IP Developer Review

Working at Cognito was a great eye opener to the real world. On a daily basis I was challenged to complete tasks; take part in stand-ups; be included in sprint related meetings and of course, eat my fair share of cakes and burgers. Overall, I felt like a real employee, who was given real world tasks to progress, rather than a intern that would be leaving some time soon.

Personally, I felt like I was given a lot of trust during sprints, which in turn made me feel like a valued member of the team. If I had any issues I could voice them and thankfully, I had a fantastic team leader who I could effortlessly talk to and state any personal concerns and he would help me work through them. I can't stress enough that you are treated like a team member. The work is challenging and you're expected to solve problems and work around issues you encounter. But if you're having a hard time adjusting you have a multitude of people to talk to who can help you. Also, I got invited to eat burgers and go to team outings.

There's not really much to say other than 'if I was struggling, all I needed to do was ask'.

You'll come to realise that in a real world situation, there's not always going to be a steady stream of what to expect. Think of a project you do at University - you have a clear goal in mind, and you know exactly what to do to get the grades. It's similar in a place of work, there are stretch goals and a clear insight on what to achieve, but the tasks need to be balanced on a sprint by sprint basis. There's going to be priorities, so sometimes work you might expect to start could possibly get dropped in favour of something that has much higher priority. This means that there could be a chunk of work you'll be steadily working on, but there could be other times when work is somewhat thin because the brainiacs are given something of high priority to do.

Quite a bit. The team I was a part of worked in sprints and in sprints there are lots of tasks. I was apart of daily stand-ups as well as sprint meetings where I was estimating stories based on how much work it would take to complete and in retrospective meetings which allowed me to voice my opinions on what could be done better (as well as what's working). I was given tasks to complete during sprints, which ranged from simple bugs to complicated proof of concepts.

I have learnt skills which will help me to an incredible extent when it comes to work delegation and version control during University projects. I'm thinking Kanban boards and Mercurial.

Cool, calm, relaxed. I was in a team that had a great team leader, who was able to delegate very effectively, which meant that the team wasn't constantly pressured by others. There would be a few times when other members from different teams came over with issues, but they were generally few and far between.

I joined during a move of offices, so I didn't have a computer set up, which to be honest, wasn't too bothering. I still had a desk and everything that a desk needs, but it could have perhaps been better done.

You weren't really given training as such. If you're here, you're a programmer and if you're a programmer you have a preferred language or a language you're most familiar with and you're placed in a team which tends to specialise in that language. There's other languages that are used since development takes place over multiple paltforms and scripts need to be made. I've learnt a few languages since I've been here, such as Perl, Javascript, a bit of Java and Python, which i've grown to love. C++ master race.

There are previous interns who are graduate developers and you're asked if you'd consider coming back, so the prospects seem possible.

I lived with another team member, you're asked to go to outings, you're invited to parties (I got a little bit drunk at Christmas) and of course, there's always the team walk to Tesco at lunch.

I dropped very lucky and ended up living with the guy that interviewed me, which was very affordable. Also, he lived next to a 24/7 Tesco - go at around 21:00 and grab a bargain at the bakery. The town is quite picturesque in places and there are a few pubs to socialise in, but it also allowed me to turn into a hedgehog when I wanted to channel my inner hermit.

I only went out a few times at night and they were reasonably good. A colleague bought me a few drinks and unfortunately, I'm quite good at making tea so I managed to work up a tea debt.

Plenty. Talk to your co-workers and there's things to do. However, in the town itself, there's not really much to do - however, Reading is nearby.