Close your eyes. Picture a stereotypical internship. Did you picture a coffee run? Well, not all internships are like that. Some offer quite a bit more.

Internships can go one of two ways: either the intern does little beyond office busy work, or they get thrown in at the deep end. At AOL, the internship programme falls squarely into the latter category.

Conor Thompson, an intern at AOL, gives us the lowdown on what it’s like to work on challenging, large-scale projects with the global tech giant, and tells us how the experience has helped him to grow his skills and career.

Words by Kirsty Tobin