Software Developer Review
by Softwire
Rating
-
Skills
5.0
-
Responsibilities
5.0
-
Support & Guidance
5.0
-
Culture
5.0
-
Your Impressions
4.3
- 1. Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.
- 2. Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?
- How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
- How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
- How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?
- Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development
- 3. Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?
- Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was
- 4. How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?
- How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?
- How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?
- 5. What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?
- How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
- How would you rate the social opportunities?
- How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
- How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
- 6. To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?
- Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship
- Please rate how your experience met your expectations
- Please rate the future employment prospects at Softwire
- 7. Would you recommend Softwire to a friend?
- 8. What advice would you give to others applying to Softwire
Overview
In a team of 6 with 1 experienced trainer we built a React Native + Typescript app with Typescript and DynamoDB backend for a social impact startup called FairShare. The app was a shared chores tracker to help share household chores. My day consists of: writing frontend or backend code for current ticket, messaging on slack, helping others, peer reviewing others' code QA'ing code. There was a bootcamp at the beginning with talks.
Skills
Yes: Typescript and DynamoDB; Android emulator; React Native + Expo.
Responsibilities
Yes. We were making a completely standalone app and so we were given the chance to develop it from scratch. Our trainer was comfortable giving us the chance to write tickets, select tickets, plan and build things, just generally overseeing the project and reviewing our code. It was great that the whole team worked in person around a single pod of desks as we were able to help each other.
Support & Guidance
Lots. There is a full infrastructure for this. You have your trainer (manager), then also your mentor (separate, for pastoral purposes), employee reps, other trainers etc that you can all ask about things, whether they are technical or not.
Culture
Very friendly, welcoming, lots of fun events. Example: Board Games Night, Mahjong Evening, weekly badminton, football, climbing etc. Company picnic and sports day, intern darts social, regular pub trips, beer pong. Note that it's inclusive for people that don't drink but definitely drinking was a substantial part of a lot of these events.
Your Impressions
I enjoyed it to a great extent. I met new people, learned a lot and got the chance to experience real client work for the first time. I don't think there is much more you can hope for than that. The only negative aspect for me is that the company is not well known outside of software and (this is related) the pay is not as high as some others, but this is offset by the excellent culture.
Yes
Definitely apply if you want the chance to meet new people and learn lots, and have fun. Note that, insofar as I could see, the working body was mostly /not/ computing graduates but rather graduates of other degrees. Mostly Oxbridge. This is the only thing that maybe surprised me. The project will be a pro-bono project but this is good as less pressure.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Software Engineering
London
August 2023
