WSSE Undergraduate Engineer Review

For the first ~5 months of my placement, I worked on my own part of a bigger project. I worked mostly in MATLAB & Simulink (which was not that usual for the department). I then spent the second half of my placement mixing between programming in C# and C++ (both more common), writing tests for the same project, and supporting the project's tester. Mostly worked 3 days from home, 2 days in the office.

Developed greatly on my existing programming skills. Learnt a lot about software development cycle and the different stages. Improved presentational and communication skills through fortnightly 30-min talks to the department which I hosted or contributed to 3 times. Great first experience in an office and working all day from home.

The first 5 months of the placement were working alone on a vital component for a specific project (of which only about ~20% was done when I started working on it). Second half was writing the test specifications for the same project and had to confer with the lead developer and project head (for our department) on requirements and whether they were being robustly tested in the test specs. Also had to support project tester.

Was sort of thrown in at the deep end but I believe that was much more valuable for me as I best learn on-the-job. However, lots of support and guidance were offered and line manager provided much help whenever it was needed with the programming, and help with general work life (setting up WFH for example) was always provided by TC (person in charge of your placement at the company).

Worked from home for 3/5 days a week, and was during peak of COVID so didn't get to experience the full company culture (as it would've been pre-COVID). But from what I did witness, was professional (as I assume big companies normally are) but not in any way exhausting. Lots of initiatives and commitees available. The department tried to organise what they could given COVID (such as christmas quiz over zoom).

Very very much enjoyed my placement. Was part of a great development team and great department. The work was enjoyable, some tasks here and there such as documentation and technical documents which you do not look forward to, but is all part of the software engineering lifecycle and is to be expected. Am looking forward to going back on the graduate scheme.

Yes

The assessment centre is not too bad and is strengths-based (as opposed to knowledge-based). Be sure to show you're capable of adapting to a situation and understand that working and communicating well with your peers at the centre during the team exercises is better than trying to stand-out and drown everyone else out (save that for when you have to do the individual tasks).