Software Engineer Intern Review

Primarily I focussed on developing new features for the team to test the deployed environment was functioning as expected. In doing so, I worked closely with my manager on best design practices, test-driven development and responsibilities. Every week, there would be 3 stand-up sessions in the morning to discuss your progress with the rest of the team. There would be a bi-weekly sprint meeting to decide what to tackle for the next 2 weeks - you would be assigned tasks and expected to have completed them by the end of the sprint.

I learnt the importance of testing and how to go about it with test-driven development. I had never used Spring Boot, Cassandra or Kafka before and was able to get a good experience on all of these (especially Spring Boot!). Every PR sent in would be reviewed by several developers who would point out issues for you to learn from and amend - every PR was a learning experience for best practices in industry. From the nature of working in a company as large as JP, you meet new people often and it's a useful networking skill building opportunity if you're anxious or nervous.

You're given as much responsibility as expected of a 9-week intern. The projects are decided for you, but you get to help design them or figure out the best way to approach them. Developing the project is up to you, but you'll need to make sure you're bringing in approaches and advice given to you by other developers. Admittely, there are little checks to make sure you haven't wandered off for hours for a lunch break (I've never attempted this, but have had lunch over an hour before and no one seemed to notice).

From the recruitment team, there is a large focus on a global speaker series which seemed to be just stories from senior members of JPMorgan about their career choices (which all tend to blend into one...). There are a few intern-wide learning sessions for test-driven development, cyber security etc. but these are short and not particularly engaging. From my manager, I couldn't have asked for a better one - he was extremely nice, patient and willing to teach. He has taught me so much and I wished the internship was longer so I could continue learning from him.

In one word: corporate. There is a weird, sometimes cult-like, attitude towards Jamie Dimon and the very senior managing directors that is a bit concerning when you first join but it is probably just typical corporate. But aside from that, it is rather chill in the Bournemouth office but it is very team dependent. My team is very nice, encouraging and chatty. We went to the pub every 2 weeks after work just to relax and chat. Things aren't taken too seriously but the job still needs to get done.

Loved the learning experience. Felt like I was actually part of the team and I could get a good handle on knowing what it is like to be a software engineer at JPMorgan and companies else-where. You aren't set aside with a group of interns and told to make something and someone will check in with you. You join a pre-existing team as their intern and you work with them. I only ever saw other interns at lunch.

Yes

Doing badly on the HackerRank is not an automatic disqualification - I did poorly on one of the questions and ended up being hired. Make sure your CV shows projects you've worked on, and your prior history. The interviews are VERY STAR-based (every question in behavioural will be "Tell me a time..."). For the technical interview, don't be afraid to admit your flaws and work with the interviewer to find a solution; you're not expected to know everything.