Assistant Development Lead Review

I really enjoyed my placement; Centrica have done a cracking job hiring friendly and approachable staff and it really shows through my line manager and the support network. The projects I was given had a great balance of responsibility, constraints and freedom that allowed me to pursue them in my preferred direction whilst ensuring there was adequate guidance to stay on track.

My colleagues made me feel like part of the team from the outset and were happy to answer my questions and help me when needed. My porjects involved a large degree of interaction with my team and they were happy to be disturbed by a summer intern asking questions and requesting feedback.

My line manager was absolutely fantastic. She was constantly willing and availalbe to provide useful feedback and information. When she didn't know the answer to my questions she tried to point me in the direction of people who would. The rest of the support network were prompt to reply and did so in a friendly manner, always making me feel valued.

For the most part, I was consistently busy. My objectives didn;t have many interim checkpoints so it was up to me to keep pressing forward with them and this allowed me to work at my own pace. There were times when I was blocked from continuing due to waiting for feedback or communication from busy managers but this never lasted longer than a day or two.

I was given much more responsibility than I thought I would be, from maintaining progress on my objectives to policing my own lunch break times and working hours. The nature of my biggest project meant that I had to continually get approval from various managers as I was documenting best-practise process so in that respect I was beholden to others quite a bit. However, overall I felt very much responsible for producing high-quality work.

The discipline I developed over my placement to balance day-to-day tasks with long-term objectives serves me well when it comes to completeing extended projects such as lab reports. I've also built on my interpersonal skills allowing me to more effectively communicate with my tutor and other members of staff, enhancing the quality of feedback I receive on my work. More genrally, the insight I've gained into office culture and how to conduct myself in a professional environment will serve me fantastically when it comes to future jobs and dealing with those in a position of authority over me both in my life and education.

The atmosphere was one of hard work but relaxed. The office was open plan and inter-team chatting was common, making it feel more like one massive team rather than lots of smaller ones. That's not to say the level of productivity suffered - far from it! The communal aspect menat that everyone felt approachable regardless of their location within the office so whenever I encountered problems, I felt comfortable heading over to the team or person with the most expertise in the issue. My team also went out for lunches together and other events so there was a strong sense of community within the team itself.

It was organised brilliantly with clear dates for certain activities to take place and deadlines for specific bits of work or documents to be handed in. There were never any huge date changes or disruptions so everything felt smooth and well organised. The Grad Team new pretty much everything that was going on and, on the rare occassions they didn't, they knew exactly who I should be asking.

There were numerous development days and workshops that were offered to me to develop a variety of skills that I otherwise might not in the normal course of my placement. Outside firms and individuals were brought in so the company obviously cared enough about my development to invest a significant amount of money, time and effort to organise these events which really made me feel valued.

The company has a fantastic sounding graduate scheme with a permanant contract on offer and plenty of scope for moving around between department. Due to the breadth of roles available in my department, there are opportunities to pursue almost any career path I would care to choose, from technical roles involving coding and development to management-focused roles to roles that bridge the gap betwene IS and the business-side of thigns (e.g. Business Analysis).

Around 25 other interns were all placed in the same accommodation block as me so there was always someone around to socialise with in the evenings. True to form, Centrica did a great job hiring friendly people which made the experience a whole lot better. Knowing there was a good group of people waiting back at the house meant I enjoyed both my day at work and free time outside of this.

My internship was based in the south quite close to London so things weren't exactly cheap. There were plenty of supermarkets around though so it was just a matter of looking to find good deals. There was also plenty of option when it came to choosing pubs or bars to go out to in the evenings so again it was possible to save money if you picked the right place.

In Egham itself it was quite quiest however Staines and Windsor were only a short taxi ride away (at a fairly reasonable price) so if clubbing was what the group fancied then it was certainly doable.

We were in Royal Holloway University accomodation so we had access to all their sports facilities such as a cheap gym and squash courts.