Returning from a year in industry to complete their final year at Newcastle University, we interviewed Zach Smith about their time with Newcastle Strategic Solutions Limited. This is what they had to say:
Who did you do your industrial placement with?
Newcastle Strategic Solutions Limited
What was your role?
Software QA Tester
Why did you do a placement?
I did a placement in order to gain some concrete work experience in the software development industry, this is so I could hopefully gain an advantage over my competition when applying for jobs upon graduation
When did you start applying and how many places did you apply for?
I started applying around February/March time and applied for at most 20 people
How was the application experience?
Relatively straightforward, mostly just making sure my CV was up to date. I wrote a cover letter for each company I applied for and tweaked my CV in scenarios where different experiences might’ve been more useful
What, if any, help did you get from the university when applying?
The help I received from the university was mostly to do with their careers site, where companies could post placement opportunities. It was a huge help and ultimately lead me to get this placement
What work did you do over the course of your placement year?
I got the opportunity to do a range of things:
Programming automated tests for builds of NSSLs websites which introduced new features.
Testing on live servers of clients to ensure that everything was working as expected before deploying for the public to see and use.
I also had the opportunity to manually test features on the website to ensure that they met the accessibility criteria required.
I was working alongside teammates in a scrum team and would test whatever the developers would work on before giving it the seal of approval.
How was the overall experience of doing a placement?
Fantastic, I was treated really well during my time at NSSL, except for the odd stressful moment, I enjoyed it. One key value that I really appreciated working there was that my input was important and was truly taken into consideration when working on different projects even when it wasn’t about testing. I made a lot of new friends there during the early talent program that they ran too.
My experience here helped dictate what portion of computer science I would like to specialize in for my final year. Thanks to my time testing the accessibility of the website and new software developed, it has made me want to work in accessibility and hopefully work to improve how accessible software is to the general public.
Would you like to go back to that company after your final year?
Based on my experience? Yes.
With my current circumstances? No, I only say this because following graduation I’d prefer to be employed somewhere where I can live with my family whilst working for a while before I go settle in somewhere like Newcastle. To be honest though, if I was offered a high enough wage to cover the expenses of living alone easily then I probably would take something from NSSL.
Returning from a year in industry to complete their final year at Newcastle University, we interviewed Amy Jones about their time with Matillon. This is what they had to say:
Who did your industrial placement with?
My placement was with Matillion which is a data transformation/cloud data warehouse provider. It’s based in Manchester but has offices in a few places around the world.
What was your role?
Security Engineer Placement Student.
I worked in the IT and Security department across the Application Security and Cloud Security sub-functions.
Why did you do a placement?
I felt that getting some work experience under my belt would stand me in good stead when it came to applying for graduate positions because I would already know what to expect and I would be able to talk about what I’d done during interviews which hopefully would give me an advantage. Also, I felt that it would be easier for me to go into a graduate role if I had some time to get used to the work environment and already had a go at a security position while it was known to the company that I was still learning.
When did you start applying and how many places did you apply for?
I started applying at the start of the academic year and probably applied to 10 to 15 places. If I hadn’t heard back from Matillion in December, then I would have probably applied to more.
How was the application experience?
The application experience for Matillion was quite pain-free, you uploaded your CV and answered a couple of short essay questions and then after one interview with the CISO and GRC team lead, I was offered the position.
However, a couple of others I applied for were a bit of a longer, more complicated process. I did a lot of assessments during the early stages of application processes that were meant to gauge your soft skills and how your brain works, I did some coding tests, and some had video interviews before real interviews. Each company will be different.
What, if any, help did you get from the university when applying?
I applied during a year we were fully online, so I didn’t have as much exposure to the help as in normal years, however, I did read up on the placement advice on the website.
What work did you do over the course of your placement year?
Since Matillion’s security team is still fairly small, I had the chance to do a lot of varied work and get dug in straight away. Most of my time was spent on application security looking at things like threat modelling, ASVS, and DAST solutions. I got to know Burp Suite and OWASP ZAP really well as I explored vulnerability scanning and exploits with them. I was responsible for daily and monthly cloud security checks which gave me exposure to AWS. Throughout my placement I was able to become Matillion certified, set up and run a CTF for our team of security champions, be a Women in Tech champion, run a charity bake sale that raised over 500 pounds across Denver and Altrincham and set up and organise our security guild. I even presented a guild session on TLS and PKI.
How was the overall experience of doing a placement?
I absolutely loved my placement, if you are considering doing a placement year, I would highly recommend it. It helped that I had an amazing company to work for and awesome co-workers and line manager, but wherever you end up I think a year in the industry actually trying your hand at what you’ll experience once your degree is done is a fantastic way to boost your skills and stand out amongst graduate applicants. It lessened my worries about going into employment after university and it has set me up with fantastic connections for when I finish.
Would you like to go back to that company after your final year?
I would definitely love to go back to Matillion at some point in my career, whether that’s when I graduate or later down the line after a few years in a graduate cyber security role, I’m not quite sure yet. I would strongly recommend Matillion to anyone looking for a tech role though, they’re an incredible company that cares about every staff member and they offer remote or in-person work. Hopefully, I will get to return to Matillion eventually.
Returning from a year in industry to complete their final year at Newcastle University, we interviewed Sofia Trevino, this year’s NUCATS president, about their time with Microsoft down in London. This is what they had to say:
Who did your industrial placement with?
Microsoft
What was your role?
Cloud Solution Architect Intern.
For context, a Cloud Solution Architect is “a customer-facing role, owning the overall technical relationship and strategy between the customer and Microsoft. They lead architectural design sessions, develop proof of concepts/pilots, implement projects, and deliver ongoing refinement and enhancement”.
Why did you do a placement?
Initially, it was because of an Instagram DM. At the end of my first year in 2020, I remember sitting alone in an empty student accommodation building, not knowing when or if life would ever return to normal. I have always been one for planning, but a global pandemic was not something I had prepared for. Because of this, I had to sit down and re-think how I planned to prepare myself for the real world (whatever that may look like) after university. I decided to DM a few female engineers who were offering advice to people just getting started in the tech industry. One of the engineers was @herhelloworld, a woman who was also from the US and had also decided to do her computer science degree in the UK. Her biggest piece of advice to me was to find ways to get work experience. Other engineers I wrote to gave the same advice. They said to get involved, get my name out there, and get experience. Paired with the fact that I felt as though I had lost at least a year’s worth of university experience due to COVID-19, I knew the best thing would be to try and extend my program.
When did you start applying and how many places did you apply for?
I started scoping out my options as early as August 2020. I knew if I wanted to get a placement at one of the companies I wanted, I needed to start preparing early. And it paid off, because I got the first and only placement I applied to. I know this isn’t the case for most people, and I feel extremely lucky to have been offered the role.
How was the application experience?
The application process for me began the second I decided I was going to try for a placement. I knew how competitive it would be to get a job during a pandemic, especially without any technical work experience so far, so my first focus was to learn the best techniques for applying to jobs. I attended webinars, read articles, did virtual workshops, basically anything free I could sign up for, some even in the middle of the night due to time differences.
Then I heavily researched the first company I planned to apply to, which was Microsoft. I attended a handful of their free live events to get a better idea of what they were looking for in a candidate. Through this I got even more excited about applying because I felt the company aligned with my passions. Once I did, I didn’t expect to hear back at all. It was my first placement application, and I knew that I could have improved on some parts.
Sure enough, however, I got an email back saying I was invited to an interview. Similarly, to when I first applied, I did lots of research and practiced. The first interview was just about me, my passions, and being able to articulate my reasons for wanting to work in tech and at Microsoft. A few weeks later I was invited to the assessment centre, where I was interviewed alongside about 4 other candidates. We had to do a presentation on how a particular Microsoft product could help improve the lives of a chosen business/customer, then another “personality” interview, and then a group interview, where we had to put together a presentation on where Microsoft could use their budget to innovate a field of our choice, and which technologies we’d use to do that.
Less than a week later, I received a call saying I was being offered the role by two different departments.
Overall, the application experience was long and tiresome, but not without value. Although I only went through one interview process, the skills I learned prior to and throughout have been useful to me ever since.
What, if any, help did you get from Newcastle University when applying?
I got help from the university while writing my CV. I first went through the careers service, where I sent in my CV and got back a long list of things I could change. This helped get the ball rolling for me majorly. I also got help from my personal tutor, Laura Heels, who set up a virtual CV workshop. Finally, I attended virtual events put on by the university during employability week, where I made note of what actual companies were saying they were looking for in CVs.
What work did you do over the course of your placement year?
My placement year was a unique mix of learning and doing. The role I went into was not necessarily one that you can just jump into. As a Cloud Solution Architect (CSA), you’re having to learn parts of Azure inside and out, as well as understand Microsoft’s best practices. This takes more than a year to do and gain credibility if you’re starting from scratch like me. I’m very grateful that Microsoft knew that and embraced it.
I did a lot of shadowing across the year, in many different types of teams and industries. I had the freedom to explore the work that was being done in technologies that interested me. One of my most significant experiences was getting to help deliver presentations and a hackathon to start-ups specifically centred around environmental sustainability through AI.
Another was getting to do an internal hackathon based on Azure’s serverless capabilities! I got to work with a team across the globe who were all well into their careers but were able to learn from me and I from them.
This year was full of amazing learning experiences in the technical sense. In terms of the things I delivered, those were also just as valuable, but not necessarily centred around learning a specific technology. Here are just a few of the things I got to do:
I led philanthropic initiatives to raise money for Children in Need and Red Nose Day which built up my leadership skills
I produced and managed three virtual events for Women in Tech which improved my organisational skills
I worked with the education team to deliver presentations on smart city technology, and the magic of engineering and data in primary schools across London and near Reading which helped me gain better public speaking skills
How was the overall experience of doing a placement?
Overall, I feel like I had such a well-rounded experience. Not only did I get to experience the technical side of a large tech company, but also marketing, sales, leadership, and project management.
I made amazing friends, found inspirational mentors and role models, discovered more about my strengths and weaknesses, and realised where my true passions for technology are.
Sure, I may be biased but I think everyone should do a placement. With work experience being integral to securing a graduate scheme nowadays, I definitely feel like no matter where you do your placement, you will learn and grow so much in such a way that will propel you to so many amazing opportunities.
Would you like to go back to that company after your final year?
I would go back to Microsoft, yes. I resonate deeply with their core values, and I have the opportunity to do work that would really light up my soul for years to come.
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