What's it like to intern at Saltgate?

4 August 2021

We spoke to Maddy Auffret, who’s returning for her second summer programme with us, to find out more about her experience at Saltgate.

Saltgate strives to foster learning. So we’ve designed our summer programme to help our interns learn from our teams in a friendly environment, and gain the experience they need to thrive.

Where are you at in your studies?

I’ve just finished my second year at Durham University doing French and Italian – I’m about to go into my year abroad.

What’s your role and what are your responsibilities within Saltgate?

I’m working in the CDD team helping out with screenings and occasional workflow projects.

What are your hobbies or what do you do for fun?

I play the flute and I was in a concert band in my first year of university. I haven’t been able to do societies in second year because of covid unfortunately! When the weather’s nice I also enjoy going down to the beach.

What did you want to be when you were young?

I don’t think I had something that I wanted to be as such, but the closest thing would be that I considered doing translating in secondary school after taking part in an EU competition.

Do you have a hidden talent?

I don’t consider myself much of a chef but sometimes I help my family cook for dinner parties and my home-made garlic bread is highly requested!

What’s your favourite part of your role?

I like the logic and the precision of the procedures and tasks I do.

What’s been the best experience you’ve has as an intern at Saltgate?

I thought it was really good that Saltgate included socials when remote working – last year I was working from home for the entire internship but I got to know all of the other interns, even those who weren’t on my team!

What’s been the most surprising thing?

I would say the fact as interns, there’s so much contact with the senior management team, even with the projects we do – it’s nice to know faces and names and have someone so senior supervising you.

What advice would you give a student considering an internship or work experience?

It’s important to know when to ask questions, but also not being afraid to ask them. There’s no point blankly staring at a screen when you could ask someone and have an answer!

What’s your favourite part of Saltgate culture?

It’s really nice that there’s such an emphasis on the people first culture. I’ve seen it in a lot of the work and projects I’ve been doing: the internship has helped me to better understand Saltgate’s values.