HackCampus provides summer internships for student programmers at startups in London. The internship is paid, lasts 10 weeks, and we provide free accommodation in central London for the duration of the internship. You will be working in a software engineering role in the tech team of a VC-funded startup.
You can apply to HackCampus if you are currently a full-time student, and have permission to work in the UK without a visa. In practice this means that you need to be a citizen of an EU country. We are not able to provide visa assistance for applicants who need a visa to work in the UK.
You don't need to be a Computer Science student! We are most interested in the work you do in your spare time. If you can show us that you have the right skills and attitude, we will definitely consider your application no matter what you are studying.
To apply to HackCampus simply fill out the application form. Apart from basic information (contact details, university, etc.), you will have to upload your CV. We will ask you some technical questions, as well as the languages/technologies that you are comfortable working with. We will also ask you about the personal project(s) you have worked on that you are most proud of. From experience, this is the most important question for finding the right candidates. The best answers to this question contain links to code you have written yourself, as well as your motivations for completing this project and what you learnt from it.
If you apply by the 31st December 2017, you will be guaranteed to be considered for the main batch of interviews. You will still be able to apply afterwards, but many of the places in the programme may already be taken. Please note that you won't be guaranteed an interview, as it is up to the participating companies to choose which candidates they would like to interview.
Once you have passed the initial screening, we will contact you to ask you about your preferences for what companies you'd be happiest to work for. We will then try to match you to a company based on your preferences, as well as the startup's preferences for what kinds of candidates they would like to hire. If we have successfully found a match, we will reach out to you to arrange an interview with the startup we have matched you with. If you impress the company at this stage, you're in! We'll make sure that you receive all the relevant paperwork, and will send you further details about the accommodation and other arrangements.
Please note that successfully completing the initial application does not mean that you will definitely get an offer. Companies are free to choose who they decide to give an offer to. Likewise, if you are not happy with the company that we tried to match you with, let us know and we will try to match you with a different company.
We suggest to companies to approach the hiring process for interns just like how they would hire full-time engineers, so you may have to complete a technical interview, code challenge, and/or a "culture fit" interview. This is completely up to the company, and every company has a different approach to hiring. If you have any concerns about what you will be required to know for the interviews, don't hesitate to reach out to us once you have applied. We offer an interview guide that covers some recommended topics to prepare, which should help you in any technical interview situation.
The internship is 10 weeks long, and runs from 25th June 2018 to 1st September 2018.
If these dates don't work for you, let us know once you have applied and we will try to arrange different dates. Please note that we can't guarantee you a place in the accommodation at any times other than the ones mentioned above.
As part of the programme, we offer free accommodation in student accommodation in central London. You will get a single room for yourself, with a shared kitchen & social space so you get to know the other interns. Most of the companies taking part in the programme have offices less than 20 minutes travel away from the accommodation. If you have alternate living arrangements (eg. if you already live in London), please let us know as soon as possible, as we have to commit to a specific number of rooms several months before the internship begins.
You will be working as a software engineer in a tech team in one of the startups taking part in the programme. In the first few weeks of your internship, you'll generally receive a small "starter task" to get you familiar with the codebase, development and project management tools and methodologies. Once you're familiar with the work, you may be assigned a bigger project, and/or be tasked with writing features or fixing bugs on the company's products, working closely with the full-time software engineers, product managers and designers. You'll be writing code from day one & many of our interns' projects have ended up being launched in production.
Once you have successfully passed the initial application stage, we will let you know which companies are participating in this year's programme, and will ask you which companies you'd most like to work for. We can't guarantee that you'll end up being placed with the company that you've selected at this stage! It is always up to the companies to decide which interns they want to give offers to, and we may send your profile to multiple companies, including ones you have not picked. You can of course tell us about companies you definitely would not want to work for!
Yes! Your weekly salary will be around £400, on top of your free accommodation. Please note that our salary figure is only a suggestion, and companies are free to choose the offer they end up giving you. If you are not happy with your offer, please let us know and we will try to help you to negotiate.
HackCampus is a disability inclusive programme. As part of our commitment to disability and diversity, we partner with EmployAbility, the not-for-profit organisation that supports disabled students and graduates in their transition from education to employment. We would like to provide all candidates applying to HackCampus with the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability. If you have a disability, long term health condition, mental health condition, are on the Autistic Spectrum, or have any specific learning disability (including Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADD or other), and require any disability related adjustments for any part of the recruitment process, please contact our disability partner EmployAbility on Tel: +44 7710 070063 or by email at tab.ahmad@employ-ability.org.uk.