QA Engineer Review

I had some very technical features to learn and test and I very much enjoyed these as did I enjoy my Technical project on Server Room HVAC optimisation. However you do have to take the good with the bad (as is life), some features are untechnical and can be quite boring. I found these mostly few and far between leading up to release.

I was placed in the Nottingham office and felt like I was treated as a full-time member of the team. The team is small and friendly and I felt like I was making a good contribution to current projects.

My manager made sure that the work was interesting and in supply, she also listened to any concerns I had and gave me time for personal development and University Techincal project work. My Industrial Tutor was very knowledgeable and always gave his time to explain anything that was CFD or technical. I have absolutely no complaints about the level support I received.

In general, I was very busy. There was a time around Christmas that wasn't as busy which gave me some time to do some of my University technical project, but that didn't last long. My manager did very well at keeping the workload equal and I never felt pressured by my manager although occasionally there was self-pressure to reduce the load.

I was very surprised that student interns were given some very complicated features to test, this was a lot of responsibility to ensure that the feature not only worked but produced correct results. It was very rewarding to see the features you tested being released.

I was personally interested as an Aerospace engineering student in learning about CFD, its applications and how to use it to improve designs. This was achieved at the highest level and my industrial tutor was very good at teaching the technical aspects of FloTHERM and CFD. I do however think if you have an interest in CAD or industries other than Electronic Cooling or HVAC then you might not feel as satisfied. But I enthesis that my goals were very much fulfilled.

The atmosphere was always pleasant and although everybody is busy, nobody minds when you approach them with questions or queries. In general, the office is very quiet and can take some time getting used to, however, I loved it as that is how I prefer to work. Also to note is the dress code in Nottingham is pretty comfortable and most people listen to music on headphones making working conditions pretty relaxed.

The placement was very well organised in terms of getting settled in, training courses etc. But planning was done as a team (agile) and was quite interesting seeing work planned and executed over the course of a sprint. If anyone is interested in agile teams etc this might be a selling point for you.

Withing the first couple of weeks we are sent on a 3-day course to learn bout CFD and the main products we produce, this is on top of the first two weeks going through self-paced training. For the first few months or so we also had training every Wednesday on other products that we were not testing daily in case we were needed to test it later in the year. If we were assigned to something technical we were given opportunities to learn about it in a session or was given access to training material. I feel that I was well invested in.

The next release of FloTHERM looks very interesting and I would be excited to work on it.

There were three interns on placement in the Nottingham office and we made an effort to go out once a week, normally Wednesday to either watch a film or eat out etc. We also got takeout and thing at lunch time occasionally. I think it was a good balance. I can see it being more social if all the interns rented a single property.

Comparing to my University accommodation I got a nice size flat with ample living space, own kitchen large bathroom etc fo less than a small en-suite at uni. If you organise to live together with the other students I reckon you could halve that cost.

In the area that I worked, zero however from where I stayed it is an easy trip on the tram to Nottingham centre and nightlife there is great :)

Not really. Christmas Events and leaving parties, and of course the occasional Friday pub lunch.