Review: My experience with internship at Studios92 (Internship-UK)
I started my internship as web developer with internship-uk. I knew after week 1 that this is not the type of internship I am looking for. Left internship-uk after 4 weeks, March 8th to be exact.
So, I left internship-uk! I think I owe any potential future internship-UK/studios92 intern student something. Something that you don’t get from their websites or other of the many resources on the internet. Not only do I feel I owe them something, also to every person who might be dealing with one of their services one day.
Who should read this article about studios92 and internship-uk?
- Read it if you are interested in becoming an intern with studios92, internship-uk, gift-tours,
- because you are about to spend a lot of money. I just want to make sure you get what you expect!
- if you are ambitious and want to get a glimpse of a professional environment (in this case, they are not what you are looking for, their information is very deceiving)
- especially if you want to be an IT Web development intern (because that was what I am)
- If you joined internship-international.com. Their userbase is mainly all accounts created by the interns. Every article talking about their internship experience is written by their own interns because they were had to
- If you are a teacher of an University of applied science or University and need to know about the quality on this internship to see if this is what you want your students to be in.
- If you want to know about the quality of their hotel reviews related to website of studios92, for example worldwidetraveltips.com with their own fake users and own written reviews
This article is about my experience within internship-uk and studios92. I will highlight both the positive and negative ones. You don’t have to either agree or disagree with me. It is written from my perspective, from my Code of Conduct. I never mentioned it before in my blog because wanted to give the company the benefit of the doubt.
Warning: It is a long post and only a part of what I want to say is covered.
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
It’s already a few weeks ago that I left the office of internship-uk in New Romney. My leaving of internship-uk was quite unexpected to some. The IT-team was only aware of it the day before I left. I was quite surprised about their reaction. Did not think people would actually miss me.
Signing the contract with internship-UK
Completing their application form took me around 3 hours. A few phone calls of non relevant interviews and a couple of days later I was accepted as an unpaid intern for 6 months. Don’t get fooled if they tell you that all internship in UK or London are unpaid. It is not true at all.
I expected to receive a detailed contract about the internship itself. All I received was the contract for the accommodation that I had to pay. Accommodation consists of sharing a room with at least one other person for £18 per day (£18*180 days = £3240). No Terms of service, agreement policy or any of that kind that regarding to the internship itself (!). I asked through the email about it but this question was never answered.
Things feel suspicious
As I stated in my first post about internship-uk, it felt too good to be true. Still, my common sense (Yes, I do have one) told me that something is not correct. It felt too good and at the same time there is something totally wrong with this picture. Consider the fact that I didn’t want to pay them my hard earned and partially borrowed money. I tried to get a sponsored contract. Meaning that I don’t have to pay any accommodation/food fee but I do have to stay for a year. Which is not bad at all as being abroad for 1 year is one of the things I wanted.
Payment and No refund policy
If the internship turns out very well, I have a very fruitful year. If it turns out bad, I can always find other ways to work on my career. Just needed to make sure I wasn’t stuck in a situation without reasonable escaping clause. As they have a No Refund Policy. I did pay them a little bit of money (£500) as deposit. Which I see as fee for the accommodation which is a good price for me, though it would be nice to not share the room with others.
Things I can not keep secret for you
During my internship I dealt with quite a few things that are a bit unusual. Things that, I believe, go against the grain of every well respected person and web developer that goes for the Gold without using doping.
Please do correct me if I am wrong, but for now I can not just leave it unspoken. There are things about this company, of which I feel people should be able to find out about on the internet before deciding anything. Please read on. It might not sound as bad for you while reading. But it was awful for me…
During my internship
I worked a lot because there is not much to do in New Romney. Staying in your room on free days isn’t quite exciting. I took a few days off to visit the PHP UK Conference. Being there confirmed my feeling that internship-uk is not the right company for me on so many levels.
Too many warnings and get fired
An other thing that amazed me was their warning system. Warnings are given if for example you are browsing the internet if it is not work related, smoke during small breaks, speak language other than English etc. 3 official warnings = fired. Hold on, this was never mentioned before. You can actually get fired during your internship! I never heard of this before…
Of course, not only warnings can get you fired.
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.
More readings:
- 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
Hello I made an internship for half past one month and my personal opinion of this company is they are not serious. internship.uk basically his boss who use a fake name (Dinno Johson) in reality he is Algerian but for a marketing question he don t tell you this. The company has only interns as workers who are running the company being exploited during the week end as well, and the boss is the only one who gets the benefits from the hard qualified work of his interns without sharing nothing and the most incredible, you must pay to work without any coaching, nothing… Oh I am sorry, yes he paid some commissions, a few pounds, to HR interns with the purpose that they spy and report all activity to him. I know what I am telling, I worked in HR department, and the get commission for each intern they hire as well. If you are not cooperative with his policy and control, he try to humiliate you, fire, threats, etc… If you are still enjoying to go to this adventure, you must know, beside working entire weeks and week ends, you must be able to cook for everybody almost 40 or more persons, and the boss and his wife inclusive, be ready to be a waiter as well.
If you need more information about this internship company you can send me emails at jpb_port@hotmail.com I will be pleased to answer to your questions