Are you a smart, enthusiastic computer science student and developer, who’s looking to work in a fast paced creative digital agency on a wide range of digital projects from eComm to games, apps to business-critical digital applications?
Yes? Then this is a great opportunity to join Enigma’s award winning team during a paid 12 month placement starting in summer 2023.
Headquartered on Newcastle’s quayside, Enigma are a 36 strong team of creative developers, inspiring designers and digital innovators. We work with some of the most ambitious clients from around the UK and design and build market leading web, mobile and bespoke digital applications for them.
Being a developer at Enigma isn’t just about being a great coder, it’s about collaborative problem solving, learning new techniques and skills and pushing the boundaries of technology. At Enigma, you’re not the ‘geek in the corner’, you’re at the centre of everything we do.
We interviewed James Huish about their time on placement last year with General Electric Healthcare and the struggles with online application processes. Here is what they had to say:
Who did your industrial placement with?
General Electric Healthcare
As described on its website, General Electric Healthcare is a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and digital solutions innovator. They enable clinicians to make faster, more informed decisions through intelligent devices, data analytics, applications and services, supported by its Edison intelligence platform.
What was your role?
Software engineer in the Medical Imaging Team
Why did you do a placement?
I wanted experience working with programming in an actual job, both to learn and to help with getting a job after graduating
When did you start applying and how many places did you apply for?
I applied for 3 or 4 and had a few video interviews but got rejected, I had more or less given up but then a lecturer posted an advertisement on Canvas, and I applied through them.
How was the application experience?
The applications for most were frustrating with 1-way video interviews where I had to record myself and got no feedback. In the placement I got, I just had one video interview, but it was actually with the people working there, rather than the other 1-way recorded interviews.
What, if any, help did you get from the university when applying?
None, although the placement I got was advertised through a post on Canvas.
What work did you do over the course of your placement year?
It took a long time to get much work but when I did it was a variety of things, for example, porting an application from windows to Linux and adding features, helping to bug fix and improve an application in development, and managing a Blinded Image evaluation (not coding related).
How was the overall experience of doing a placement?
Good, there were times I did not have much to do and also, I was not in a software team. The people were great, and I had a great experience but would have learnt a lot more if I were in a team with more software engineers.
Would you like to go back to that company after your final year?
I would, depending on available roles and location.
Returning from a year in industry to complete their current year at Newcastle University, we interviewed Finn Rea about their time with Roche. This is what they had to say:
Who did your industrial placement with?
A Swiss pharmaceutical company called Roche
What was your role?
Data scientist
Why did you do a placement?
Within the tech industry, I saw that experience seemed to be more valuable than qualifications. I really wanted to gain an edge when it came to applying for jobs at the end of my degree, so doing a placement was a must for me. I also want to take the opportunity to see what it was like to work in the healthcare industry and whether this was something I would want to pursue after university. It was also an opportunity to learn about the application process and how to find jobs.
When did you start applying and how many places did you apply for?
I started from the end of October to the end of December, but then university got busy, so I stopped applying for a while. Then I did most of my applying in February. I applied for 30 roles and after each application, I logged what stage I was at with that role in an excel sheet to help keep track of everything.
How was the application experience?
Initially, I found the process exceedingly difficult, not getting many responses or using a good interview technique while also trying to balance it with university studies. I knew that by reflecting and improving on my CV and gaining some interview practice through a couple interviews, I would be more likely to progress further with job applications and hopefully get a job.
I also didn’t take the first opportunity that came to me but waited to be able to pick from a couple of options.
What, if any, help did you get from the university when applying?
I attended a couple of CV writing sessions provided by the careers service. I did also take inspiration from and ask advice from the CVs of other students on my course, which was a massive help.
What work did you do over the course of your placement year?
I mostly worked on exploratory data science projects. Looking at the newest technologies and methodologies within data science. I also had the chance to talk at conferences about things explored at the company.
How was the overall experience of doing a placement?
I would strongly recommend to anyone to try and do a placement year. I gained a lot of experience and learnt a lot while there. I also got to see how a big company worked, and how it worked across multiple different time zones.
Would you like to go back to that company after your final year?
My company has offered to pay me to do a master’s apprenticeship at the company, something which I am planning to do.
Job Title: Augmented Reality Laboratories Location: Newcastle University, on campus – Herschel Annexe Pay Rate: £16.21 per hour including holiday pay Advertising Dates: 20 October – 29 October Role Overview/Background: This internship is being offered as a casual work opportunity by the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics at Newcastle University and is being facilitated by the JobsOC team in the Careers Service. This internship is expected to be for a total of 100 hours, working approximately 20 hours per week between November and December. The internship is open to all Newcastle University students; however, Physics, Engineering or Computing students would be particularly suited to the role. Laboratory skills courses are crucial in helping students gain hands-on experience of doing experiments, better understand the theory behind them, see practical applications of their knowledge and skills, and provide a basis for future employment. In cases of lockdown, shielding, inability to take up residence in Newcastle, limited facilities, space, personnel, University hours, to address the issue of equality of opportunity that students face, online experiments are needed. To increase users’ perception and interaction with the real experiments, a sensation that an activity is handled as if students would be physically on-site, the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics will introduce augmented reality (AR) techniques in the laboratory.
The intern will participate in the design and development of AR physics experiments. Planned activities include thinking, creating, programming and enjoying.
Key duties/tasks: Mechanical design and building of experimental setups to suit their remote operation Building electronic circuits using Arduino’s to connect mechanical parts of setups to computers Researching, developing, evaluating, implementing and testing AR online labs Working in a small interdisciplinary team Discussing progress on a regular basis Participating in project planning
Person Requirements Essential Skills/Attributes: Enthusiasm and desire to develop AR online labs Ability to work collaboratively Creativity to find solutions for AR online labs Teamwork Initiative Time Management Organisation and Planning Attention to detail Problem Solving Desired Skills/Attributes: Familiarity with AR development Experience programming in LabView
Degree discipline To be eligible to apply you must be a Newcastle University undergraduate/postgraduate student registered on a programme of study throughout the 2022-23 academic year. For full details of eligibility see the Working on Campus website. Students from all degree disciplines are welcome to apply; however, the role would be particularly suited to Physics, Engineering or Computing students. Newcastle University is committed to being a fully inclusive Global University which actively recruits, supports and retains staff from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all our employees and the community they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices.
How to Apply Apply online via the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/sukqvUPyv9 For further information about the role contact Aleksey Kozikov, Lecturer in Physics, aleksey.kozikov@newcastle.ac.uk
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