Scientific Software Developer Review

Being a placement student at Mantid which was nominated for Best No-for-Profit IT Project at UK IT Industry Awards 2015 comes with a pressure, but however no such pressure was felt and I enjoyed every single moment with the fantastic co-workers, as well extremely satisfied with my contribution towards such a brilliant project.

felt as part of the team and with the help of cake day every Friday helped me integrated within the team in no time. With the help of my contribution I was able to have a positive impact with in the team, which helped me gain plenty of satisfaction.

Every colleague in the office is willing to help me as much as I want, at any time. In the early days I have had time when one of my colleague has spend hours just explaining how to get through certain tasks. The supervisor check up on especially if they feel you might have slowed down and also help you move on.

There has not been a day when I have not had something to do but at same time you can set your own pace on how you would like to work. You can go out grab a coffee or even spend some time in canteen as long as are still making progress and trying to moving ahead with work everyday.

As they say best way to learn is get thrown in straight away in to the business and that is exactly how Mantid works, I was coding from day one and solving issues/tasks with in weeks. With time as I matured my skills, I was assigned more and more responsibilities, mostly set my supervisor who is also tracking your progress and assigns tasks according to your level.

Even though I found it tough to start of with, but had I not been thrown straight in to coding/work I wouldn't have progressed so much. STFC is one of the three best science research company in UK, with all the top scientist that are going to be utilising Mantid software, the work I have been doing is advanced level and the coding quality is maintained better than any company out there. The coding, communication skills which I have learnt here will come in hard for rest of my life not only through degree. Mantid is big team which Having come here with any industrial experience, it was hard for me to

At Mantid office, everyone tends to get on with their work like they should. Even though every employee seem to be really involved and busy with their work, if there are any issues every colleague is approachable and will to help you until you have resolved the issue and instead of walking around office you can get any kind help with the use Slack.

The placement was nicely set up, as the manager knew what kind of project I will be working on and to be able to finish the project successfully. I was also sat with another placement student which also helped me settle down, as we were able to help each other out when needed.

My manager/supervisor spend lot of his precious time explaining issues and was even willing go over it as many times as I wished. I was introduced to the scientists which helped me integrate within the company slightly more, take control of my responsibilities, develop my communication skills and increase my scientific knowledge even more so by communication directly with scientists/clients.

I also have an option of applying for sponsorship, this would mean that STFC would pay for my last year at university and I get another opportunity of coming back at STFC to work with the Mantid team. Many of the previous placement students are currently on the graduate scheme and STFC are willing to take more graduates in future.

There were many social events being carried out through out the year, there is also an initial placement student mini event, where we all get to meet each other from different departments. Many of the placement students usually meet up at lunch time and catch up in the canteen or instead go play all kind of sports during lunch time, also with the help of Flexi you are able to take control how long you would like our lunch etc.

Doesn't apply to me as I used to travel from near London, which was around 40 miles and usually get to work within 45/50 minutes.

All students at placement have a facebook group from which they even organise event or nights they usually go out on. Students usually end up going out in Oxford and the night life in Oxford is decent.

There are many opportunities to get involved in activities outside work, usually organise parties, all kind of sports matches which includes football, rugby, softball.. etc.