did not know what to expect, this being my first internship. My goal was to learn as much as possible, but being aware that there is a lot of technical knowledge I lack because of my limited work experience, I was a bit hesitant and afraid that I would not be able to achieve that as I thought that I would only slow peoples' work pace down. But during my time here at Siemens I learned more than I expected I would and this internship helped me gain more confidence in myself and my abilities and, in my opinion, this is the best outcome.

Everyone is always nice. I came here with a slight lack of confidence in myself, but my colleagues helped me fix that. Even though my role was small, them telling me that I am doing a good job and that I am helpful meant a lot to me as it gave me confidence and made me feel valued.

I loved my manager. She took good care of me. Always nice, helped me with everything I needed. And my supervisors from the team I actually worked with were great as well. They helped me learn a lot, had patience with me along the way and encouraged me to adapt to different techniques.

At the beginning I was not very busy. As I was still learning, I was watching a lot of tutorials which were a bit boring at times. But after around 3 weeks I got to be more and more involved. In my last month I definitely had my hands pretty full (which I liked) with my role in the software team, as well as being part of the Digital Academy project.

I would say I had quite a few responsibility given. I got to build an entire validation tool on my own and an installer for some software. Of course I had some guidance along the way when I needed that. Overall I felt like they trusted me to do things on my own, without a close supervision.

During my time here at Siemens I learned more than I expected I would. Not only technical skills like C#, .NET or WiX, which are great for me as a Computer Science student, but I also learned more about myself. I found that I can learn and adapt to new things faster than I expected and, most importantly, that I am good at what I am doing and I think that this will have a good impact to my career.

Most of the people in the office are very nice and do not hesitate to help with anything you need. The atmosphere is very relaxed and pleasant. As this was my first office job I was afraid that I would feel too stressed because the atmosphere would be too strict, but that was not the case.

Talking about how organised the internship set up was, I would say there is room for improvement. At the beginning it took a while for me to receive my laptop and that delayed me a bit. My first week here at Siemens was disorganised, but afterwards everything went smoothly. I only think that they could have been more prepared for the interns coming in.

As I was at Siemens only for a 3 months placement, I was not able to get some proper courses for C# and .NET framework which would have been helpful since I've never worked with these before, but they at least gave me a PluralSight account so I could watch a lot of helpful tutorials and complete skill tests to see my evolution.

Pretty good

Yes. There are also special events each year for summer interns, year placements, graduates and apprentices around all UK sites to get together and get to know each other, extend their network and circle of contacts. In my experience, these events are really fun and it is a way of finding out more about different parts of the company.

I don't know about rent prices in Ashby de la Zouch as I lived in Nottingham. My rent was very cheap (£300 bills included in a shared flat). Around the Siemens site there are a few pubs and cafes, but I've never been in one, but I like that there are a few supermarkets close. I often went to Aldi or Tesco in my lunch break either to get some snack or just for the walk as the area is pretty pleasant.

To be honest, I don't really know from my own experience about the nightlife here. My nightlife consist of me staying comfortably in my bed with a warm blanket and some Netflix & chill ideally. But some of my friends said they had a good time in some pubs and clubs around.

I know there are opportunities, but not that many for summer interns. If you are spending a year or more on your placement, then you would probably have the chance to get more involved in other activities. Siemens can help you get in touch with charities and you can volunteer for example.