Amazing placement experience - werkgeversreview Junior Software Engineer bij Patchs Health

Spectra is an AI company that focuses on both its work and employees. It was great to work with a team that is professional, produces high-quality products, and values its employees. As all employees of Spectra hold PhDs, the environment combines the best from industry and academia. As a Data Science Intern, I had the chance to work on a variety of data science projects and feel that I have a much larger skill set now. The quality of work produced at Spectra is high and I worked on projects for clients of the company, as well interacting with them directly. Although I was an intern, I was given as much responsibility as the rest of the team, for example, I presented to a client. The team is very helpful and keen to show you new techniques, which I appreciated, and everyone is very friendly. The atmosphere is calm but productive. Furthermore, the management is great - they take your suggestions into account, allow flexible working hours, and treat you like party of the Spectra family. There are monthly team building activities, such as escape rooms and bowling, and free snacks to keep you motivated towards the end of the day. An additional bonus is the location in central London, which provides ample opportunity to try out different foods at lunch. If you are interested in Data Science, I would recommend the internship - it is a friendly and safe environment in which to learn a large variety of data science techniques.

There were no cons for me - everything regarding the internship was made clear during the interview.

A great internship for any PhD student with interest in Data Science wanting to get more industry experience. I got to work on multiple projects, and work on both exploratory research, improving existing products and building the foundations for new ones. Even as an intern, I was often working independently on projects and had responsibility for the outcomes. That included testing, adding and modifying features based on feedback. But I was always supported by the very knowledgeable team at Spectra, who were always happy to help me with anything I was unsure about and run ideas past them. That made tackling tasks that were completely new to me a lot less daunting. The best thing about the internship was the focus on me learning things I wanted to learn, and every review I was asked if there was anything I was missing in my goals and my preferences were always accommodated. Spectra really cares about its employees, which very much includes the interns. The team building events are also really fun, and open to suggestions from anyone. For my last one we went axe throwing!

The working times are quite flexible, but most of the team tends to come in later work until around 7pm, which can make it difficult to get much done in the evening after work. But the main problem was with my self-discipline for coming in earlier being particularly strong, not with the company policy.