Studying software engineering at Cardiff Met helped me kickstart my career at IBM
IN July 2019, I graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University with a BSc (Hons) in Software Engineering. This is probably my biggest achievement in life so far.
The idea of doing work experience to complement my degree had always appealed to me.
This was reinforced when I started my course, as from early on you are made aware of the benefits and encouraged to explore opportunities by the course team.
I knew how competitive getting placements can get, so I immediately began applying upon starting the second year.
Using the assistance available in the work experience module on my course, I applied to different companies across the country.
By Christmas of that academic year, I had sent around 40 applications with varying levels of success.
After a lengthy interview process including a competency-based application form, an IPAT logic test, an assessment centre and a final interview, I got an offer from IBM for its 12-month university placement. I was incredibly happy.
My job title was Hybrid Integration software engineer. I was in a team working on the IBM Integration Bus, which is now called App Connect Enterprise.
After a few weeks of introduction and buddying up with a graduate on my team who was showing me the ropes, it was straight in at the deep end.
IBM do not hesitate in giving you the responsibility to work on tasks that contribute towards the business. I believe this is important as it allows you to grow and learn quickly.
Our team followed the Agile methodology and we had daily meetings (Scrums) to delegate tasks and report progress.
My core role saw me complete a wide range of activities including product development and testing, and I had exposure to a variety of different technologies such as Jenkins, Docker, JavaScript, Java, Python and Git – to name a few. While I was working on testing, I was contributing to the testing framework and migrating tests over to be compatible with the latest product release.
A fellow placement student and I also worked closely with marketing to attend developer conferences such as Devoxx and FullStack.
The idea was to get developers out of the labs and talking to people outside of the company to promote the IBM Cloud and its capabilities.
I felt IBM was a great company to work for, and my experience there has been fantastic.
I enjoyed it so much that I will be returning to IBM in September as a graduate! I would definitely recommend taking the opportunity to undertake a year-long placement during your studies, as it can open many doors for you.
■ Read more about Cameron’s journey and apply online for software engineering at cardiffmet.ac.uk/clearing