Test Engineer Review

I really enjoyed the placement as it gave me a completely new experience. I enjoyed doing Show and tells as it was a chance to help improve my presentation and public speaking skills. The learning aspect was the most enjoyable. Learning how to do regressions and running investigations, running automated tests. However I found learning how to code especially difficult and I didn't feel like I was given sufficient training. Although I wanted to learn, I didn't enjoy learning coding due to the difficulty and little direction with learning.

I acknowledge that my job was important for the company but felt like my skills set that I brought were low and were of low value because my activities consisted of simple tasks. Some colleagues really appreciated the work I did for them, testing their code changes and helping them with other things. I think the lack of interaction with some members of the company meant the work I did had little relation to theirs so it was difficult to have work acknowledged this way. Most colleagues were really kind and I would like to say 1 or 2 felt like big brothers and were always helpful and supportive.

The independent training on C# was difficult as Pluralsight videos didn't seem to teach based on a blank slate. Although given a mentor, I was a bit shy of asking for help as I didn't want to waste his time. I also felt that little direction was given to help my learning. I was told to watch certain videos from pluralsight courses and then i made notes of questions that i would ask in my next meeting with him. I think questions should have been addressed straight away so that the learning could push forward. My manager was always really supportive and helpful. He has taught me a lot with work mentality to help me not get frustrated/upset with difficult work which I really appreciate.

Some days were extremely busy other days I could work at my own pace and do my own independent learning. I didn't like to feel too busy as it made me stressed. The work was mostly manageable.

A lot! Initially given to look after UI tests and raise bugs for failing tests.. investigating failures was also my responsibility but felt like as a new intern it took me a long time to investigate a failure, sometimes not being able to come with a conclusion. Also looked after other tests in the pipelines. Licensing was only tested by me, and I was lucky enough to be taught about licensing as many others in the office do not look into licenses. Writing sample system documents and validation reports going to customers meant that I was responsible for delivering high quality and presentable documents. I also felt that bug testing were really essential for the software development and to help the business get more happy customers.

In terms of skills I learnt, I feel like they are quite specifically applicable to software development (regressions, bug testing). Writing reports was really nice and I hope that my writing skills have improved. Skills that I am proud to take with me beyond studies are my presentation skills (which still need some improving) and also being able to control emotions when dealing with work. I will definitely be reminded of this placement when I hit a wall I will remember that struggle is growth and to focus on the growth and efforts.

Mostly good

Pretty good. Test plans and sample system documents were asked to be executed in a good amount of time leading to release. The training bit was a bit less organised. When given talks by many members I felt like my terminology wasn't complete early on and so my understanding of things from these trainings were of poor quality. Quite soon after some C# training we had to do a lot of testing work and over this period of time I quickly forgot a lot of the new things I learnt. Other basic training from the previous interns were better as it was easier to ask questions, they seemed to be more informal when giving training which made them more approachable.

Plural sight courses. I had a mentor to help me, with weekly meetings. He asked me to spend an hour a day on learning C# which i failed to commit to. Eventually the weekly meetings were terminated as my development wasn't improving.

I'm not too sure... I don't think software development is for me. I felt like my job quite basic and by 10 months felt quite bored of my activities as I felt like it was getting too repetitive. I'm not sure if I would be good at any of the other roles, it would have been nice to get a taster of some work RDI do.

Yes, every lunch the interns would eat together and we had amazing conversations. Many of the colleagues were nice to talk to too!

my rent was £500 per month and the local gym was quite expensive i think around £40 pm.

Small town office in countryside. There wasn't much of a nightlife, but there was a winter fun fair in Towcester.

yes the company held weekly badminton sessions. I regret being too shy to join them.