Review: Looking back to Studios92 and internship-UK.com
So, how was the experience? Did I learn and would it be worth my money if I paid studios92/internship-uk london of UK?
Will it be worth it for you if you paid for an internship? (don’t get fooled if they say companies don’t pay for interns in UK).
Anyway.. lets look back. This is valuable info for you if you are considering to do an internship with them..
Looking back: Hype the business with real fake reviews and posts
What can I say? They have somewhat weird projects really. One of it is having a million reviews on traveltips.addhotel.com within a few months.
Now we are talking! That sounds like a great project and very ambitious.
If only this project was to get to the million reviews by honest means.
Instead, every intern had to create accounts, post an avatar and write reviews using SEO techniques every day till the objective of 1.000.000 reviews by the interns is reached!Currently the site has 1000’s reviews, all written by interns randomly. It is just a matter of time to reach the target with 50+ interns writing appr 5 reviews a day. Aankom.com also has a lot of fake advertisements written by interns.
Is this truly the only way to get your website rolling?
If I had a hotel, I would not want to be associated with a company that uses such practises. As an intern I was very angry to have to write fake reviews. I don’t know how others feel about it, but this is not part of my Code of Conduct.
Heck… I don’t even want to be associated with them as intern (also a reason why I left).
Looking back: Hype the business with business personal blogs
I never heard any one speak about blogs before and since I arrived at the office. One day I was searching for reviews of old interns. I typed in Google: “internship studios92? and voila: my site is #1 in the results list. I was positively surprised and could not believe it. I did not apply ANY SEO technique. There were no keywords, descriptions, images etc.
A few days later every intern had to create ‘personal’ blogs (disguised company blogs) on the internet. Every post written had to meet certain requirements and implicitly all had to be positive. They even dictated when you had to write a post about a movie or something else. If you search and are a clever detective, you’ll find out which blogs were written for the company.
For me, the forced blogging was worse than the fake reviews. I don’t want to soil my blog with posts that I have to write because they order me. And I don’t want to create a blog account elsewhere just because they order me.
If it is a company blog, then it should be limited to the profession of the writer. Not being dictated by the company to write ‘personal’ posts that meet THEIR criteria. Yet an other thing that is totally against my principles and Code of Conduct.
If an intern wants to write about it, let them, but don’t force them. This is so wrong on many levels but apparently this is a correct way of doing..business..?!? to lure more innocent interns?!
Looking back: What I enjoyed
There are 6 positive tiny sparkle of goodness.
The 1st was that I had to manage/supervise. This amazing project of getting 6 Boonex Dolphin scripts installed online was such a challenge! (<= sarcasm) Not because of the programming because this is the first time they have a PHP project and they want this to be done in 1 month with a team of the nicest Java guys. All who had not touched or installed scripts online before. It also exciting to think of different strategies to accomplish this as soon as possible and still having the time to debug/optimize. But that sparkle didn’t last long for me. Though the sites were dynamic, there wasn’t a lot of coding involved. And the boss expected me to be very tough to the guys.. that is not my management style!
The 2nd thing are the people there. It is surprising to see so many different type of people getting along very well. I guess the whole situation there makes the bond between everyone stronger. I made friends there and I value each and everyone as individual.
The 3rd was the Dolphin Boonex Community script. It is an fascinating to learn their structure => finally some PHP code, it was heaven for my eyes! I am not sure if they paid for the license or just removed it.
The 4th is the activities organized by the event ‘managers’. Organizing pubnights, clubnights, pancake parties etc.
The 5th is working with Ubuntu! 
The final thing I enjoyed most was coding ASP with Jeroen in the beginning!! Even though it was not high level programming..at least I was writing code and modifying the original code to improve things and make the site more internactive (pun intended) ! Jeroen is a very cool guy and I have nothing but positive things to say about him. He is so ready to reach a higher level of programming!
Why I left internship-UK
What I want is to stretch myself, to learn and grow. I did learn and grow a bit but not as a professional web developer. I learned a bit about myself (I am quite ambitious the last few months), and the decision I took to leave and search for something else made me grow (dare taking risks).
Am I too stubborn? Too ambitious? Too stupid in thinking this is not a professional environment?
There are quite a few more reasons why I left. But this post is already ridiculously long.
In the end this wasn’t the company I was looking for. I aim high, but they only hit low. They promised too much but did not deliver anywhere near close.
I feel too ambitious to be in such a strict environment. I need space to be creative and be able to voice my opinion and expertise and most importantly; work WITH the company, not working FOR the company.
Do I feel any regrets after leaving?
I have no regrets whatsoever. I would have if I actually paid the huge pile of money! But Honestly: Leaving internship-uk was and still is a relief! I know I can do better, but I have to find the correct environment to work in. Like different fish needs different types of water, internship-UK was definitely not the water I could swim in.
Unfortunately I had no web developer expertise above me to guide or motivate me to take myself to a higher level. Instead I had to take and stick with non professional web development: static websites, legacy ASP, PHP project without actually PHP’ing.
Information from ex-interns
During my internship I talked with a lot of interns. I can guarantee that more than half of the interns* feel the same about the low level of professionalism within the company, both work and the management, and the misleading information on the website. Some have no choice but to stay. I learned that most won’t express their opinion anywhere because they don’t care or have no clue they can. I do care therefore I chose to express it, just like a few others did:
- Internship at Studios92 in England? - German discussion about experiences with studios92, very good one! (translated version: EN)
- http://anti-internship-uk.blogspot.com - This post contains links to people having similar experiences which are (as far as I know) not written from out the company. (I am not very fond of the word ‘anti’ but oke)
- Discussion Internship-UK.com on webmasterserve - Great to read “insults to my person treating”. Slightly aggressive post but all true.
- Yet an other discussion about Internship-UK
- “I quitted the company because the Boss was such a Jerk” - Entertaining little post. I love the quote he found. Also check the comment from Priscilla.
Important Tips if you are interested in internship-uk
These tips come from my own experience. It serves as a sincere warning to everyone, who is looking for information, as well. Whether you take it or not, it is totally up to you. It all depends on your perspective of working and what you want to achieve.
- If you are in search for a company/department that values your opinion on moving forward personally and with the company, instead of getting dictated what you have to do .. search elsewhere.
- If you want to work WITH the company instead of FOR the company .. search elsewhere.
- Don’t solely rely on the blogs about studios92, internship-uk and/or gift-tours only. Most of the blogs you find on the internet are written by the interns of internship-uk.
- Want freedom, creativity and ability to grow? .. search elsewhere.
Internship-UK works with a strict company hierarchy. The things the boss or ‘manager’ say are right and you are wrong (even if you have prove that you are right). This type of hierarchy is considered almost extinct in the current and future way of working, in modern companies at least… unless you like to work in such environment. - Does your university expect quality guidance/supervisor during your internship? .. search elsewhere.
Don’t expect guidance as your university expect you to get. The current expert/intern ratio within the company is very low. The current ratio real employees/interns is around 3:50. This means there are about 50 interns and only 3 people who are real employees. - Do you expect to learn from experts? .. search elsewhere.
The experts? The boss claims to have 11 years experience but I am not sure of what. Perhaps of running a company in the old fashioned way? The manager, I have no idea what his expertise is then to boss everyone around. The IT expert is the network administrator, very cool guy though. I have nothing bad to say about him. - Do you still want become an intern there after reading the whole post? ..apply! Then this is totally your company.
I got a bit carried away in some parts of the post while writing. Excuse me for that. But out of all companies I worked for, this is the only one that deserves a mention in my blog with the intention to warn people.
I tried to be as polite as I can be. I could not help to feel furious about their way of working. I felt cheated by image they send out, the reality I found there, what they wanted to preach me……Perhaps I just had too high expectations, and too confident…. and/or they are doing fabulous marketing.. 
yes, conclusion: Marketing is to trick people :p
Conclusion: Sorry to say but studios92 / internship-uk is #1 in my list of “worst work experience”!
Time to move on .. yay
The day I left to London and started my job hunt to continue my internship. Found a very promising company within just 2 weeks! An ambitious startup company with a lot of potential and concept that I believe in. A company with cornerstones. One of them is the lead developer who knows about programming and using the right tools to get the things done. I am honoured to work with them. I will start April 13th. Oh I so love the 13th!
It is time to move on and fly into the arms of my true passion! An update soon…
More readings:
Boss threatens to fire interns because of my post
I had to take down this post for a while because the boss read about it and threatened to fire a few interns I had contact with. Now they have finished their internship I put this post back online and split into different posts:
- Review: My experience with internship at Studios92 (Internship-UK)
- Review: Looking back to Studios92 and internship-UK.com
- Review: Studios92 & Internship-UK Webdevelopment internship | thumbs down
If studios92 was hell and/or disappointing for you too…
If you are one of the interns or ex-interns, please comment below or send me a message with your feedback, experience or your story. Your message will be displayed in this post and your name/email whatever will never be revealed!
Comments that seem to come from studios92 because they are obligated to write positive are not being considered.
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