Year in Industry Placement Student - UI Development Review

I have really enjoyed my placement. It has helped me gain valuable experience in the workplace of a large IT business. My development has been valued and this has helped me improve and learn my skill set. I have worked on real projects, meaning that my time has been spent constructively in a way that will be valuable moving forward in my career.

I felt very valued by my colleagues. My development has been valued by them, which has helped make my experience more enjoyable. I have been encouraged to ask questions, regardless of how "stupid" I felt they might be. I felt valued not only by my supervisor and immediate colleagues but also people higher up the chain, such as leads and project owners.

I was given plenty of support and guidance. I never felt afraid to ask questions, query something, or ask for help. This was really useful. It enabled me to work in a very pressure free manner. I was able to work to the best of my abilities, without any worries over difficulties.

On a normal day I had a good amount of work to be doing. I was involved within regular projects, rather than given "student tasks". This meant that I was busy on actual work that will be used by genuine transaction customers in the future. These projects were broken into 'sprints' and the sprints into 'tasks'. Tasks were picked up and completed by myself and 5 other developers during sprints. It was very unusual for there to be nothing to be working on. Support from my fellow developers also meant that I very seldom felt like I had too much on my plate or stressed from the amount of work. I found the balance very good. The only negative was it did take a little while to start working on these projects, but this was mainly from a personal development point of view. I spent the first few months getting used to Maersk's very complex IT infrastructure and developing relevant skills before starting to work on actual projects. While this period of time was less busy, it was important.

I was treated as a developer on a project, and I feel I was given a very similar amount of responsibility to them. I felt like my contribution and opinion was as valued and respected as anyone else's. I was given responsibility to work independently on tickets, while knowing I could speak to colleagues about work if need be.

The skills I have used at Maersk will 100% benefit in my degree and beyond. I have used many web development based skills that I already had from uni, and have also learn more skills and technologies. I have also gained valuable experience of working in an agile software development team, partaking in agile ceremonies with the rest of the team. These are skills that will be very useful, particularly, in my opinion, once I have graduated and am looking for UI development jobs. Agile development is very popular at present, so having experience working in an agile team will be valuable.

Very good. My only uniform in the office was "smart casual", meaning most people on my floor weren't dressed in business attire. This made for a more casual and relaxed atmosphere than I expected. This was good, I felt it encouraged conversation between colleagues.

At first, there was an amount of confusion over who and what I was working on. I was originally put with a team which aimed to train people on agile fundamentals. This was not technical at all and wasn't what I wanted to be working on. Thankfully I was able to voice this and move my way over to a development team. I spoke to my supervisor about this question as I was answering it. From his point of view, he was given very little in terms of what he was actually supposed to be doing with a placement student, if I was just going to be chucked into a team, if I was meant to building up to it, etc. He was more or less left to work it out for himself, which must have been frustrating.

While the company didn't invest in me specifically, I was welcome to join all training and development opportunities open to full-time members of staff. This included training on activities relevant to the work I would be doing, but also more broad training, such as a talk on shipping basics. This was not only interesting but also helped put some of the work my team and I was doing into perspective.

Any opportunity for future employment at Maersk would be one I would be very interested in. I have thoroughly enjoyed working at Maersk and would be very interested in returning in a graduate or junior role once I have graduated. That would be a very exciting opportunity, should it happen.

I lived with 2 of the other placement students, so got on well with them. I also got on well with other placement students, and spent time with them outside of work on multiple occasions. There was a good social scene with other colleagues as well. Maersk run sports activities on evenings for members of staff so I was able to get on well with colleagues via that.

I was based in Maidenhead, Berkshire. This location is in the South of England, so I found the costs notably more expensive than Sunderland, where I went to uni. I also noticed, however, that the prices were notably lower than in London. I found that I was able to afford my rent and still have money left over to do things with my wage. I traveled a lot for football at weekends, and was able to comfortably afford this and my rent from my wage.

Maidenhead does not have a big nightlife scene, however this wasn't much of a surprise. Going to London on the train is an option, however the disadvantage of London is the price. Me and some friends went to Reading, which is much closer to Maidenhead than London and also a lot cheaper. Reading has lots of students so has a decent nightlife.

I was welcome to join in with activities Maersk ran as much as full time members of staff were. Maersk run sporting activities on evenings for members of staff at no cost, so I joined them regularly. Maersk also ran a Christmas Party for their staff members at no cost, which was excellent.