Intern Enginner - Processor Design and Verification Review

The job itself was not the most exciting. I was frequently not that busy and the work I was given to do was pretty boring at times. However, I may just have been unlucky because I didn't really end up in the area I wanted. There were plenty of enjoyable events organised for the interns and everyone was very welcoming and friendly so overall it was a positive experience

Although I was very inexperienced I felt that my opinion was valued and everyone was very friendly and helpful.

My line manager was excellent and provided very helpful support and advice. My project manager was not the most organised and although when asked was only too happy to help, I was often left to my own devices which, particularly in the first few weeks when getting to grips with everything, made everything a little more difficult.

My workload fluctuated from week to week. I think I was unlucky because my project manager was on holidays for a number of the weeks I was working there so towards the end of those holiday periods I ran out of things to do. Also, because much of my job involved running tests which took a long time, I often had to sit around waiting for them to finish

I was given complete responsibility for completing my project as was allowed to carry it out in whatever way I pleased. Obviously, given my lack of experience, my project was not very critical so in that sense if I got it wrong it didn't really matter.

I learned lots of skills that will be very useful in the future such as various scripting languages and also gained lots of practice and experience navigating Linux and using its command line.

My office itself was quite quiet with most people keeping to themselves. However the company in general had a very youthful, lively and fun atmosphere which was encouraged by the relaxed dress code and various company events.

The internship was reasonably well structured as I received sizable and relevant project that used skills that I have learned at university. The main drawback was that I wasn't really involved in any form of teamwork or collaboration so more could be done to integrate the internship into the main company workflow.

I had an hour meeting a week where I was free to ask my line-manager questions about the company and future opportunities. However I received no formal training while at ARM but this was not surprising given the short nature of the placement.

I could see myself working with the company because the atmosphere of the company is good and the company treats its employees well. The work is also quite interesting if not necessarily always my cup of tea.

Yes. In general the interns got on very well. There were a number of company organised social events and also a large number of impromptu social gatherings by smaller groups of interns.

Cambridge is expensive to live and socialise in. It's not quite London but it's quite expensive

The pubs in Cambridge are pretty average and the clubs are terrible but the place has one redeeming factor, it is the home of the UK's largest Spoons. It was great fun and a weird cross between a club and a pub. Barely a weekend went by without spending some time in Spoons.

Because I made a good group of friends with other interns we frequently did things outside of work such as punting or going to the cinema.