Junior Software Engineer (IP) Review

My role was very similar to the other software developers in the team, I was taking active part in the daily agile meetings and planning sessions as everyone else. I spent most of the time working on the Customer Notification System, Middleware and a Management Portal, with the tasks varying from modifying the existing functionality to designing and adding new complex features and testing the system end-to-end.

I have gained a lot of new knowledge especially in working with cloud computing platforms, serverless applications and programming in GoLang. I have also vastly improved my Java programming skills gained at the university, learning a lot about production-grade applications, essential frameworks and deployment process. On top of that, I have learnt a lot about agile methodology, how it's used to manage projects and how the key agile ceremonies look like.

I was treated the same as other developers in the team, meaning there wasn't any placement-specific projects and I was trusted with the same level of production-grade work as everyone else. I never felt like the work I was doing was without a meaning, and it was great to see how it fit into the complete system when it was delivered to the clients.

While I was allowed to work on the same tasks as other developers, I never felt pressured into undertaking tasks, I wouldn't be able to complete and if needed I was provided with a lot of help from the people in the team and outside of it. Everyone at the company was very welcoming and patient, always willing to answer questions about designs and system workings.

People at the company are friendly and welcoming, which creates a relaxed atmosphere, but they're also professional about the work they do and everyone does their best to deliver high quality products. As the atmosphere at the company is relaxed, developers are always welcome to take a short break if needed, which is important in the software engineering field.

I enjoyed the placement a lot, it exceeded my expectations and is definitely one of the best decisions I made about my studies and career. It provided a number of opportunities to learn and develop my existing skills, in the areas I was already familiar with but also completely new ones. On top of that, it was also great time in terms of meeting new, more experienced people in my team and outside of it.

Yes

Apply as soon as you can, and find out about the products the company is working on. Don't stress about the assessment centre, as everyone is very friendly and focus on teamwork where possible. You'll have onboarding time when starting at the company, so just make sure you're comfortable with skills/technologies you already know and learning new stuff will be easy.