Engineering intern Review

At first, I felt like I didn't really understand my project and felt that I was a little bit useless. However, as I settled in and learnt more about everything, I really started to enjoy the challenges I faced and the satisfaction of completing the different tasks.

I felt progressively more valued as the projects I was delegated became more complex and (hopefully) useful for my department. However, working in a different office from my team due to lack of bench space meant that I never actually met most of my direct team. This meant that I couldn't communicate particularly effectively with my colleagues when my manager was away.

Whilst my manager was at work, I received plenty of help and advice on the various projects I was attempting. When my manager was away and I was in the care of different members of my team they didn't seem to be entirely sure what I was meant to be doing. As such, they could not offer the same help as my real manager, although I was given various other tasks to be getting on with.

Throughout the time when my manager was present, I was always given tasks to be getting on with. I was able to work continually on my project, as any problems I had were resolved fairly quickly. Unfortunately, when my manager was not here, I wasn't always able to continue with my project which meant that occasionally I had very little productive work to be doing. This allowed me to spend time on my report and presentation, but wasn't as interesting as my real work.

Whilst working on my project, I was fairly free to experiment with different ideas and methods. This allowed me to learn various techniques to develop the best solution for the requirements, and meant that I could research around the project to improve my understanding.

Working in a team on the various projects improved my social skills such as interacting with different people to achieve aims. Learning new programming languages and other work methods will greatly help me in studies back at university. In addition, experiencing the world of work outside of education has introduced the concept of this routine.

Work was really relaxed, everybody was approachable if I had problems and they were willing to help out. However, as I wasn't situated in my team's own office, I felt it was difficult to interact with my team.

Organised well, almost always had tasks to be getting on with. When my manager was away, work stalled as the other members of my team couldn't really help very much, but they gave me other things to do which were interesting and beneficial to my learning.

My manager spent a lot of time with me introducing me to the various systems we use, and I was given tours of the server rooms as I said I was interested. In addition, I was also given a device so that I could test and experiment with my project.

I'd really like to return here to work; I've really enjoyed the experience and I feel that I could work here quite happily.

Met lots of other interns here, and we all interacted well. We socialised as a group mulitple times, going punting as well as regular trips to the cinema and going out.

Coming from university in London, it was noticeably cheaper here in Cambridge! Cycling is easy and cheap, although public transport isn't wonderful. Socialising, for example nights out, are much cheaper here than at university.

Moderate night life, as a group we went out several times and it was always quite good fun. Not a wild party city, but some fairly nice places to go.

Several events were organised by work, including summer barbecue which we could all attend, as well as a few other things such as quiz and evenings. Most activities we organised as a group of interns, which allowed us more freedom and choice.