Software Engineer Review

My role was a software engineer working in tax technology. I wrote microservice-based applications to calculate tax rates and reportability. I primarily worked in Java with the use of the Spring framework and functional programming concepts such as Java streams, optionals and vavr. I also did some programming in Angular with Cypress used as a testing framework. Around once per week we had requirements discussions with our stakeholders and translated those into stories that we completed on an agile basis.

The main skills improvements I have made have been in my programming. I am now able to use many functional programming techniques to my advantage to write cleaner code. I am able to start writing applications from the ground up with a test-driven approach, and also take into account behaviour-driven testing from cucumber tests written alongside our users. As far as the business aspect, I am now able to confidently hold meetings with stakeholders to gather requirements and present the outcomes produced.

From the beginning of my internship I believe I have been given full responsibility of the code I write and I was integrated immediately with the wider team, working on the same projects as them. I am able to pick up any user story from the backlog of work we have and produce a solution. I am able to critique code from other people in the team in PRs, and I have been encouraged to make my opinions heard in requirements discussions.

I received a lot of wide-ranging support during my internship. We engaged in pair programming for each and every story so I was always able to learn and ask questions if there were any parts of the code I didn't understand. From the beginning, I have been able to set up meetings with anyone from my team or even many members of other teams within the organisation to ask any questions I have about the functions within the organisation.

The company culture is quite good on the whole. I have a very good team of intelligent people who are always willing to help out. I was strongly encouraged throughout to ask as many questions as I felt necessary to improve my understanding and have never felt that I have asked a question that was received particularly poorly. However, at least in my team it seemed that many people work late and I was witness to a few comments from colleagues about other colleagues leaving at 5 o'clock on the dot.

I think that my placement has been by far the most useful part of my degree and I have learnt far more about my chosen career than I ever did at university. My team has been fantastic to work with and I have felt comfortable around them since the very beginning and I feel I have grown fairly close with certain members of the team. This has been one of the greatest opportunities I have had for a number of reasons, and I am very glad that I've done it.

Yes

Make sure you are happy to go into the office at least 3 days per week as that is the expectation. For interviews and assessment centres, I would just try to be calm and not really worry as they aren't actually very difficult or confusing. I would take my advice with caution as I know that not all teams in J.P. Morgan are as good as mine was, but I think that the placement was the most valuable thing I have ever done and I would urge anyone to take one up.