Charlie, a Sixth Form student from the Wirral, spent a week at Jamescape on a work experience placement as part of his studies. Over the week, Charlie got a taste of what being a software developer with us is like and here’s a recount he wrote of the week:
Hi, I'm Charlie. I am currently studying at Calday Grange Grammar School Sixth Form, working towards A-levels for Maths, German and Philosophy & Ethics (or Religious Studies). Although I couldn't study A-level Computer Science at my school, I am still passionate about working towards a career in either Cyber Security or some sort of software development. Luckily for me I discovered Jamescape right on time for my work experience placements, so I got the perfect start I wished for!
Starting Monday, I worked through the recommended Codecademy "Introduction to PHP" course to set me off with the basics on what I would need for my week-long project. The course itself was clear and concise, and its similarities to Python and JavaScript made it exceptionally simple for me to learn. Right after this, I was plunged into the deep end - tasked with creating a backend system for managing staff achievements within the company. It was certainly difficult, but the difficulties I experienced proved to be learning opportunities and were overall invaluable experiences. On top of this, the team themselves were extremely helpful, always able to assist if needed and helped me reconfigure some of the set-up to better suit Windows. Although I didn't fully understand the intricacies of the language, I managed to get some code working and felt quite proud after my migrations to Docker worked without errors. By the end of the week, I had tackled enough roadblocks to feel quite accomplished, especially when I figured them out using independent research.
Furthermore, I was invited to team meetings where I could experience what it is like to work in the ecosystem of a tech company, as well as having the chance to showcase some of my own work that had otherwise been left to be forgotten on my computer. Although I didn't understand a lot of the high-level topics that were being discussed, they were still an incredible time and all in all as enjoyable as they were intriguing. I had also been given lots of great advice for my own career-to-be, such as CV building tips, employability notes and even received advice from multiple employees for my own website that I've been working on!
Overall, my time at Jamescape was the best placement I could have had, so a massive thanks to all of the team and good luck in their future endeavours!
We’ll be offering more experience placements next year, so make sure to keep an eye on Jamescape Jobs to be one of the first to apply to the scheme.