Technology Intern Review

Overall really enjoyed my internship. Learned numerous skills that I know I will be able to apply in future to my work, including new programming languages as well as learning from professional examples such as in code reviews. Worked with really good people and I was given projects that would actually be useful in future for them. The days passed fairly quickly and I always felt comfortable as well as enjoying any challenges that arose.

The project I was given was something they had been interested in having for a long time, so in that way I felt valued by my colleagues. Some times I felt overlooked when given no sense of direction or no tasks to do, but many people are so busy that it can't be helped. However, my opinions were always listened to and people always seemed to remember me. Everyone was very friendly and respectful.

I had several supervisors throughout my internship. At least once a day one would appear in person and take part in a daily meeting with me. My manager was extremely busy, but I knew I could talk to him if I needed to. J.P. Morgan have a buddy and senior adviser system in place. I got a lot of guidance and support from my buddy, who was on the graduate scheme there recentley. My senior adviser was also very busy but when it was good to get perspective from another high-level colleague.

Some days were extremely busy whilst other days went by more slowly, due to waiting for permissions or security issues which would block projects. However, this is to be expected in a company of J.P.'s size. I always managed to find things to do and there is lots of opportunities for other tasks as long as you put yourself out there and be inventive.

The project I was working on directly impacted the work that my colleagues were doing. Hence, they allowed me access to all of their code and projects and let me have free reign to test my project in their environment whilst having all the permissions they also had. This was a huge amount of responsibility (and some accidents did occur), but it made me feel extremely useful.

Their are several online training courses, which you learn some basic finance from - which I believe will be useful in future. However, 90% of the skills I learned during my internship were from creating my project. I developed several skills and have vastly more knowledge about development in a real working environment. Coding (and especially testing) seems to come a lot more naturally now due to the amount of time I have been doing it during work. There is also plenty of opportunities to take on more training or reach out to certain people to learn new skills. In this respect, I am very happy with my internship.

The office itself was very relaxed and people were always chatting and talking in the kitchen areas. There were several events between employees also, such as cake and coffee days, which brought everyone into the same areas. I talked to several people outwith my team and in general always felt pretty much relaxed. However, on some floors it was a lot quieter than where I was - so I think it depends, but that might suit other people more.

In some ways very well and other ways not so much. We got sent to London over the first two days and also there were several events, including a day-long charity one. Considering the amount of interns all of these events were very well organised. However, in other ways there was a lot of disorganisation - such as when I arrived at the office no-one knew where I was actually meant to be going and quite a lot of my admin forms were lost before I even arrived. However, after settling in everything went pretty much smoothly. Also in a large organisation, I didn't mind any of the disorganisation very much as I expected it before I came.

There is a large focus on self evaluation and reviews, so in that way personal development is carried out well. However, it's pretty much left up to yourself to create opportunities for other development, such as organising work shadowing, etc. This worked well for me but for others maybe not so much. There were several online training courses, but they were more factual based than personal.

I would come back, the office is in a great location with great people. My project was interesting and I'm sure the actual long running projects are more interesting than that. Also there are a huge amount of possible roles to be placed in, each departments use different technologies and strategies. The graduate scheme also seems well organised with lots of events, similar to the internship.

To an extent. During the first half of the internship people put more effort in to get together, but due to such a large amount of interns there weren't any regular events by the end of it. However, several events are arranged by work and this helped get the big number of interns together more easily. By the end, I knew at least half of the interns also placed with me and I'd went out several times - I think you have to be proactive to appreciate the social scene anywhere.

I'd say Glasgow is pretty cheap. There are plenty of mini-supermarkets in the center as well as larger ones about 10 minutes walk out. Also the subway runs next to cheaper places to live than the center so overall I think you can live here quite cheaply. There are also plenty of drink and food deals at the restaurants and pubs, especially those aimed at students.

I come from Glasgow and have always been a fan of the nightlife. There are several clubs (although the pubs are much better) and they're always good for a night out. Both the center and West End have plenty of choices of places to go.

There are lots of clubs at J.P., including active ones like hill-walking and not so active ones like theatre trips. We'd get emails weekly as well as reminders about them. I went to a few events and really enjoyed them. It's a pity people aren't more proactive or there would definetly be more events.