Hi, my name is Jake. I am just coming to the end of my 5-day work experience here at Borwell, which has been fun and incredibly informative. This opportunity has really helped me decide what I want to do in the future, while simultaneously teaching me industry-level skills and just getting a feel for what working in a professional establishment is like.
I was able to get my placement by contacting borwell directly, as this year has been abnormal due to COVID-19. After completing a Software Challenge, I was accepted onto work experience. On the first day of my placement, I met the fantastic team currently in the office, some of the team are working from home. I got a tour around the site and was given my first task in a framework I haven’t even touched before. Each day this challenge developed, adding different things until I was finding my way around Azure and other industry-standard software databases, with a lot of help, of course. Despite most COVID restrictions being lifted, borwell has still decided to keep many measures in place, from sanitising stations at the doors to desk spacing, and staff rotas.
I have had much fun both tackling my own tasks, and even looking at what the team is currently working on, and seeing what a well built up program looks like from the back end. The main difficulty of my project was the use of a new framework that I haven’t even touched before called Blazor. Blazor specialises in integrating C# code with traditional HTML and CSS. This allowed even my juvenile program to look and feel professional.
It was very soon after I started my project that I realised that my current C# knowledge and understanding would simply not be enough to sustain me. So I researched what I didn’t know and asked about things I didn’t understand. For me, that format worked exceptionally well. No matter how niche I may think it is, any issue was easily solved by anyone I asked about it. Even miscellaneous things, like how to quickly and more efficiently use the IDE, I learned and picked up quickly.
After working so hard, everyone needs a small break. When it was lunchtime, there is the option of going up to Barnards Green or the local, on-site Blue Apple Café. Both of which are nice. The Café especially has excellent food which changes daily.
The week isn’t quite over, and I still look forward to what will happen towards the end of the week. It has been great and overall fun and educational week, and I will remember it highly from here on.
A huge thanks to the Borwell team
Jake.
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