After 5 weeks of training in the working of ProspectSoft, we graduated to our full-time roles as Assistant Solutions Developers. After bidding farewell to our predecessors, the office started setting up for its latest team of technical interns: Cristina, Simon, Mike and Matt, as well as Julian providing support in Client Services.

The extensive training consisted of a basic product knowledge course, mostly aimed at the Sales & Marketing interns, but highly useful for our side of things too; a look into the installation and configuration of a ProspectSoft system, and a few sessions on development processes within ProspectSoft.

Still, you can start a new job with all the training in the world; it’ll still be a bit daunting. Fortunately, the veterans of Operations and Client Services were very friendly and understanding, and knew that mistakes aren’t just likely, they’re inevitable. The hardest lesson to learn is that the timescales and the structure of the working world is not like University. We need to constantly make sure we’re on top of our time-keeping, and learn to prioritise tasks in order to get things done.

Four months on, and we’d definitely integrated well, each with our own ‘areas of expertise’, and in some cases nicknames. Our day to day activities included bug fixes, enhancements to bespoke projects, and fairly often exciting new projects and making the department generally more efficient and capable. At the moment we’ve just finished working on quite a big project (but for various reasons I can’t say what this project is)!

Beyond the working day, we’ve felt welcomed by our colleagues and have been invited to a number of big events such as the company BBQ, with our managing director and excellent cook Andy, and recently the office Christmas party. A few of us have also started highly competitive 5-a-side football matches every Thursday after work. And nothing helps the bruised and battered on a Friday, like the monthly Pizza Friday!

After the Christmas break, we arrived back at ProspectSoft feeling refreshed and rested, greeted by some very interesting news: a company-wide reshuffle! As such, Simon was moved into the expanded development department, while Operations and Client Services were merged into one super-department, to allow the full customer satisfaction. A couple of days into the new year and with a new structure, we are now anticipating the new challenges and new opportunities which come with this.

Matt

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