Towards the End of Intra

Scráib

Hey all,

Since we're coming into the final few weeks(yippee!) of Intra I'm just wondering how most people found the experience?

Also how is everyone getting on with their report? And does anyone like me have to make a presentation on their placement when they get back? :mad:

I'm happy with mine; it was a decent job and I came out of it with a shiny new laptop!

phreak

I've enjoyed mine. I may come back and work here when i finish college.

report? i haven't even thought about it yet.

No Presentation for me... i didn't even have someone from intra visit here.

steveland?

I've loved it. Nothing to do with my actual course but I get paid to drink coffee as opposed to make it for people...

Seriously though everyone in my job's been sound, my "visit" from a lecturer lasted all of 20 seconds, I got an actual job as opposed to my original idea of INTRA where we're sent to make coffee for people doing real jobs and I've gotten paid for the whole thing...

Now I've only got 3 repeats to get through, back to college and very possibly back to this job afterwards. If I fail any I may even ask to stay on for the year in my current position, repeat the exam next year and take the year out... which would be handy because I could save and save and save and not have to work during my final year...

Ste.phen

So far so good, i love it, i dont really want to go back to college to be honest. Same situation as steve, i got an actually useful job which i'd be quite happy to do indefinitely!

Still haven't thought about the report yet either.

Also have 2 repeats, but i'd rather not have to repeat next year, hence this week being spent in DCU trying to cram

gizmo

Well as I may have hinted at before I love my job up here. The experience I've gotten has been fantastic never mind the huge benefit it'll have to my CV. Bar the slight lack of active social life up here I'd definitly consider coming here after college/masters.

As for the report, nope havn't started it yet, probably should get going on it though.

I had my INTRA visit too which went really well. One of my lectures just came up and we chatted about the place over a cup of coffee...which I didn't even have to make myself, how can you lose?

phreak

i know some unfortunate people end up with bad jobs but they don't actually get stuck making tea/coffee do they?!

cooker3

Well I will be happy when it's over, can't complain about job as it is easy but well don't like early mornings and looking forward to getting back to my 1pm starts again.

Will

Cooker3 you have a nice building though and you can get starbucks to make your coffee! you have it handy from what i can see, always chatting

I feel sorry for barry, he hates his job (last time i talked to him about it) he got shafted

gizmo

cooker3 wrote:

Well I will be happy when it's over, can't complain about job as it is easy but well don't like early mornings and looking forward to getting back to my 1pm starts again.

Yea but you don't really do any work either though do you...:rolleyes:

lizanne83

Hey guys,

I’m still on Intra also here in wonderful Sydney, Australia!
As soon as last semester 1 project was handed up in January, I took off for Oz 2 days later literally! I only decided to do Intra in Oz 2 weeks before I headed off so was all very spontaneous.
I got here in January and after many-many job interviews. I finally found a great position that just came up in an excellent global IT company called Cognos – world leader in business intelligence.
I have been having the time of my life here. The company has also been awesome to work for, very busy and full on but lots of “Team Building” trips away, lunches out, merchandise etc! And on top of that the money really is excellent. Could easily be less than half of what I’m being paid in comparison to my ‘back-packer’ counterparts who just end up working in customer care/call center environments, usually just a little over the hourly minimum wage. I got lucky and have been living it up since! I can’t believe its back to final year college next year though!
Started the INTRA report but it needs a lot of ‘tidying’ up, not due until end Sept anyway isn’t it!?
After working in Oz nearly 7 months, I finish up work here next week then off traveling up to Cairns for a weeks diving, then across to Perth for 3 weeks! Then it’s back to Ireland for final year Multimedia at end of September. I’m sO dreading it :-(

Ok, best get back to work here! Let me know if there are any updates to Intra report deadline? I’ve totally lost track of things going on back home and in college!
If you’re bored, you can check out my “INTRA EXPERIENCE” in Oz here!!
http://camac.dcu.ie/~barnwal2/portfolio/oz/pics.html
www.lizannebarnwall.tk

Darren1o1

Spent mine in Germany in automotive company do r and d. Was good experience and a laugh, especially with the world cup!:D

Scráib

I must be the only one whos been doing the report! I've been writing little bits all through the placement, so I'm nearly finished the thing:D

I'll have to echo Cooker3 though, at least in college we sort of have the choice to stay in bed when we want! Work isn't like that. It should be, but it isn't. :rolleyes:

6 weeks left from now... Time bloody well flew.

gizmo

Ah, gotta love flexi-time here. I can start anytime between 8 and 10. Its not college but it beats a strict 8/9-5.

Darren1o1

gizmo wrote:

Ah, gotta love flexi-time here. I can start anytime between 8 and 10. Its not college but it beats a strict 8/9-5.

Ha ha sucker, i can arrive whenever, leave whenever! build up time and take it off as hols! Was great for world cup! Flexitime is such a sweet deal

gizmo

You have no core hours whatsoever? Thats really weird, we have the ability to do what you said as long as we work 10-4 Monday-Thursday.

Darren1o1

Nope is a Job in Research and Devolpment in germany. Basically i have to do 7hrs a day(or equivalant in a week) and thats it. I do have to be in for meetings(Which i rarely have being on INTRA), but most of the work i do such computer simulation or theoritical work and can be done at anytime really. Still usually in 9-5, but there are those lazy days!! The place is so laid back Boss encouraged long lunches and making flexitime work for me especially during the WC:D

Will

thats not a very german attitude is it now!

Darren1o1

Well is kinda an english company but mainly based here. Is a sweet deal though. Will be hard going back to final yr!:(

Dudess

My INTRA at a newspaper is going brilliantly. But that's because the people are so lovely and the work is really interesting. And they're not just leaving me sitting in a corner and treating me like "the work experience" girl. They view me as a member of staff. So it's been great.

nahgoe

I've quite enjoyed it. Very interesting, and I think I'd like to work in this area when I finish. A lot of hands on work, and getting involved in very real situations. Some boring bits, and some times being left without things to do, but that's part of any INTRA job, and it gave me time to do my own stuff.

Definately well worth the time spent though, and I'd happily go back.

Haven't started thinking about the report, but I think that can wait until after the repeats...

phreak

did anyone else in CA besides myself and Art_Wolf not have someone from intra visit them?

Darren1o1

phreak wrote:

did anyone else in CA besides myself and Art_Wolf not have someone from intra visit them?

I know a few mech engineers that haven't but not CA's.

gizmo

phreak wrote:

did anyone else in CA besides myself and Art_Wolf not have someone from intra visit them?

I'd actually look into that. If you "fail" the report I'm sure it would have a negative impact on your overall grade...

...well either that or they won't give a ****.

zynaps

I've had a great time as well. A big learning curve at the start as we got to know about Tomcat, servlets, JSP and other J2EE stuff and into the extreme programming groove (which I seriously can't recommend enough to anybody - especially the planning and test first design concepts - I'll definitely be doing TDD on me project in 4th year).

Haven't started on the report yet, nor have I even really thought about it... plenty of time left for that (last words!).

I do miss having the freedom to work on my own projects, although before here I was a lazy shooite and would have wasted all of that time watching TV or something. Looking forward to researching stuff I'm interested in when we get back to DCU

DrunkLeprachaun

phreak wrote:

did anyone else in CA besides myself and Art_Wolf not have someone from intra visit them?

I myself did, with monsieur ray walshe. Funnily enough(or not, as the case actually was), I slept through all of my myriad alarms the morning of the interview and arrived an hour late for it. Suffice to say, noone was best pleased and I got something of a rollicking. But I give as good as I get, I fail to see why it's so important to be punctual if you've got nothing to show up in time for. Bah, pff, etc.

Some of you may have gleaned from that(and the CASE list mails I excreted earlier) that my intra is less than peachey. Working out at intel leixlip....<edit> and don't like it at all. </edit>

kyper

Just been reading the mails on the class list and thought I'd post here.

While none of this applies to me as I'm doing my own intra... it seems it _IS_ or rather should be up to INTRA to ensure the job is at least relative to the course or career area you are interested in.

I thought the idea of intra was to get some "industry" experience? shouldn't it be up to the intra office to ensure we are not just sitting there making tea, hanging posters or formatting word documents? Well they really should or at least not make it impossible to do anything about it without having to repeat the year. They lock you into a job and don't really give you much choice about it.

So after intra and 4th year you go for some interviews.


Interviewer: So you did work placement with <COMPANY>, tell me what responsibilies you had and any other comments.

CA Graduate: Erm.... I made tea.... they all said I was really good at it..... oh and this one time I hung up some posters over printers.....


interviewer: NEXT!!!!


What a load of festering ****e tbh!

I feel sorry for some of you guys.

gizmo

DrunkLeprachaun wrote:

I myself did, with monsieur ray walshe. Funnily enough(or not, as the case actually was), I slept through all of my myriad alarms the morning of the interview and arrived an hour late for it.

Jesus, not a man I'd want to be late for. Did he ask you to leave the room?

charba

kyper wrote:

Just been reading the mails on the class list and thought I'd post here.

While none of this applies to me as I'm doing my own intra... it seems it _IS_ or rather should be up to INTRA to ensure the job is at least relative to the course or career area you are interested in.

I thought the idea of intra was to get some "industry" experience? shouldn't it be up to the intra office to ensure we are not just sitting there making tea, hanging posters or formatting word documents? Well they really should or at least not make it impossible to do anything about it without having to repeat the year. They lock you into a job and don't really give you much choice about it.

Unfortunately the INTRA office can not ensure that you are doing course related experience. From what I understand if someone complains to the INTRA office then the company may not receive an INTRA student the following year.

However, this brings you to the next issue that arises about INTRA. often the INTRA office can not attract enough companies and people are often given jobs that are unrelated to what they are studying.

Darren1o1

As i have heard not exactly the best place to work on INTRA. Some of the mech eng people had less than complementary stuff to say about there work. One guys job involved putting green tape on things.........enough said! I ahve also heard about the beauacracy involved, i know another guy there in INTRA who entire job is to document any changes in the clean room. ie. moving a bin from point a to b! It is a farce to have some of the smartest people around doing this work! Needless to say most won't be returning!

gizmo

Have you voiced these complaints to the INTRA office by the way? I'm sure your immediate boss work knows of the situation after the delays but at least if you tell INTRA they *could* do something about it.

DrunkLeprachaun

I told ray, he told them, they don't care. A friend of mine from CAIS in a similar situation(was given no work at all to do) was complaining to them for literally months, constantly. He even tried to bring in the student union(I wrote a letter detailing my own experiences in an attempt to exemplify the point), but all to no avail. After 3-4 months they finally sent in his alotted college bod, he determined that although the work load was light, the job was relevant to the course. It really isn't. By the way, he was the guy who sent the mail about sticking posters up above printers. Intra <edit> aren't very accommodating </edit> Worse, there's nothing at all we can do about it.