Software Developer Intern Review

It had just the right amount of challenge, support, education and responsibility for an internship. I got to practice programming skills I had learnt at Uni, putting what I had learnt in to context whilst learning all kind of new skills.

Interns at IBM are often treated the same as regular employees. Managers and colleagues give you just as much respect and time as anyone else and will gladly help you if needed. It is not uncommon to be included in meetings to help with decision making and putting your ideas forward.

Fantastic support is offered here. You are assigned two managers, one is your technical manager who will provide you with support on the job and another manager which will manage your placement who will give you support on issues regarding things like moving departments, personal development and any HR issues. On top of all this, you will be placed in to a team who give great support at a lower level and there are plenty of educational talks and sessions to attend to. This includes educational sessions set up exclusively for interns (anything from java training to SQL and PHP education). These sessions can also be taught by interns if they have the skills and knowledge to do so.

There is always something to do! Generally speaking, you are assigned work and more is given when completed. Sometimes, work which you are assigned can be blocked by external factors such as other people, server outages etc but on the whole you will always be busy!

You are given lots of responsibility in that you are trusted to sensitive information, access to servers and the internal network and you are relied upon to complete your work. If you fall behind then the team falls behind. However, there are somethings which interns are not responsible but this reflects real life scenarios where the most important or challenging work is set aside for the most experienced.

The 13 month placement was worth more than the entire university course, and more! I learnt a lot more than just technical skills - soft skills, interacting within a large organisation and I feel that I am generally a more rounded person

It was quiet but relaxed. People got on with work but there is conversation and you can often here people taking a 5 minute break to have a chat. There are various "team rooms" where people go to have coffee and a chat as well. It depends on what team you are in but the atmosphere is most certainly a positive one.

It is obvious that the placement scheme has been running for a long time. The structures put in place were faultless and there were no issues here.

Lots of educational sessions are on offer and you are encouraged to go to as many as you like (so long as your work does not suffer).

As in intern, you have the option to apply for a graduate job and skip the first round assessment centre and test.

If you get involved, there is a really good scene. Cinema & nando trips and pub quiz nights were almost a weekly event. The IBM placement scheme sets up a facebook page and encourages placement students to get in contact before starting to arrange shared accomodation.

Unfortunately, being based in Hursley (Nr Winchester), costs are a little on the pricey side but as Southampton is near by, it can be cheap but you need to find those places out!

Southampton is around 10 minute drive away (a lot of interns lived there), Eastleigh which is 5 minutes drive away has a good cinema and bowling complex with restaurants. Winchester has some good pubs.

Lots! IBM have a scheme called giveback where employees get to take part in community projects. This happens in work time and all employees are encouraged to take part in at least some giveback.