Placement student talks about her experience - So Worth It!
Friday 12 November 2010
Katie Facey, a CIT graduate in 2009, has been talking about her experience as a placement student at Consult Hyperion, who then employed her:
I am a University of Surrey Alumni, who took Computing and Information Technology as my undergraduate degree course. Mine was originally just the three year course but midway through my second year I decided that the professional training year was too much of an advantage to pass up and switched to the sandwich course. Having now taken the placement year I feel I have gained skills that have without doubt made that decision one of the best I have ever made
Before taking the year in industry I was doubtful of my computing skills especially programming having never put them to the test outside of the university syllabus, unaware of where I wanted to begin my career in the industry, or even what options I wanted to take for my final year, and unsure how I would find a final year project topic that interested me and was within my skill level. Before getting a job for my placement my decision process for my final year options were not focused on what the topics were but more on which courses didn’t require me to be a confident programmer. Not the ideal situation. Luckily I got a job at Consult Hyperion.
When applying for a job I found it helped to have an idea of what I wanted out of the placement year at the end. During the year I found myself using odd bits of information and knowledge I had learned in my university courses as background information in new tasks. This helped to fill in the gaps when I didn’t initially understand how the theory was to be used. Other than improving my programming skills I learnt a great deal more about the industry, found where the theory I learnt in lectures was applied in practice. I learnt more about what area of computing I wanted to take my career.
I am happy to say that after the year at Consult Hyperion I had achieved my aims of improving my programming, building confidence and getting an idea of what career path I wanted to follow, I also managed to come away with a topic for my dissertation. As a consequence of this I had the skills necessary to feel confident in starting a job after leaving University. As a bonus I also got paid!
When it came time for me to decide on my final year options and dissertation topic, I not only had a project idea to build on from what I learnt at Consult Hyperion but could choose options that involved my interests even if they required programming skills. I had achieved my aims for the year and even came away with a job offer at the end.
Now a year after completing my degree I am still working happily at Consult Hyperion and continue to learn more skills and develop my understanding of the industry.