Software Engineering Intern Review

For two days a week, I would work in a placement team. This involved attending daily stand-ups, planning meetings and retros as well as working with other members of my team on tasks. For the other three days, I would work in my project teams to prepare for the end of internship presentation and charity events, as well as attending various skills workshops and business speaker sessions.

The main skills I developed were my coding skills in Java, as this was the main language used in my placement team. I also learned how to use software such as Git, TeamCity and Jira and learned how to work in an agile way.

Within my placement team I was not given perhaps as much responsibility as I would have liked, mainly due to the fact the team were working on governance and maintenance issues, of which it was hard to pick up in just 8 weeks. Therefore I worked mostly with team members on all but a few tasks.

There was a large amount of support and guidance from members of my team, who were always happy to help, and through the online portal throughout my internship, although sometimes it is hard to find the information you are looking for. Furthermore the skills sessions put on by the Early Careers team were very valuable in helping you work from home.

The culture at NatWest is extremely friendly and everyone is always happy to answer any questions you have. There is also a great focus on wellbeing which means there is no pressure to work overtime or skip breaks. Given how big of a company it is, there can be a feeling of disconnect from the people at the top however.

Overall I very much enjoyed my internship, as it gave me a great insight into corporate software engineering and the necessary skills I needed. The friendliness of the company is one of the best things about it and there is a real progression drive for interns/grads. Sometimes I felt I was slightly underutilised although I understand this may have been somewhat due to the internship being virtual.

Yes

The most important things to focus on when applying to NatWest is not your technical skills/knowledge but your soft skills, as these are what the company focusses on. In your interviews make sure you know all about the company ethos and the role you are applying for too.