In the middle of his Maths and Computer Science degree at the University of Bristol Marco came to get the real world experience at Ghyston, where he learnt new languages and developed an internal app for our 'Boost' awards.
What attracted you to Ghyston?
Personally, I put a lot of effort into researching companies I am thinking of applying to. I discovered Ghyston at a careers fair and did some further research; and after another meet up at a café in Bristol the developers gave the impression that the company is professional, but also fun to work at. This is exactly what I look for when looking for placements and since I live in Bristol, it made Ghyston the perfect place to apply to.
What sort of work did you do?
During the first two weeks of the internship, time was spent training by learning new languages and practices that were common at Ghyston. I learnt how to develop websites, using languages such as React, and how to use development tools effectively, such as Git. I wasn’t very familiar with using these technologies, but the support given to me by my mentor allowed me to get up to speed very quickly.
After that another intern and I began development of a single-page web app of the popular board game Codenames, which later had a server implemented to host it. This put the practices we learnt into good use. Further, during the process my code was reviewed continually, which helped me develop the readability of my code. One of the challenges to develop the app was to control what users could see and do based on the roles in the game they were assigned. This meant we needed to implement the game such that only one user could interact with the game board at any one moment. Near the end of the internship, we were tasked to create a basic app for the 'Boost' scheme that Ghyston uses - a peer-voting bonus scheme with various categories and levels. A challenge in this was learning how to deploy an app from a local device to a server, ensuring that the app could interact with an online database. This was a bit different, but it was a fun task to develop and deploy.
Is there anything in particular you liked?
The employees at Ghyston were very helpful during my internship. A variety of people helped me improve my programming ability, and if I was ever stuck someone would be able to point me in the right direction.
Another thing I liked were the flexible hours that Ghyston offered, as well as the activities they hosted. I enjoyed working at the Ghyston office, so I would be fine working longer if I needed to get something done. Ghyston also offered numerous activities to allow their employees to enjoy working there. For example, I joined a few employees on rowing sessions down at Bristol Harbourside, which was enjoyable.
In conclusion, I enjoyed my time working at Ghyston and I’m glad they chose me for the internship!
