Software Developer Intern Review

Even though the majority of the internship was virtual, it exceeded all my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed my time during the internship and I was sad for it to end. Due to Covid-19, the internship was shorter than normal and interns took a significant pay cut (to the living wage). Whilst this was slightly demoralising initially, the work was engaging and the office culture was relaxed, which I enjoyed. A combination of the intern group I was working with, my intern trainer and the project made the whole internship very special.

I had no prior coding experience but the 2 week training programme was very comprehensive and when starting the project, I felt I could contribute to discussions even though I had less experience than others. The members of my team were great - we bonded as a team very well and I am sure we will remain friends in the future. In particular, our trainer was always very enthusiastic and her energy was infectious. In addition, we were given the opportunity to meet several collegues in the office and they were very welcoming. All in all, I felt very comfortable working with people in Softwire, even though the majority of the internship was virtual.

As someone with very little coding experience in comparison to my peers, it was initially quite daunting to work on tasks together with them. However, the initial 2 week programme was good at teaching me the most important skills in preparation for our project. However, due to the nature of the project, there were several languages needed so even 2-3 weeks into the project, I would find myself needing help. Often when you are stuck the best option is to try and look for a way to fix it using prior knowledge, then consult Google, a fellow intern and finally your trainer (in that order). I found this system generally worked well and almost always there was someone there to help. Sometimes, everyone is busy and you have to wait for a bit but this was rare. Also there were weekly meetings with the trainer to discuss personal development and I found this very useful in focusing areas for improvement.

The nature of the project meant there was always something to be done. There was a lot of reviewing (by both peers and the trainers) so sometimes you might find yourself waiting for someone to check your work and have no other work in your backlog. However, we have daily "stand up" sessions where we discuss what we are working on at the start of the day and this means that everyone is normally well organised and there is little wasted time.

The intern project I was working on was for one of Softwire's largest clients and therefore, there were high standard for quality of code. Our intern trainer never wrote our code. However, she would give us a lot of feedback and because this was part of a commercial project, most things were done in a certain way. In this sense it gave a good flavour of what it was like to work on an actual project. But sometimes this could be slightly constrictive. However, there was part of the project which the interns build from scratch and this aspect of the project we were given a lot of freedom in the libraries we used to build that part of the project. Overall, I would say there was a little less responsibility than I expected but this didn't bother me too much and most of the other intern projects were not commercial ones so there was more freedom in what could be done.

There is very little overlap in content between my degree and the skills I developed. Nevertheless, I would say that the skills I developed were very useful. Not only did I learn several new languages, I also got the full experience of front-end software development from building to testing. Also we had several opportunities to present to project directors and Softwire employees which helped develop my presentation skills.

Very relaxed. Everyone was friendly and all the employees seemed approachable - even the more senior directors. There is a great social scene and the work itself is quite sociable. You will often find yourself working with your peers. Often the day would finish with everyone going to the (sometimes virtual) pub for drinks.

Overall, the internship was well organised - if not slightly short. The set up was a bit awkward because everything had to be sent to homes. Also there are a lot of random accounts that you need to sign up for that you rarely end up using. Otherwise, the rest of the internship ran smoothlu

Every week I would have a 1-on-1 session with my intern trainer where I would chat about personal development goals. As someone with less experience, I was definitely thrown in the deep end but I think there is an expectation that everyone picks things up quickly which was very true. I think I got the support where I needed.

Softwire is a lovely company to work for!! I could definitely see myself fitting in with the company culture very easily. Everyone is relaxed and friendly and it makes a lovely change to the toxic environments to many firms out there.

Amazing. In a field like software engineering it is often the stereotype that everyone is unsociable but that couldn't be further from the truth from what I experienced in Softwire. I think perhaps part of this is due to Softwire placing a strong focus on people skills during the hiring process but either way everyone is very friendly. To paraphrase a employee, "Softwire is a place for sociable nerds". In non-Covid times, you would see employees in there lunch breaks battling out in videogame tournaments and heading out to the pub for drinks after. There is a strong social scene amongst the employees (and most non-interns I met were in 22-35). In my intern group, we would try and meet in person once a week at the office (normally the internship was online) and after work we might have a picnic or go to the pub with other employees. One day we even went to a trampoline park and this was paid for by Softwire's extensive "Morale budget"

I worked from home but it is London and therefore quite expensive unless you're sharing (and even then most of your intern salary will go to rent). Pubs are very expensive (unless its a Spoons - which is 20 minutes away). The only reason I could afford anything was the Eat Out To Help Out scheme.

15 minutes walking distance to Camden which supposedly has a good nightlife however, due to COVID-19 we did not get to experience it

Definitely! I love to volunteer outside of work and I was able to take paid holiday specifically to volunteer which was great. Also Softwire is not about overtime and there are generally very healthy approaches to a work-life balance.