A week at SDUK Studio: Ben's work experience
Ben Rodman's work-experience week: a messy brief taken to a working membership system, a client prototype in two days, and a job offer fifteen minutes after his demo.
A guest post. Ben Rodman spent a week of work experience with us in September, building on Studio from day one, and joined the team part-time afterwards. What follows is his account of the week, in his words. — Rich
My Name is Ben Rodman, I am going into my third year of a Software Engineering MSci at Lancaster University and I just had the privilege of completing a week of work experience with Software Development UK.
During my week I worked with SD:UK Studio, the firm’s custom development software and an AI agent, in order to bring a deliberately messy client brief through each phase of development from design to implementation.
30+ Pull Requests later I had created a membership system for a fictional sports club, complete with permission sets, a payment portal, an AI assistant, and more, all whilst conforming to GDPR regulations.
On Wednesday morning, dissatisfied with the process of the AI agent and how many changes it was implementing without my input, I gave it a whole new custom rule set to work by, ensuring it needed my express approval for every major update, change, and choice, in order to keep it on task and focused on the agenda for the day.
I attended two meetings with clients, making notes and later, suggestions on next steps with each project, one of which I was able to work on myself.
On Thursday and Friday I was trusted with the responsibility of working on a client project. In two days, through 12 pull requests and multiple corrected errors, we turned definition files into a working prototype. We expanded the studio’s platform to include new UI components and functionality in order to create a product as faithful to the needs of the client as possible.
On Friday morning I presented a demo of my project to the three company executives, receiving feedback commending the speed at which I had picked up the platform and created the system, however pointing out that the UI needed more polishing.
Fifteen minutes after I gave my demo to Rich, Paul, and Spence I was offered a part-time job with SD:UK.
This is a rare opportunity for me to gain relevant experience alongside my studies and I am thrilled to get started.
In summary, I had an amazing week meeting the team, working with Rich, my supervisor for the week, and gaining real industry experience working with professionals.
I was able to get a sense of what life is really like in the world of Software Development and what my place may be within it.
Thank you SD:UK