Digital Academy Intern Review

I had sufficient work to keep me busy during my placement which kept me occupied throughout, this made the placement more enjoyable. Also working with other interns of a closer age to me made the experience better. Having other interns in my department was beneficial as we could share the experience.

My colleagues all valued my opinion and I felt they all treated me as an equal member of the team even though I wasn't permanent staff. Joining in with team meetings and keeping them up to date on what my progress was as well as hearing about the projects they were working on definitely helped keep me more involved and feel appreciated.

My line manager answered any questions or queries I had and was available if I needed him. He ensured I had work to do throughout as well as informing me on how to carry out the work and what was expected of me. He also made me feel part of the team.

It depended on where in the placement I was, initially it was slow I was unable to do the project originally planned for me. I was then given a new project which kept me sufficiently busy. Later I received my original project as well a team presentation which has given lots of work to do but allowed me to switch between tasks and not be bored.

I had responsibility in the form of completely independent working and was trusted to do things myself. I was able to access areas such as labs with complete trust and I was trusted to complete my work and work for my required hours without regular input and monitoring throughout the placement.

I learnt a new coding language which will be very beneficial within my degree. I also had insights into how my degree can be applied in the real world and what areas of engineering my degree can lead into and what the future of engineering and my career can lead into.

Everyone could have fun whilst they worked and felt free to chat as well as get work done, there are regular meetings going on so people are always keeping in touch. I felt like I can say hello to anyone in the office or ask them a question and get a friendly and useful response.

There were issues which are to avoid such as setting up IT and having limited access to areas I sometimes needed. However I could resolve IT issues by approaching someone who would me help me with whatever my issue was. Getting my PKI card setup could have been faster but I could resolve easily. The start was relaxed and fairly well organised.

I have had a couple of sessions where I have been taught about working as part of a team and they have been beneficial. I had the offer to attend courses such as Agile training unfortunately I was unavailable however it would have been very useful to attend this course.

I will probably return for further placements as I am part of the Digital Academy scheme and so if we both mutually agree that I have done good work, then I will carry on in a years time. I also worked in the same site last year so the ability to return seems quite good.

There were several other interns and younger colleagues who were fun and we were able to go out together for meals. We celebrated birthdays and they were all easy to socialize and chat with and had similar interests. This was good as most of the staff at the site were older than me.

Fairly average prices, I was living at home but going out and buying food/drinks was a normal price.

With Manchester only a short train journey away there were lots of options for places to go out as Manchester is a huge place with lots to do. There were also lots of bars and restaurants/places to eat in the local town which were fun in the week but not particularly any local clubs.

There was the availability to join rounders on a Wednesday and I saw a few other things advertised but as I was only here 2 months, I did not have a chance to try everything.