Asidua

Mark

I am in my final year at Belfast Metropolitan College, studying a Foundation Degree in Software Engineering. For my placement, I joined Asidua’s Business Services hoping to gain experience programming in Java. What I got from the placement was far more than just that!

Work in Asidua
While working at Asidua, I have gone from having a working understanding of Java to having several months of practical experience working with a team of skilled developers on a web application that uses Java, Struts, Spring, Hibernate and SQL. One of my first tasks was to design and implement a set of command line tools to help automate parts of the project’s build process. These tools are now used by all the developers on the project, and I was thrilled to be making a useful contribution to the project right from the start of my placement.

Training in Asidua
I was fortunate to join Asidua near the beginning of the project, and to my initial surprise, not everyone on the team was already fluent in the use of all the frameworks and applications being used. At Asidua employees help each other to learn, so during the familiarisation stage of the project several members of the team would put together examples of what we would be developing. This learning process is continually ongoing, with Colleagues often giving master classes on topics with which they are skilled. This informal training is very effective, and it’s incredibly rewarding to occasionally teach the more experienced team members something new!

Fun at Asidua
Asidua’s Sports and Social Committee organises and helps pay for regular events such as go-carting, nights out to the theatre or cinema, and other fun activities. First Friday drinks and the monthly breakfast club are great ways to get to know your colleagues, and the competition between players of Mario Kart on the Wii in the kitchen is always fierce.

Final Thought
When I first started at Asidua I was daunted by the difference between the exercises and assignments in class and actual production code. Asidua helped me to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, while at the same time treating me the same as any other developer on the team. It is very rewarding to be able to point to a part of an application and say, “I made that.”  I would definitely recommend a placement at Asidua to anyone wanting to gain real experience in Software Engineering.