Extreme Blue Technical Intern Review

Fantastic experience. Gave me a chance to learn, be ambitious and work with a great team. Very interesting projects to work on.

IBM has a great internal atmosphere with everyone helping each other out. You're not treated like an intern really but respected as an intelligent employee.

We were given two managers, a business mentor and a technical mentor. All of them were great at giving guidance when asked but letting you take on challenges in your own way when you wanted to. They support your development for things that are not directly applicable to your project as well which was the best thing.

The internship had a bit of a slow start as we're left to our own devices really, meaning there's a lot of independent learning at the beginning which can be quite slow. It also means the beginning lacks clear direction. However, after the first week or so the projects really come to life and you'll have plenty to do and know what you're doing. You're not assigned work by the managers so you do as much or as little as you want but you are competing for a prize so you're motivated to work hard.

You work in a team of four to make a solution for a client. It is entirely your teams responsibility to work on it from day one, therefore you have a great deal of responsibility.

I learnt several programming languages, learnt about patent submissions. I also received some training in change leadership from my manager. All of these have made me more employable. Working in a small team meant there were lots of client meetings etc that I attended which gave me a broader understanding of the industry than just a normal developer role would.

Fun people in our young team. Clearly a criteria for selection was how well they thought you'd get along with 3 other people for 12 weeks. Not sure the fun atmosphere extends much beyond the internship though so perhaps not indicative of IBM as a whole.

Clearly organised with everyone understanding what would happen next and when.

Most of my learning was independent , however the atmosphere of IBM is such that you can ask anyone to help you understand something. This is not formal training though and there wasn't a great deal of formal training involved. The internship more relies on you already having many skills and then is a way to prove how much you can achieve with them. I don't think the lack of formal training was a negative though, as I still developed and it proved that I could achieve far more than I had initially expected.

I'm certain I'll receive a job offer

Really nice people, living together in Uni halls so lots of social time.

Accommodation paid for by IBM, therefore food and drink costs only. Alcohol is a little more expensive than some areas but otherwise it was typical of any town.

Not much going on in Winchester but nearby Southampton has plenty going on. There are plenty of bars in Winchester but nothing resembling a club.

Plenty of stuff nearby and there are also clubs attached to the hursley club which you can get involved in.