Software Engineer Review

I was a Software engineer within a ML team, which meant my role varied from helping the team write production code, writing tests, and reviewing pull requests to visualising and analysing data, as well as learning ML algorithms. Despite being an intern my team treated me as a full fledged employee. I had all the same responsibilities as any other member of the team. Sometimes that included running daily stand-ups, Sprint planning, Retrospectives, as well as some other shared responsibilities.

During my most recent software engineering internship, I significantly improved my ability to communicate effectively within a team by collaborating closely with colleagues and clearly articulating my ideas. I also became adept at navigating and reading code within a large codebase, which allowed me to contribute more efficiently to ongoing projects. Additionally, I learned to ask the "right" questions, ensuring that I gathered the necessary information to move forward with tasks. This experience also helped me build confidence in my own ideas and abilities, as I was encouraged to take initiative and trust my problem-solving skills.

I had all the same responsibilities as any other member of the team. Sometimes that included running daily stand-ups, Sprint planning, Retrospectives, as well as some other shared responsibilities. Although, if there was anything I was not sure of everyone is very understanding and approachable. For example, I was on the rota to release the new build: this felt like an important task which I didn't want to mess up, so I asked for a member of the team to help me with it and they were happy to help.

I received plenty of support and guidance throughout my internship. My line manager and I had catch-ups every other day. If I had any issues or concerns I could address them there. Occasionally, we'd have conversations about longer term career paths and life choices.

The company culture is very much centred around learning and development. Your knowledge and proficiency matter less than your willingness to learn and improve. Everyone is very kind and welcoming. I did not meet a single person who wasn't happy chat or help with any issue. The job came with a plethora of benefits catered towards wellbeing. You are also encouraged to take breaks to avoid burning out and Friday afternoons are reserved for personal development, which can be interpreted as learning a new technology; improving your soft skills; pretty much however you see fit.

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship. The people were incredibly nice and welcoming. The atmosphere was very relaxed with no pressure to meet any quotas or hard deadlines. I got to choose the direction of my internship. From the beginning my line manager suggested that I spend my time helping the team with the work they have, rather than going away and solitarily complete my own project. I found this to be very inclusive and trusting and ultimately a better use of my time.

Yes

Focus on displaying your curiosity and willingness to learn. I'm doing a maths degree and have a decent knowledge of computer science & programming, but nothing compared to computer science students. Evidenced by being asked about garbage collection during the technical interview, to which I responded I don't really know what garbage collection is and instead we moved on to some other topic. It wasn't an issue whatsoever.