Category: Recruitment

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Neptune North – Software Developer

Software Developer – Newcastle upon Tyne

Who we are

Neptune North is a newly created Joint Venture between Oliver Wyman, a global leader in management consulting and part of the NYSE listed Marsh McLennan, and Rokos Capital Management (RCM), a global alternative investment fund manager.

We pride ourselves on employing and developing only the very best talent in the North East, ensuring unparalleled quality and expertise in every project we undertake so that we can surpass our clients expectations, solve challenging problems and deliver innovative solutions.

If you’re a great developer and great communicator who loves working on demanding initiatives and solving challenging problems that need to be delivered at pace then Neptune North could be the right place for you.

We do everything from our home in the heart of Newcastle City Centre, where we are building a team of exceptional people and an incredibly intellectually stimulating environment from which to work.

Our Culture

An exciting aspect of joining a newly created business at this stage is the opportunity to be in from the start and help define the culture.

There are things that we won’t compromise on though:

  • We are looking for exceptional talent with excellent communication skills
  • Collaboration is key, both internally and with our clients. We believe we do our best work when we are together and working hand in hand with business users
  • Curiosity is something we embrace and value highly
  • We want people who are positive and passionate, have proven problem solving capabilities, can work quickly to find solutions to complex challenges and unlock big opportunities
  • People need to be able to take ownership and be trusted to deliver, going the extra mile when needed
  • We want people who are highly motivated and have a high desire to learn

Responsibilities

  • Ownership of technical products and projects – our developers actively engage with a wide range of business functions to leverage their knowledge and exposure
  • Exercising judgement and acumen to understand the true business need beyond the stated requirements
  • Challenging current systems and processes to achieve common goals through technical excellence and innovation
  • Keeping abreast of industry and technology trends that will keep us at the forefront of what is possible
  • Having impact from day one – we empower and trust our developers to leverage their skillsets

What makes a great candidate

  • Excellent programming and technology skills, including an in-depth understanding of and recent programming experience in C#/.Net or other object orientated languages such as Java or Python
  • Experience working with SQL databases
  • Azure or AWS experience
  • A strong enthusiasm for programming and technology and an appetite to work in a dynamic and integrated team
  • An entrepreneurial nature, willing to take ownership and run towards problems and someone who thrives on innovation
  • The ability to own all aspects of development projects from start to finish
  • A desire to understand and solve business problems, build domain knowledge and increase market understanding
  • The ability to communicate clearly and professionally with our clients as well as team members
  • Financial Services experience a bonus, but is not essential
  • A minimum 2.1 degree obtained in Computer Science, or a related field, ideally from a Russell Group University

Why join us?

  • You can have an impact from day one – we empower and trust our developers to leverage their skillsets
  • Work on a wide variety of projects alongside exceptionally talented people, often closely correlated to world events and trends
  • Deliver demonstrable business value working hand-in-hand with the customer
  • Learn from industry experts on how financial markets and world economies work
  • Ownership of technical products and projects – our developers actively engage with a wide range of business functions to leverage their knowledge and exposure
  • Exercising judgement and acumen to understand the true business need beyond the stated requirements
  • Challenging current systems and processes to achieve common goals through technical excellence and innovation

Interview Process

  1. Coding Challenge – We would like to get a better sense of your programming potential. You will be sent some questions hosted by Codility to be completed at a time that suits you.
  2. Aptitude Test – You will complete a speed-driven aptitude assessment.
  3. Management Interviews – You will meet with members of our Technology Management Team. These will be a combination of technical questions and an assessment of team and cultural fit.
  4. Team Technical Interview – As a final step you will meet 1-2 other team members for a technical interview.

At Neptune North we are committed to cultivating a work environment that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion at its core. We believe that our people’s diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences will help us to attract, develop, and retain top talent.

We will not discriminate against any individual on the basis of their gender, age, race/ethnicity, identification as an LGTBQIA+ individual, religion, or disability (or any other characteristic protected by relevant local law).

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Employer Interview: Enigma Interactive

Enigma Interactive are an award-winning specialist digital development agency based in Newcastle and London. 

What placement roles do you offer to Computer Science Undergraduates? 

We offer 12-month Developer placements to Computer Science and Software Engineering Graduates as part of their degree course. 

What do students work on during their placement? 

The work that our Placements do at Enigma will be varied, depending on the team and projects they are assigned to. This means, at times, it can be quite complex and require some level of R&D, whilst at other times, it may involve refining, maintenance and support. 

Work can include: 

  • Implementation of front-end user interfaces and experience based on graphic designs 
  • Implementation of server-side logic and code based on technical / functional specification 
  • Design and configuration of data storage / database schemes 
  • Peer to peer testing and review of work delivered by teammates 
  • Client communications – including requirement gathering, involvement in weekly calls and Programme Board meetings 

What are the key skills you’re looking for in students applying for placements? 

For Enigma, placement students would be creative developers who have the following skills (or at least a selection of them) 

  • knowledge of object-oriented languages such as Java or C# 
  • Knowledge of front-end web technologies such as VUE, SASS or LESS 
  • Knowledge of web server technology such as Nginx or Apache 
  • Knowledge of database technology such as MySQL or Hibernate 

However, having a positive attitude is key for our placements – those with the drive to learn new technologies and frameworks and the desire to contribute to a creative and collaborative multi-disciplined team are important. 

We look for students, much like our other employees, who are passionate, not afraid to challenge, analytical and supportive. 

In a nutshell, students with excellent coding and problem-solving abilities, a real passion for digital technology (specifically web development) and with an inquisitive mind would be the ideal candidates for a placement with us. 

What support does Enigma Interactive offer for placement students? 

Our Placements are treated like all our employees in that they are given a full induction when they first start, along with a period of on-boarding into their role, followed by continued support throughout their time with us, as and when required.   

We integrate our Placements fully into their team, its projects and our business. 

We appreciate that they are still students, and there will be gaps in knowledge and skillset, so we assign a ‘mentor’ who is there to answer any questions and provide support and guidance. 

We know we have an obligation to support our Placements, not just as a means to ‘upskill’ them by providing technical knowledge and commercial insight, but to help them develop those all-important softer skills, as well as building their confidence and resilience. 

We encourage our Placements to get fully involved with the vibrant social scene that Enigma offers. Activities include sports challenges, book club, Pilates sessions, pub lunches, plus a whole range of ad hoc evening activities such as axe throwing, crazy golf, cheese tasting and Escape Rooms, to name but a few. We’ve even had a visit from some birds of prey at our studio!  This helps the students to fully integrate into our team and fosters a sense of belonging.   

Being a Placement in a business is often a significant change for students – they are in a new commercial environment, with new challenges and new people.  Given that, we are keen to support our Placements overall well-being and mental health – during their transition from student-life to the workplace, and throughout their time with us. 

Have any of our students you’ve previously taken on placement been offered a role after graduation? 

Yes – most definitely!  Since we began taking placements, several of our Newcastle University students have been offered permanent Developer roles after Graduation. 

Currently, we have three Developers on staff who started out as placements and another two who have been offered a full-time job when they graduate. 

How can students find out about the placement vacancies you have available? 

Each Autumn, we advertise our placements on the Newcastle University Careers site and also have the opportunity posted on the University Computing @ Newcastle: Employment and Enterprise blog. 

We liaise with the Placement Co-ordinator to make sure that the opportunity is promoted and announced to all 2nd year students who may be interested. 

Enigma also regularly attend the University Job Fairs where we promote our placements and  any graduate opportunities that we have open. 

Is there anything else you’d like to say? 

Enigma has been offering placement opportunities to university students for over 20 years and the benefits to both the student and to our company cannot be overstated. 

Placement students have brought Enigma talent, creativity, diversity and innovation. They have allowed us to expand our services, maintain the quality of what we build, commit to increased client work and hit deadlines, as well as contributing to overall business growth.   

Enabling our placement students to grow and progress as developers is not just of benefit to Enigma and our clients, but by extension to the whole digital sector. 

We want our students to thrive during their year with us – to really enjoy their time here, to gain exposure to a variety of technologies and to hone their skills (hard and soft) and, hopefully, return to us when they graduate. 

Previous Placement student Pietro Alessandro Uberti Bona Blotto at the Tech Talent event earlier this year. Read about Pietro’s experience in this blog: Enigma Placements: Pietro’s year as a Software Developer – News | Enigma Interactive
Previous Placement student Bradley McCarthy who spoke about his experience in this blog Enigma Placements: Bradley’s year as a Software Developer – News | Enigma Interactive

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Hartman Automation: Graduate Systems Engineer

Hartma Automation are currently looking to take a graduate engineer into the business from a computer science degree background, interested in software development at an industrial level for control as well as the latest IOT and IO4 type technologies that need higher level language skills.

Graduate-Systems-Engineer-RoleDownload

Email a CV in the first instance to Mark C. Hardy m.hardy@hartechautomation.com .

The post will be that of a Graduate Systems Engineer and we will be looking to give experience and training to the successful candidate in software development for the industrial control area.  As we operate in many industry sectors this is a wide and varied possibly experience where that not only development, testing , commissioning, and upgrades will be done and some local , national, and maybe even international travel could be required.

We prefer candidates that can also drive as this is generally how they will firstly get to work but also from work to the client sites.

We will provide a good opportunity for the right candidate and a competitive salary that’s negotiable.

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An Interview with the Careers Service

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We interviewed Sara Williams about their role as Careers Consultant for Newcastle University and learn exactly what they do, and how that can be a big help to you. 

Sum up your role in 10 words or less 

I help/facilitate students to achieve their career goals.

What are the official responsibilities of your role? 

Official responsibilities include: 

  • Carrying out appointments with students either via our drop-in system,  
  • Pre-booked online or in-person and longer 1-hour appointments for career guidance and mock interviews 
  • Delivering some of our central workshops.  

I also work closely with the academics and Employability leads in the schools of Computing and Engineering to understand student requirements and plan a calendar of events.  

Being up to date with what’s happening in the jobs market and sectors that might be relevant to our student groups as well as more broadly with recruitment trends and assessment methods is also an important part of my role. 

What are the unofficial responsibilities of your role? 

Unofficially I get involved with a wider remit of what the career service does whether it be helping out on University Open Days or at Careers Fairs and hosting employer-led events. 

“Have things on your CV beyond academics”

What are the top three mistakes you find that students make when it comes to employability? 

Not mistakes necessarily, more learning points.  

  1. I think maybe underestimating the recruitment process and how many stages you might have to go through for some companies and perhaps not being prepared for that. 
  1. It’s tricky as not everyone can commit to it but, having things on your CV beyond your academics can be really useful, not only so you can showcase a broad range of skills to employers but also as a learning process for you to figure out what you are good at and what you enjoy. 
  1. And I think number three is that students can often feel the pressure to just jump in and start applying before they have taken a step back to try and understand what they might be looking for in their next job, and more broadly, their career. 

What employability resource do you think is most helpful for students? 

I think one of the challenges is that there is SO much information out there and so many resources. I might be biased but our website is really comprehensive and covers a wide range of employability topics from planning your careers to what to expect at assessment centres and what you can do to prepare. 

Here is a link to view all those resources:  https://www.ncl.ac.uk/careers/. 

“Learn as much about the assessment process you will go through as you can”

Where in the process of getting employed (applying, interviews, assessment centre, etc.) do you think students struggle with the most? And how can they overcome that difficulty? 

I think each of the assessment stages can come with its own challenges and people can struggle with different things.  I think the key bit of advice I would give here is for students to try and learn as much about the assessment process they will go through either via speaking to someone at the organisation, looking at their website or looking at sites like Glassdoor. Armed with that knowledge they can then use the multitude of resources via the careers service to help them prepare. If I was pushed for something more specific, I think interviews can be really challenging as sometimes students may not have ever had a formal interview before. There’s a lot of advice and guidance out there on interviews and I’d also encourage students to use careers appointments to practice answers or talk through answers with a consultant. 

How many students make use of the employability team? 

Oooo that’s a tough one as it can be hard to define how students use the Careers Service. As an example, we conducted about 8,400 appointments last year and roughly 4,000 students came to one of our workshops. Beyond that the Careers Service also looks after processing for on-campus job opportunities, hosting employer events like our careers fairs, our curriculum team runs and manages a careers module, our placement team manages around sending 150 students out on placement and our start-up team also supports students in terms of building their own businesses or if they want to operate as a freelancer… 

“Students can make use of the careers service 3 years post-study”

If there was one piece of advice you want students to take away from this interview, what would it be? 

Make use of the careers service!  

We’re here to support you through your time at Newcastle and beyond (students can access us for 3 years post-study) and we offer impartial advice and guidance on anything to do with careers.