Assistant Developer Review

We worked in three week sprints, with two weeks for development and one week for QA testing. Our sprints would be full of tasks where we could choose what to work on, and so usually I would run lots of our software locally to debug and add features to it. We also had sprint refinements and retrospectives over the course of the sprint, for future tasks and also for general reflectiveness.

I've learnt a lot about Typescript as well as C#. I've become a lot more accustomed to complex SQL procedures, and I've gained a lot of knowledge about Azure and how all the Azure services work, which will help me in the future. In addition, I also got to use lots of debugging tools during my work which will undoubtedly aid me in the future.

I took on large tasks on my own, supported by own developers but otherwise leading the development myself. I also oversaw the recruitment of future placements, which was almost completely in my hands! I was also entrusted that the functional / QA testing was sufficient and was not cutting any corners.

I was assigned to a mentor I could ask many questions (and I did), but I also felt very comfortable asking general, even basic questions in the larger developer chat, and I never felt like I was patronized or should feel bad for asking a basic question. Each refinement session we also spoke through every task in detail in case anybody wasn't sure at the time what the task may entail.

The company culture was very lovely! The team is quite small so it was easy and quick to get to know everybody, and I quite liked every developer I worked with, as well as staff members from other departments. It sounds cliché but it did feel like a family, often joking around during meetings and being quite relaxed provided deadlines were hit.

I've had a lot of fun during my placement. I've enjoyed being a developer, and furthermore I've enjoyed being a developer in a real environment, actually contributing to the codebase. I've gained a lot of knowledge that I think will make me stand out from other applicants for other companies in the future, and am very happy overall I chose to carry out a placement here.

Yes

Don't be afraid to put your personal interests on your CV - it makes you stand out as a person rather than just a worker. Also, don't be intimidated by the interview / application process - everyone is lovely and wants to make you feel as comfortable as possible, so just relax and don't fret too much about being as formal as possible (although I'm not saying you should be too informal)!