Hardware Design Placement Review

The placement was very enjoyable, as the work was challenging and the team was fun. Although the specifics of my work were not as enjoyable as the project I was working on last year, the whole dynamic, combined with the knowledge that I was contributing to a product that would be being used by a customer by the end of the year, made this a very enjoyable placement.

After getting my bearings, I felt I was able to speak confidently about the project, and start asking difficult questions and making a meaningful contribution to meetings. As my insights were taken seriously and used to improve the project, I would say I definitely felt valued by my colleagues.

I was given appropriate training at the beginning of my placement, and access to the necessary technical documents meant that I was up to speed as quickly as possible. If I had a question, I always knew who to ask, or at least who to ask about who to ask. Guidance was always readily provided, and I never felt like I had to 'suffer in silence' when I couldn't progress.

Most of the time I was fairly busy, and generally knew what needed to be done next. Occassionally, I had to wait on some other development before being able to proceed, and at one stage, due an issue being worked on in the US, this became a little tedious. However, I was still able to find things to do during these times (often helping to fix the blocking problem), and it was only in the final week of my placement that I found I had little left to do (which I would say is ideal). I would not say I was too busy at any time.

I was responsible almost entirely for the aspect of the project I was working on. As this took the form of directed testing, and the full verification of the project was, as it turned out, very important, I would say I was given a fair amount of responsibility. However, I was never put in a position where I could cause serious problems if I made a mistake (as far as I realised!), and I was never responsible for other people.

During my placement, I gained a lot of knowledge about the specific computer architecture of the project I was working on, which may prove useful in my coming studies, for example in next year's Advanced Computer Architecture module. Additionally, this knowledge will likely be of assistance after graduating, in any CPU-related job I may then follow. I also learned a new programming language during this placement, which may prove useful in the future. However, due to the particular quirks of this language, I hope this knowledge doesn't get used too frequently! The tools I used during this placement were very similar to those used last year, and so no significant skills were developed in this region. Additionally, as the project I was working on was pretty implementation-specific, I would not expect my knowledge of this field to have particularly far-reaching applications.

The team I was working with were all fairly-recent graduates, and so everyone was like-minded and friendly. We all got our work done and knuckled down as appropriate, but the atmosphere was very fun, with a lot of joking and free treats being contributed whenever members went on trips. This team was definitely the most enjoyable I've yet been a part of.

When I first arrived, most things had been set up for me already, and only some permissions and accounts needed to be sorted for me, which was finished within the first week. The work I was to be involved with was laid out immediately, and managed to adequately fill the entire placement. On the whole, I would say the placement was very well organised.

I didn't feel I needed any particular personal training and development to succeed during this placement, and none was provided.

I feel like it is pretty likely I will receive a job offer from the organisation when I graduate. I am returning to the same company and department next year, and a large number of graduates are employed in similar roles, so employment prospects in that area are very good.

I don't think I was added to the placements and interns email list until about halfway through my placement, so I was not really aware of anything being organised for most of the time. There was a pub trip and a lunch meet up that I was able to join, but no real social scene amongst students like I might have expected.

The cost of living locally was pretty high, although this was in part due to the short supply of short-term tenancies in the area. From others working at the company, it sounded like the whole area was fairly expensive, and the next best area to live was London, again expensive. It is probably possible to live further away from London and commute into work to reduce living costs, and I shall be looking into this next year! Cost of socialising was low, due to there being little to do in the area!

Small rural towns don't tend to have much in the way of nightlife. I you wanted anything, you had to take a train into London.

There were a lot of hackathon-type-events advertised during my placement, and in particular there was the opportunity to get involved with a workshop for encouraging young people's interest in electronics. This involved a robot building and programming event, entirely run by the company, and which my line manager was directly involved with organising. I am probably going to try to get involved with this event next year.