Junior I.P Software Developer Review

I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the placement. The on-boarding process was well thought out, given the companies long history of employing placement students. The people at the company are friendly and approachable, and I was always able to get help when I needed it, whether it was technical or personal. There is no shortage of bright and motivated people at Cognito, so I felt that I was in a great environment to learn and further my own development.

I definitely felt valued at the company, at the beginning of the placement you're encouraged to give your input and ask as many as questions as possible to get you up to speed with the rest of the team. After a few months, you'll begin to be seen the same as any other of your colleagues. Towards the end of the placement, I truly felt like a permanent member of the team. I was certainly not afraid to give my opinion in technical discussions and felt like it was being adequately considered by others. There is not a culture of placement students being 'below' anyone - you'll get the same treatment as everybody else.

My manager was absolutely excellent from the start to the end of the placement. We had regular (fortnightly for the majority of the placement) catch-ups, where I felt completely comfortable raising any concerns and uncertainties. He was very supportive and I never felt like I had to hold my tongue or couldn't speak my mind. There is a one month overlap with the outgoing placement students to help on-board you into the company; my manager ensured that I was receiving adequate support throughout this time, and also ensured that I was paired up with a Senior Engineer after the old students had left. This meant that any technical difficulties that I encountered could be resolved quickly and I had a first port of call whenever I needed help.

At the beginning of the placement we were kept busy with induction tasks and programming challenges to get us up to speed with the technologies that the company uses. This kept me fairly busy, whilst I also began studying for an AWS Certification during my downtime. Beyond this point, once I had fully joined the team and was able to contribute properly, I was busy pretty much all of the time. There is always something that needs doing in the backlog, so you won't be twiddling your thumbs much at all! There can be some pressure when deadlines are coming up, as you'd expect in any business, but the work life balance is generally very good.

I felt like I had the right amount of responsibility at Cognito. I was trusted to make changes to production systems (with guidance at first, gradually moving towards working independently - fully independent by the end of the placement) and after the induction period, was working within the same sprint and backlog as the rest of the team, so I felt that I shared an equal responsibility. For the most part you are completely in control of managing your own time and workload, as any employee would be, so my level of responsibility felt appropriate.

I cannot overstate how much better I feel prepared for my final year! My programming ability, problem solving, knowledge and awareness of countless technologies has improved dramatically since finishing my second year at uni. I'm now completely comfortable writing Go code, deploying to AWS, I have a good knowledge of many AWS services and even managed to complete an Associate certification during my time at the company. There were plenty of opportunities to learn new technologies, get additional training and further my own personal development throughout the placement. All of this makes me feel infinitely more prepared for my designing and creating my final year project!

The atmosphere in the office is great. Working hours are semi-flexible, so you'll certainly not be scolded for turning up 10 minutes late! The people at the company are great, there is always a conversation going on and there and plenty of like-minded people with a variety of interests, so there's always something to talk about. In the R&D wing of the company, there is a big TV and a Nintendo switch with a large sofa right in the middle of the room, which is awesome for lunch time social gaming and to take a break when you're stuck on that bug that you just can't fix. Overall the atmosphere in the office was great, very casual and chilled out.

Cognito has a long history of employing placement students and it definitely shows. H.R provide an excellent first day to get to know the other placement students and to gradually settle you in at the company. Buddying up with the departing placement students works great, as you'll be trained from the ground up by people who were in the same shoes as you 12 months ago! The first 4-6 weeks are devoted to bringing you up to speed, learning the relevant technologies and refining your programming skills, so there's plenty of time to be eased into the job.

The company provided excellent training and development opportunities. Firstly, we were allowed an entire afternoon every fortnight for 'Innovation Time' - time to learn that new technology, language or skill that you think could be useful in order to improve your skillset and productivity. The company was also happy to pay for training courses such as the AWS Associate training course that I took, and even paid the exam fee for me! Later in the placement, Cognito also made a deal with a popular online training provider, so that all employees had unlimited access to thousands of online courses. Cognito is definitely a company that invests in its people, and that was evident on a number of occasions during my placement.

I'd absolutely consider future employment with the company, I feel like they value their staff highly - allowing working from home where suitable, flexitime, paying for employee training, providing a games console for employee use, free drinks from the fridge and so on. The people are great and I rarely saw any kind of friction between employees, everyone seems to get along really well and the work-life balance was spot on. Overall, certainly a company I'd be proud to work for.

The social scene was reasonable, we had once-per-week lunch outings to the pub or a restaurant which was something to look forward to. I stayed in regular communication with one of the other placement students and it was great to have someone to relate to and discuss how things were going. I met some awesome people who I'd go to the pub with after work on a Friday on a semi-regular basis. There'd always be someone up for a game of Super Smash on the Switch during lunch times, and the people in my team were generally great to socialise with.

Newbury is not the cheapest area, given that it's in the South it's to be expected. It's nowhere near as expensive as a city like London, but do be prepared to pay £500-600 (bills included) for a room in a house share depending on location. Pubs and restaurants are pretty reasonably priced, expect to pay £10-18 for a lunch outing (meal and a drink) depending on where you go. There are tons of pubs and restaurants in the area so there is plenty to choose from if you are on a budget!

Newbury definitely isn't the best place if you're in it for the nightlife! There are one or two clubs in the town centre which I never visited, and have heard mixed opinions about... There's plenty of pubs, a Wetherspoons and all of the usual places close to the train station, so there's enough to do if you just fancy a drink after work on a Friday. If that is your cup of tea, I'd definitely recommend finding accommodation as close to the town centre as possible. It'll put you about a half hour walk away from work, and you'll be local for when the pub outings do occur. I moved into a house share in Thatcham (a couple of miles out from Newbury) thinking it would be fine as I had a car, however in hindsight I do wish I'd found a place more central!

There were some opportunities but they were mostly created by the people I got to know within my team and the company ourselves. We would arrange pub trips, an occasional sporting event (Ultimate Frisbee, anyone?) and we'd also have a quarterly fun budget to use up - £50 per head to go out and do something fun with your team for the day. Aside from that, there wasn't many activities outside of work, maybe some room for improvement there.