Software Engineer Review

I work within the Numerics team at Arm, which is all apart optimising common operations used in crucial software libraries so that they run faster on Arm hardware. This specifically entails writing backend kernels that implement optimised algorithms using Arm-specific SIMD. In particular, I was within the KleidiCV subteam which meant that I was optimising Arm's backend for OpenCV. On a day-to-day, this meant benchmarking how common image operations (like image flipping, rotate, etc.) was performing on consumer devices and then writing and optimising these kernels with respect to those results.

I was a part of the team, just like if I joined it as a typical job. I had the same workflow of other members, just that they were more lenient with me given that I was learning and an intern. I was able to work on any part of the codebase, suggest things to change, do code review for other people's patches, and so on. I could take on as much or as little responsibility as I wanted - it was very flexible.

I've developed: working in C++, code review processes, developer workflows, codebase tooling including CI/CD, learning a lot more about low-level optimisation and computer architecture
New skills: working with Arm-specific SIMD, low-level SIMD optimisation, learning about the Arm architecture, LLM workflows for learning a codebase efficiently, soft skills around talking to people and learning from their feedback

Weekly 1:1s with my line manager, who I was also lucky to have as a member of my team for a lot of it. He would give me feedback and also just generally give me extended rundowns of topics that I needed to understand what was going on, like talking to me about how Arm generally conceptualises the process of optimising performance, and how different parts of the ecosystem fit together. I also had a buddy (mentor) who was a part of my team, sat next to me, and was continually helpful throughout the entire internship. Everyone else in my office was also super happy to help me learn anything I needed from them, and would take time out of their day to give me advice. The code review workflow (and Slack) also was a great source of guidance. There's also a company-wide portal for sharing information about different things that is continually maintained that we use.

Very friendly. My line manager described it as "we don't micromanage people" which is accurate. There's deliverables which are signposted by Jira (our Kanban tickets) but you work at your own pace, and they're even understanding of having to work outside of 9-5 as long as you attend your meetings. You can do most meetings remotely too, and can generally work from home whenever you'd like and come in whichever hours you like as long as you get your things done. Team members actively encouraged me to leave at 5 on the dot so that I could keep up a work-life balance, and there was a lot of talk about avoiding burnout and recharging effectively by taking breaks from work.

I've had a great time, there's been a lot of social stuff too to keep the interns together even when we're busy working on our own things at different times. The work's just been fun too, so I've been finding myself going in each day even when I can work from home, just because I like the feeling of being able to be there at the office and see people.

Yes