Technology Intern Review

Core Network Design Engineer, creating design plans for possible additions to the Core Network, including large-scale nationwide projects. Also personally responsible for taking advantage and the creation of automation opportunities and areas for process improvement within the team. Meetings occur daily and can consist of team meetings, meetings with employees involved with specific projects, Future Careers meetings. Maintenance of spreadsheets also a regular task within my role.

Learned many skills from a variety of aspects, such as interpersonal skills (project meetings, email writing, customer meetings), technical skills (Excel skills such as VBA, DWDM network design, Live network management platforms, Microsoft Visio), amongst an array of other various skills, such as record upkeep, creation of technical documentation. Development of existing skills is also apparent with problem solving, teamworking, and the ability to constantly take in new information and utilise it effectively.

I was fortunate to have had a wealth of trust in my abilities and as a result of that, a large amount of responsibility within my role. I feel that I am a peer of the permanent employee engineers, and perform similar design tasks to them on a regular basis, having picked up techniques by following their lead over the course of the placement, as well as having unique individual responsibilities such as coding projects that are solely undertaken by myself.

I received a good amount of support and guidance, and the right balance was found so that I did not feel lost within a daunting task but also never felt like I was being overly hand-held. My manager and team always allowed for me to ask questions whenever I had them and allowed me to feel comfortable to let them know if I needed more or less support at any time throughout the placement in its entirety.

The company culture and atmosphere is very inviting. A balance has been struck between a good level of sociability but also an environment that allows you to get work done, especially in office settings. During high-pressure times this can occasionally change as deadlines may be fast approaching, but this is entirely understandable, and on a day-to-day basis the atmosphere is very good, allowing for people to take breaks in a day when they need to, helping them work more efficiently in the long run.

The placement has been an invaluable experience for me, it has given me the opportunity to gain relevant Tech industry work experience, but also an extended experience of the working world in general, I have had to learn how to present in front of managers, work alongside people from different generations, which is an experience that was unfamiliar to myself prior to this placement. I have also learned how working in a company like VMO2 means constantly meeting new people and how to interact with many different people.

Yes

Don't be afraid to act human. Everyone in the business, no matter what their role is, is also a human, they will happily be able to support you, answer your questions, and guide you in the right direction, but they need to be able to know what help you need. Don't be afraid to say that you don't understand something, ask questions when something doesn't make sense, don't let job titles of others dissuade you from getting help.