Mary - Dublin Technical Intern
Summer 2004

Can you tell us a little bit about you?

I've lived in Killusty, Fethard, Co. Tipperary for the most part of my life. Four years ago, I finished Secondary School at the Loreto Clonmel in Co. Tipperary. I moved to Dublin to continue my studies at Trinity College Dublin, where I studied a degree in Information and Communication Technology.

Why did you apply for the Extreme Blue internship?

I applied for the Extreme Blue internship as it came highly recommended to me by TCD Careers Service office and also by our Course Director. The entire class was made aware of the internship opportunity during our final year studies. This and the renowned excellent reputation that this internship holds within the IT industry motivated me to apply for a position on the team to be selected. I also saw this internship as an excellent way of bridging the gap between academia and industry; it gives students an excellent incite into how industry works on a day to day basis and what it's like to be part of this process.

How do you think your background and experience prepared you for the internship?

I feel that although I'd been through 4 years of an IT degree this internship really can not be prepared for. I think that you are perfect for this internship if you have a strong technical knowledge, if you enjoy development, embrace a challenge and like to hit the ground running. I feel that having done research with the Distributed Systems Group in Trinity College Dublin helped me a great deal. Researching into ideas that were raised in meetings and coming to grips with the main concepts that were part of our project would have been something I would have dealt with previously. I also feel that studying Web Services as part of my college degree and having done servlet development also helped a great deal in getting up to speed with the IBM technologies and development process that we used during this internship.

What have you learned from your Extreme Blue experience?

I don't think I can fit all that I've learned from my experience into a paragraph; there's possibly a book somewhere in the answer to this question. This internship gave me the opportunity to see how industry works - there is still a huge gap between what we learn at college and how the industry works on a day to day basis. This internship helps to bridge that gap in a unique way as it throws the students in at the deep end, therefore not giving you preferential treatment which helped us in understanding what it's like to work in the industry! This internship also gives you the opportunity to develop your technical abilities to industrial standard working in a development environment while also learning how a system operates. It also meant getting up to date with all current technologies that IBM are using to build their applications, some of which would be IBM specific that you probably wouldn't have known about during college study. This internship also gave me the opportunity to develop my presentation skills, as towards the end we went to Amsterdam where there was an exposition of our work to the executives of IBM EMEA. This was a brilliant and fun experience! Our team also had to present to the press. We were prepared for this receiving press training before going to Amsterdam and as a result our team were featured in an article in the Irish Examiner. Overall this internship is a wonderful experience that doesn't just develop your technical ability, but also your communication skills and team work ethic. One of our major achievements for our project was filing for a patent which I think is very exciting!

Is there anything about the Extreme Blue program that surprised you?

This is not your stereotypical student internship, where you are taken in to make tea for your manager. You really have to put everything you have into the program especially when you come to terms with the fact that you've been dropped in at the deep end. Although this is what I expected, I was still a little surprised at the amount of responsibility that we were given along with the amount of confidential information that was made available to us. The Coordinator, Mentors and Sponsors couldn't really have been more helpful if they tried. Any problem or issue that arose whether technical or otherwise they were there to help you and give you advice. This internship really is a team effort from everyone involved and believe me there are a lot of characters in the office, we had a lot of laughs at meetings!

I think the most impressive thing about this internship was the amount of resources that were made available to us. If we needed something all we had to do was ask and as much would be done to ensure that we could get access to that service. The people who we met during the course of this program were also terrific, like Bill (SFI), Sue (IBM Workplace) to mention but a few. These people took time out of their busy schedules to meet and talk with us and allowed us to ask them any questions that we may have about their relative areas. This was really fantastic and I personally wouldn't have normally got the opportunity as I'm sure most of you wouldn't to meet and talk with these people.

Would you recommend the program to other students and why?

Yes, I would definitely recommend this internship to all IT students from my experience. The knowledge and experience that I gained were not only technical, but also allowed to work as part of a group, presentation skills and even how to deal with the press were and are all very valuable skills to me which I'm sure I will continue to use throughout my life.

In my opinion, the internship was exactly what I expected - long hours, hard work, stressful, challenging but very enjoyable and an experience that I will cherish forever and grow from. There were Extreme Blue nights out where the interns and their mentors went for a meal and drinks and also the interns went out on staff nights out which we were invited on by some of the organizers, which I thought was a really nice gesture and made us feel accepted. The Amsterdam Extreme Blue Expo was also a fantastic way to top of the program. We got to meet all the other Extreme Blue interns from other countries and at the end we all went out in Amsterdam and had a really good night!

Is there something you wish you hand known ahead of time? What other advice can you offer future interviewees?

If there was some information I would liked to have had prior to the internship it would have been about the application process before I went for the interview. More information should have been included on the web site about the internship and it should be easier to access. I didn't realise going to the interview that I would get a test on C++ and Java. Although these tests tested your basic knowledge of each language if you haven't coded in a while it would be a good idea to brush up on each of the two languages mentioned above. Also it is important to be able to explain your understanding of the major technologies that are in use now in the industry.

When you are called for the interview, do a little bit of research into the technologies that are mentioned on the website advertising the program. I wouldn't consider myself to be one of the best in the country at what I do, however working with the expertise team that you are assigned to does get the best out of you and you feel like you can achieve whatever you put your mind to, so be yourself and don't doubt your ability. You can do this program if I can!