Now 4 months into my Placement year with Zing, the consultancy division of ProspectSoft, I can confidently say that I’ve learned a variety of both soft skills and hard skills that help me on a daily basis. The hard skills that are predominantly technical-based include: Developing web applications with Vue, creating phone apps with React Native, writing backends with .NET Framework and setting up various resources on Azure. I’ve achieved all of this in such a short period of time, despite starting off with a less advanced knowledge-base, where I’m progressing at an impressive speed and learning something new every day. I’ve also learned a range of soft skills, as my role involves working directly with customers and remote teams through regular meetings, which has therefore improved my communication skills massively! 

Here in Zing, we also work in Sprints. Within my first Sprint, I created a UI component to view and select Claims Management Product Packages. This was part of a bespoke system that we were building for a corporate customer. We had to consistently communicate with the remote team, who were writing the backend at the time, to ensure the whole process went as smoothly as possible and for everyone to be aware of each step. Once this Sprint was complete, it was great to see that the customer was extremely satisfied with the progress that had been made – so it was a very rewarding experience to see all of our work come together! 

Despite my background being in Computer Science from school and University, I found myself asking lots of questions to the team, particularly in the first few weeks in the role. I thought they’d find this annoying; however, everyone’s extremely helpful with anything you ask and very willing to answer anything, regardless of the question. As I had many processes and tools to learn, my knowledge was growing each day, (and so were my questions…) however, my co-workers provided me with so much support and guidance, explaining things well enough that I could go on to manage it myself the next time round. This has enabled me to learn and grow at my own pace, without feeling pressured at any point.  

As the weeks progressed, I became more independent when running into challenging programming tasks. I now tackle them head-on, utilising all of my knowledge and skills that I’ve developed so far. Plus, I’ve even been able to help others who run into similar challenges like the ones I’ve already solved. I’ve increased my involvement in harder tasks that I would have previously struggled with, which in turn, has really enhanced my skillset. I believe this placement year has already given me so much experience that I cannot gain from University alone and know that it’ll be of great benefit to me in the future.  

Outside of the regular day-to-day work life, we have also been to events and on-site customer meetings. Recently we went to a really fascinating Twilio Superclass and Engage event in London, where we learned a lot about Twilio and the countless uses of it. Not long from now, we’re going to attend Twilio Flex certification training, which I’m really looking forward to! It’s a unique opportunity that I would not have expected to receive as a Placement student; however, we’re treated as an integral part of the company, just like all other members of staff! 

I’m excited about what the rest of this year will bring, and I hope to achieve further personal growth, whilst also providing value for the company and our customers.