BSc Computing Science - Matthew Dalzell

Matthew Dalzell studied BSc Computing Science at UEA.

How would you describe your job to a friend or family member with no experience of the role or company?

I code software which the company provides for our customers to use for free, (both monetarily and free of restrictions) to allow for the support of the hardware we design.

On a day-to-day basis, what do you do in your job?

Most days there is at least one meeting, whether that be with the whole team, a 1-2-1 or a stand up. Then I spend my time coding and doing code reviews for the work of other people. Otherwise, I am learning, through both live presentations from various people around the company or with our self-learning systems such as LinkedIn learning.

What skills do you need for this role?

The ability to work in a team and clearly communicate what I am working on and provide regular updates. Programming ability is also important. How did you decide to do a graduate scheme? I knew I wanted to keep learning and developing my skills and ability, and most of the companies I looked at had a focus on developing their early careers employees as much as possible through graduate schemes.

How did you find your graduate scheme?

I found it by going through job listing websites that I found through Google. What was the application and interview process like? All stages were individual interviews, and it was just two stages for me:

1. A recorded interview with coding test
2. A live interview on Teams with three different hiring managers from different areas of the company. This also included a coding test.

Once you started your graduate scheme, what training and activities did it involve?

I was dropped straight into a team, so a lot of the learning right away was around that. But there were various events put on, which both were to directly teach us, and to lead us to the self-learning resources that the company has.

What do you think has been the most useful aspect of your graduate scheme to you personally?

I think the most useful thing to me has been the rotating. Being able to see different areas of the company has helped me to find what I enjoy doing. Within Open Source Software at Arm (some other groups differ), we have three rotations, each lasting 8 months each (totalling 2 years of graduate scheme). This means you not only have time to learn things about the team and how they work, but also gives you time to become a contributing member of the team and feel useful; as a common complaint when they did 4-month rotations were that people did not really get to contribute once they had finally ramped up and knew what was going on.

Have there been any challenges with doing a graduate scheme?

As with any role there have been challenges which I have had to overcome; however, none stick out to me, thanks to the support of the teams around me who I could always reach out to for help.

Is there anything you wish you had known about graduate schemes before you started?

I cannot think of anything that I would wish I had known, I think my time at UEA did an excellent job getting me ready for the working world.

Do you have any tips for current students considering a graduate scheme?

The main tip I would give any graduate would be to not let rejections of jobs get you down. It can be very deflating when you are applying for jobs and they do not get back to you, or when they tell you no. But there is something out there for you, and you will find it.

If you would like to know more about Matthew’s experience, connect with Matthew on LinkedIn.