This is a guest post by our summer 2016 developer intern Riordan Panayides.

Starting Out

I began my six week internship with Earthware at the end of July 2016. Previously I had considered doing a year in industry as part of my degree but hadn't found a company I felt I could put my study on hold and devote that much time to. I was sent an advert for the Earthware internship and applied straight away after seeing that the company's past work related to some of my interests and topics covered on my degree course, and that it was in an accessible location close to home.

The application process was quick and relatively informal. I had a telephone interview with Jon, one of the Senior Developers and was invited in to have a chat with Brian where we discussed what my goals were and ideas for a project I could complete during my time at Earthware.

Working

Travelling into the office on my first day I was slightly nervous. What would the people be like? Would I be able to complete my work to a good standard? These questions and more occupied my mind during the train journey. However, when I got to the office, I was given a warm welcome and introduced to the entire team which made me feel immediately at home in the relaxed yet productive environment.

The projects I would work on was organised into one week sprints. We started by defining clear goals for each sprint then I was given a lot of independence to work to achieve my parts of the sprint. I worked in a wide range of areas, some of which I hadn't really touched on before, such as data analytics, writing for a blog, and planning work in an Agile manner. I believe I worked productively, seeing the completion of two projects using an EEG headset. This was exciting new technology and I was very interested in exploring its potential applications. I was also trusted with doing some real work for the business' clients, updating pages on a live site.

It wasn't all work however, I was involved in plenty of fun social activities such a picnic in the park, going out for a meal with people from the office and, of course, many games of foosball!

Finishing

I really enjoyed my brief time at Earthware and would urge anyone considering an internship application to go for it! I have met a lot of great people, learned new skills that will benefit me throughout my working life and university course, gained experience of software development in a real world scenario and had a bit of fun too.