Software Engineer Industrial Placement Review

On a day to day i am a developer that writes new code for various apps in my division. Apart from that I also have to be proactive and help maintain those apps by helping users with any issues or reporting any bugs that are found. I get to dip my hands into many pies such as working with a range of tech stacks on different apps, creating CI/CD pipelines and also demoing proof of concepts to other teams.

I have learnt how to communicate more effectively such as learning to communicate my wants and needs to others, letting my team know when I am struggling with a task and when I need help as well as presentation and public speaking skills. Apart from this, I have learned time management skills such as going to meetings on time and settings my own deadlines and meeting them. I have also learned a lot more about different technologies, new programming languages and how to write robust, tested and production ready code.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. I was the sole developer and maintainer of my own app which gave me practice on how the life cycle of a new project works. Being the developer on a project has also taught me how to take into consideration my affect on stakeholders of the app as well - for example how a crash/bug in my code may affect users. I had enough responsibility for me to learn things at a fast pace whilst also having the freedom to come up with and implement any ideas that I had.

My line manager was the first line of support for me in all situations and he equipped me well to work in our teams environment. Apart from that, my team members were always open and friendly. I approached them when i needed extra help with my tasks. Outside of my team, I found other people very approachable and eager to answer questions that I had. HR was also very supportive and quick to respond to any concerns I had during the year.

The general atmosphere was quite open and friendly. I enjoyed the team I worked with and they made me feel very welcome. The company culture was also good - i particularly liked Nomura's openness to different cultures. I liked to see how the company gave importance to diversity.

I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.

Yes

Be inquisitive, willing to learn and show your enthusiasm for whatever field you apply to. Make sure you learn to work well with others and focus on your communication skills as well as your harder technical skills.