From placement year to graduate job: getting a software engineering career started
I wanted to find an industrial placement that would provide useful technical experience and give me a head start in the final year of my degree. I spoke to a careers adviser who recommended ARM and I decided to apply. The interview day was quite intense – I was here from 9.00 am till 5.30 pm, having an interview with the team I would be joining, an HR interview, a programming test and a theory test.
Designing and exhibiting product demonstrations
ARM produces designs for the processors that are used in mobile phones, then sells these on to other companies to manufacture. I worked in a small team of engineers whose job was to design and create interesting demonstrations of ARM’s products to take to trade shows to exhibit. I helped design the software for a demonstration featuring a high-tech car dashboard with satnav and electronic systems to set air conditioning and change tracks on an MP3 player, for example. I designed a satnav system run by one of ARM’s processors, which worked faster than other satnavs at the time and was controlled by a processor that was doing other tasks simultaneously.
I spent most of my time in the office in Cambridge; however, I also went to Paris for a few days and to San Francisco for a week to help at trade shows. I had potential clients asking me all sorts of questions about the technology – including aspects I wasn’t involved in myself – but there were other team members on hand if need be.
A big help with my degree work and career choice
My placement put me a step ahead when I started my final year: I had to show that I was a good programmer to get the position but the work I was doing was on a different level from university. It confirmed to me that this type of work was what I wanted to do, and sparked an interest in 3D graphics and graphics programming – the area I am working in now.
It also put me in a strong position to get a graduate job here. I still had to go through the standard recruitment process; however, the company kept in touch with me to let me know about vacancies I might be interested in.
David Brown is a graduate engineer at ARM Ltd. He has a BSc in computer science from Nottingham Trent University.