Software Developer Review

My placement here was spend as a Software Developer and a Tester. I worked to help create their bespoke iPhone app. The placement allows a lot of freedom and chances to experiment with new technology. From the offset, i was thrown into technologies I had never even heard of, it was that bleeding edge! The placement isn't just shadowing other developers and is much more of a challenge, but definitely worth it!

As the team is only small, the team feels nice and compact. It means that everyone is close to everyone and you feel like you are a an integral part of the team. This means you feel really valued by everyone in the office.

Guidance and support from BEIER360 was more limited than that offered by other companies. To begin with, this can feel quite daunting as it's liek you are thrown in the deep end, but BEIER360 values self-teaching and the team is always on hand to get you on the right track and to help sovle any issues you may come across. For me personally, this has helped my education far more than being hand-held through problems and not given the freedom to actually experiment and teach myself.

Some days here have been really busy but usually there is a good balance and I don't feel overworked.The busy days have been around app delivery time where the whole team is on hands on deck.

i feel like I've been given a lot of responsibility within the team. Several times, i have joined the MD and his Personal Assistant and this made me feel very valued as a member of the team.

Due to this being a harder placement than most, after adapting to what was expected of me, I have learnt so much about new technology and things I never thought that I would get a chance as a part of y studies. It has massively helped in my degree, made me mature, and made me understand Agile concepts at a deeper level. All of this will go on to help in my degree and allow me to make a great final year project!

The atmosphere in the office was really good. I found myself enjoying every moment here and making a bunch of friends. Everyone is really friendly and provides and are always up to talk during breaks. Whenever I encountered an issue during my development time, any other developer was more than willing to help, all I had to was ask!

At times the placement did feel unorganised, it would often feel like we were bouncing from one task to another without too much focus. This, however, was soon rectified and I felt like there was a plan for me to improve my abilities over time and become more experienced, which was good!

The company invest in me and my abilities quite a bit. Last year, i was given the chance to attend the Annual Twilio Conference in London. This was the first time I had ever attended a tech conference and i got to speak to some many people in business like Google, and hear about all the new technologies they were working on. It really helped with my education.

I can't speak on behalf of the MD however BEIER360 is always looking to grow as they are a small business right now. From this I am sure that for the right candidates, the business will be more than happy to take on to future employment and to build a good working relationship,

in the business, there are monthly meals provided by the business with the local Sheffield Agile meetup which is always social. Every birthday is also celebrated with events and meals and this helps provide a good social scene. Finally, BEIER360 also puts on regular team building experiences which help build the relationships between colleagues too.

Sheffield is reasonably cheap to live at. if you live in student accommodation, you can looking at less than £100/week for accommodation and all bills (inc Internet). i chose to rent out a flat by myself so it was more expensive, I paid £600/month for a large flat close to the office with all bills. Cost of living is low for a city. Food from supermarkets is standard price with ALDI, LIDL and Iceland in walking distance. Larger supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Tesco cover the city too. Pubs and bars are also reasonably priced with many nights out offering £1 vodka mixers if that is what you are in to.

Nightlife, like in any student city, is very good. many clubs cover Sheffield which offer a variety of music for anyone's taste, with cheap drinks to boot. Everything in th city is within walking distance so you never have to worry about really expensive taxis home and if you do choose to get a taxi, an Uber to even the outskirts will cost less than £10 even on surge pricing.

As part of the placement, not many opportunities were offered for non-work related activities, offer than team building, birthdays and monthly meals and Agile meetups. I never felt like this was a problem though as the universities on our doorstop are full of societies of like minded students who do accept not Sheffield students into them!