Software Developer Review

Overall I really enjoyed this internship. Ghyston is a lovely company to work for, and there's a reason it's won awards for this: flexible working hours, friendly people, regular socials, excellent training. If you know you'd like to work for a small company in Bristol, and you'd enjoy a software developer role, this is the internship for you!

I felt really valued by colleagues! Ghyston is a small, friendly company where you do get to know everyone. I got to work in teams of size 3-8, and always felt like I had a role and contribution to make, and I was well supported by my team-mates and line manager.

I received lots of training and support. The 6 of us interns had many training sessions in different web development languages over the first few weeks. When put on project work, we also had a line manager and a mentor we could chat to if we were struggling with something.

I was always busy with things to do, but work never got too pressured or stressful. The first 2 weeks consisted of training and a self-contained intern project. After that, we were put on client work, where we were assigned tasks to do by our team lead. The flexible working hours were also great!

I was given a lot of responsibility, but never so much that I could massively screw something up. After 2 weeks I was put on actual client work with the difficulty of tasks adjusted to suit my coding ability. Code I wrote was always reviewed by other team members and well-tested before being deployed.

I have learnt many useful skills on my internship. We had many training sessions held specially for the interns. After the 2-week intern project, we presented it back to the rest of the company. Over the internship, I picked up many web development languages I will likely go on to use in future work.

There was a great atmosphere due to the friendly people there. The office itself is nice, with a games room, pool table, and kitchen so you can cook lunch. The nature of software developer work can get a little lonely and repetitive, but you are always supported by your team.

It was very well organised, with planned out training sessions, many socials which we were invited to in advance before starting, and well thought out project work for the interns to do. Training materials had been prepared in advance and were very clear and thorough. We were well-informed on what we'd be doing over the 8 weeks.

They invested so much time into making training resources, running training sessions, sitting down for chats about our progress, helping us out on the job and explaining coding concepts. They really care about the people who work there, and want everyone to feel happy and comfortable with the job they are doing.

There are great future employment prospects with Ghyston. They invest so much into you as an intern, that they do want you to stay if you are keen and pick things up well. Some prior coding experience does help, and/or if you work extra hard to learn new things and how to write clean code.

There's a very good social scene, with regular socials including: pub trips, annual office party, office BBQ, afternoon in the park, went to see a play. There's a morale budget for events like these, that the company funds. Note it is a small company, and they take on 6 interns

I was living in Bristol, which isn't cheap but also isn't London prices so it was fine. The company funded many of the social events (including the pub trip on the 3rd Friday of each month). They also organised student accommodation for us - much cheaper than AirBnb/finding somewhere on your own to rent for 8 weeks

Great Nightlife in Bristol, with many pubs, bars, clubs. There were also lots of events going on over the summer like Pride, Harbour Festival, Balloon Festival. Thing is it's a less student-y place over the summer, so it does help if you've got friends who can come visit/that live nearby.

There were many opportunities for outside work activities. Company funded socials included: pub trips (paid for you on the 3rd Friday of the month), annual office party, office BBQ, afternoon in the park, trip to see a play. There were also loads of things to get involved in in Bristol more generally.