As pretty much all the previous blogs have said (give them a read if you haven't already!), the last 7 months have gone past incredibly quickly. It feels like I’ve barely just finished my second year of University and I’m actually now closer to starting my third! The first few months here were very busy; full of new people, technologies, processes and asking lots of questions. Fortunately, everyone here is great at helping placements settle in (lots of people were placements themselves once!) and you quickly become part of the team.

After the initial month of training that all new placements get, I moved into the Development department where I have been ever since. Initially I had a meeting with the Head of Development where we discussed which skills I'd gained at University and how I could best get started in the department. After this, I spent my first couple of months using and expanding my knowledge of web hooks and APIs to develop an integration between our customer facing Ideas Portal and our in-house Kanban board. I was assisted by a senior member of the Development Team, and think I probably learnt more during those first few months than in my first year of University!

I've also had the opportunity to work in many different areas of development that are available here, including writing bespoke plugins and reports for customers and working on in house tools and processes. I've been able to see the business from the perspective of several different departments. This has been great as it has given me the chance to try first hand different areas of development and this has been useful in helping me to decide what I'd be interested in pursuing for my future career.

One of the biggest differences that I have found between University and working here is the chance to see your work be used in the real world. One of the advantages of a placement at ProspectSoft is that from the very start you are given the chance to work on projects that get actively used either in-house or by customers. This is great because you know that you're providing value to the business and it also helps to improve the standard of work that you produce.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at ProspectSoft so far as I've learnt so much and worked with some great people. I would absolutely recommend a placement to anyone at University who is considering one!