Level 1 careers

1
Level 1 careers Placement Workshop2008/09Welco
me week

• Ann Doris
• Careers Placement Adviser
• Computer Science

2
Level 1
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TIME AT UNIVERSITY
3
Overview

• Contact Details
• Overview of My Role
• Skills employers look for
• Making the most of your time at University
• IT Industry in NI
• Placement
• Graduate Destinations
• Computer Science Careers YoPE Website

4
Contact Details

• Ann Doris
• Careers Placement Advisor Computer Science
• e a.doris_at_qub.ac.uk
• t 028 90 97 2837
• a Student Guidance Centre
• w www.cs.qub.ac.uk/yearout

5
YoPEYour Career

• YOUR CAREER
• Starts now
• Belongs to you
• You must make the key decisions
• Computer Science Placement Team can help with
• Information
• Advice
• Contacts

6
Overview of Careers Placement Support for the
School of Computer Science

• Duty Adviser
• Guidance Interviews
• Career Development
• Placement Workshops
• Professional Practice
• Module (Level 2)
• Staff Student Consultative
• Committee

Careers YoPE Website Placement
Preparation Employer Liaison Promotion of
Careers Events / Presentations/ Workshops
etc Email Guidance
7
Skills employers look for

• A combination of
• Good communication skills
• Team working skills
• Organising skills
• Analytical skills
• Problem solving skills
• Numerical skills

• .together with
• Technical aptitude
• Adaptability
• Business awareness
• The motivation and drive
• to make a career in IT

8
Making the Most of Your Time at University

• LEVEL 1
• Clubs Societies
• Sporting Interests
• Part Time Jobs
• on/off campus
• Vacation Work paid
• Voluntary Work
• Science Shop

• LEVEL 2
• IAESTE
• BEI
• Personal Interest In IT
• Year of Professional
• Experience

9
it industry
IT INDUSTRY
10
Labour market informationboom

• Boom
• In the 1990s. the IT industry grew phenomenally.
• Reasons include
• ? Growth of both corporate and home markets for
  PCs
• ? Major projects to accommodate changes such as
  the introduction of the Euro
• ? Protection of systems against predicted Year
  2000 problems
• ? IT/Telecommunications convergence and the
  spread of internet and wireless applications
•  
• Job applications spiralled with 60 growth in
  just five years to May 2001
• when IT was the UKs second largest industry with
  over one million
• employees

11
Labour market informationBUST

• ..and bust?
•  
• Mid 2001 newspapers reported dramatic industry
  cutbacks and
• job losses.
•  
• The bad news
• ? Problems are commonly attributed to September
  11th but they actually result from a four year
  global downturn
• ? IT and Telecommunications are both affected by
  maturing markets and a wait and see attitude to
  investment in IT projects
• ? 2002 sees the first companies outsourcing to
  Asia

12
Labour market informationAS IT IS

• Graduate opportunities occur both in IT companies
  and end-user
• organisations. Since 2006/07 there has been a
  noticeable increase in
• demand for applicants in NI with experience of
• ? Microsoft.Net technology
• ? Java
• ? Oracle database technology
• ? Wireless systems
•  
•  

13
Labour market informationdevelopments

• New technologies in IT are constantly developing.
  Developments mean that IT is
• faster, easier and smaller to use.
•  
• Technology
• ? Palm computers to replace the PC
• ? Computing embedded in everyday appliances eg
  fridges, ovens
• ? Wireless technology
• ? New chip and pin technology in retail offers
  better security
• Self scanning checkout is also a possibility for
  the very near future
• Investment banking trading time
•  
• Economy
• ? Mobile internet access is set to increase
• ? Public sector spending on IT is increasing
  quicker than any other sector
•  

14
Labour market informationskills demand

• SKILLS DEMAND
• ? Consistent favourites are SQL, C, Unix,
  Oracle, C, Windows NT, Java, Visual Basic and MS
  Office.
• ? Renewed desire for commercial skills reflects
  a more strategic approach to IT integration and
  the business emphasis on providing solutions
  rather than products.
• ? In demand skills at the moment are .net and C
  along with knowledge of modelling languages such
  as Unified Modelling Language.
•  

15
YoPEPlacement year
Placement Year
16
YoPE

• Pathways with Placement
• BSc/BEng Computer Science (including Professional
  Experience)
• MEng Computer Science (including Professional
  Experience)
• BSc Computing and Information Technology
  (including Professional Experience)
• BSc Business Information Technology (including
  Professional Experience)
• BEng/MEng Electronic Software Engineering
  (including Professional Experience)
• BEng/MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  (including Professional Experience)
• MEng Computer Games Design and Development
  (including Professional Experience)
• Please Note
• Placement is a compulsory requirement of these
  degree pathways and
• ultimate responsibility for securing placement
  lies with the student.

17
YoPENo Placement Year_Exceptions

• Exceptional Circumstances
• Student is unavailable for placement or unable to
  secure placement
• Complete Exemption from Placement Personal
  Extenuating Circumstances Form
• Exemption
• Minimum of 9 months relevant technical experience
• Complete Exemption from Placement Prior
  Experience Form
• Registered with Disability Services
• You may wish to discuss impact on type/location
  of placement
• Set Up Own Business
• Submit a Business plan for approval
• Attend meeting
• Support available through SU Enterprise Unit
• International Student
• Able to switch to non placement pathway

18
Placement roles

• IT Developer
• Technical Support Technician
• Client Server Engineer
• Test Engineer
• Multimedia Technician
• Network Support Assistant
• Web Developer
• Technical/Business Analyst
• Consultant
• Junior Fund Accountant
• Video and Archives Assistant
• Client Executive
• HR / Training / Payroll Coops
• Marketing Officer

• Service Desk Assistant Engineer
• Technical Support Administrator
• Trainee Systems Engineer
• Software Development Engineer
• Software Localisation Engineer
• System Admin Support
• Technical Support Consultant
• Performance Engineer
• Computing Support Officer
• Technical / Business Analyst

• Business Information Technology

• Computing and Information Technology

19
Placement roles

• Software Development Consultant
• Trainee Software Engineer
• Software Development Engineer
• Analyst Programmer
• Research Engineer
• IT Support
• ICT Technician

• Software Developer
• Assistant Webmaster
• Automation Coop
• IT Development Officer
• Infrastructure Assistant
• Technical Support Engineer
• Software Test Engineer
• Technical Customer Support
• Network Administrator
• Web Application Developer

• MEng Computer Science

• BEng/BSc Computer Science

20
Placement/Graduate roles

• Electronic Engineer
• Electrical Engineer
• Project Engineer
• Software Development Engineer
• Investigation Engineer
• Facility Engineer
• Support Engineer
• Financial Engineer
• Power Engineer
• Control Engineer
• Telecommunications Engineer

• Atkins Power, Surrey
• Asidua, Belfast
• ESB, Dublin
• NIE Powerteam, Belfast
• FG Wilson, Larne
• UTV, Belfast
• Gallagher, Ballymena
• Diageo, Belfast
• Ericsson, Dublin
• Npower, UK
• BT, Belfast/UK
• BAE Systems, UK

• MEng/BEng EEE Roles

• MEng/BEng EEE Employers

21
Typical Employers
22
BSc BUSINESS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYGRADUATE
DESTINATIONS
Employers include BT / IBM / Microsoft /
Intel / UTV / PricewaterhouseCoopers / Detica /
Royal Bank of Scotland / Northbrook Technology /
Citi / AIB / Lagan / Kainos / KPMG / HBoS /
Energia / Fujitsu / Accenture / Diaego / National
Australia Group / Millward Brown / Moy Park /
Dungannon Meats / Liberty IT Roles include IT
Web Developer / Software Developer / Systems
Analyst / Test Analyst / IT Consultant Mix
Business Analyst / Technical Analyst / Project
Manager Business Business Consultant / Human
Resource Assistant / Trainee Chartered Accountant
/ Business Support Officer / Sales Marketing
Rep
23
MEng COMPUTER SCIENCEGRADUATE DESTINATIONS
Employers Aepona / Accenture / Asidua /
Singularity / Kainos / Meridio /
Openwave Roles Software Developer / IT
Consultant / Computer Controller Courses
PhD / MSc Information Systems Engineering
24
BSc/BEng COMPUTER SCIENCEGRADUATE DESTINATIONS
Employers Aepona / Accenture / Asidua /
Singularity / Kainos / Meridio /
Openwave Roles Software Developer / IT
Consultant / Web Developer IT Support Engineer
/ Test Engineer Courses PhD / MSc Information
Systems Engineering
25
NI IT INDUSTRY

• New companies that have set up recently in NI
• Wombat Financial Software
• Citi
• Tyco
• Intelliden
• Logica
• SAP Research CEC
• Polaris
• Steria
• Greenhat Consulting
• Broadsoft
• mFormation Technologies
• Fidessa

Graduate salaries NI 18-26.5k RoI 25-35k
euros GB 27-40k
Placement salaries NI 11- 19k RoI 18-23k
euros GB 14-31k
26
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience

• Name Chris Gilmore
• Age 22
• Course BSc Computing Information Technology
• Placement Novosco, Belfast
• Role Technical Infrastructure Consultant

Novosco Background Novosco is a virtualisation
company, they reduce the amount of hardware
being used on a customer site which reduces
the companys carbon footprint. In doing
so, giving the customer much flexibility
in accessing programs. They have two
departments in Sales and Technical departments.
They are the most Certified company with in
Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland
also. Their customers to name a few are
Translink, RTE, Lagan Group Queens University.

• My Role
• Communicating with customer regularly
• Dealing with technical and software issues
• Visiting customer sites to troubleshoot
• network problems or installing new pieces
• of hardware.
• Being a System Admin to the Novex system.
• Testing a new Novex system for Novosco.
• Dealing with customer administration requests

• Skills Acquired
• Knowledge of Large Scale Networks
• Knowledge of Wireless Networks
• Problem Solving
• Using Citrix XenDesktop
• Using VMware
• Using GoToAssist software
• Using Windows Server 2003
• Setting up and configuring Fortinet Firewalls
• Setting up Riverbeds and Draytek Routers
• More confident with computer systems

• Qualifications Acquired
• Gained a MCP certificate (Microsoft Certified
• Professional) in using Windows Server 2003.
• Gained a MCP certificate (Microsoft Certified
• Professional) in Administering Windows XP
• Professional.
• Acquired a CCSP certificate. (Certified Citrix
• Sales Professional.)
• Acquired a VSP certificate. (VMware Sales
• Professional.)

About My Placement I started placement with
Novosco on the 12th January 2008 in which I
joined the Technical team. With the
technical team I dealt with many customers
regarding problems with their hardware and
software, in which I was to come up with a speedy
and effective solution.
Chris Gilmore Novosco
2007/08 BSc CIT
27
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Placement Office Queens University Management
School
MY PROFILE Name Ju Young Yoon Pathway BSc
CIT Company Placement Office Position Assistant
Placement Officer Duration 12 months
COMPANY PROFILE The Placement Office of Queens
University Management School offers support and
assistance to students seeking placement in the
financial sector through the Placement Programme.
It enables students integrate their theory and
practice in a professional work environment and
allow for a more informed career choice.
EXPERIENCE GAINED To manage the Placement Office
websites and its database, I had the opportunity
to gain more experience in using Dreamweaver MX,
ASP.net and Microsoft Access. Making daily
changes and working with my counterpart from
Computer Science enabled me to improve my
abilities and expand my insight. Working in a
professional environment with staff, students and
employers meant that it was necessary for me to
approach and liaise with each group in the
appropriate manner. I also became competent in
organising and running of events and workshops.

• ROLE IN COMPANY
• Daily office administration Emails, phone
  calls, producing professional letters, reports
  and data spreadsheets.
• Management of the Placement Office websites
  The office has two websites, one for admin
  purposes where records of companies and students
  are managed. The other is for students and
  employers to advertise our office, opportunities,
  news and forthcoming events. My duty was to
  maintain and develop the websites, the connected
  database and Active Server Page content to keep
  information up-to-date.
• Liaising with companies Through telephone,
  email, web and direct contact with current and
  prospective companies to assure quality
  placements for students.
• Event and project support Office marketing
  through posters, presentations and organising
  employer/student events. Assist in office
  projects such as facilitating the Summer
  Placement Programme.
• Assisting other staff within the department
  Providing reports and placement statistics,
  assisting on school Open Days, setup and
  troubleshooting of computers within the office
  and also outside by shadowing the technicians.

• SKILLS AQUIRED
• Organisation and time management skills to
  deliver professionally.
• Communication and presentation skills through
  employer meetings and workshop presentations
• Ability to work in teams and also independently
  using my initiatives and applying knowledge where
  appropriate.
• Technical skills through website management and
  by successfully completing various staff IT
  training courses,

Ju Young Yoon Placement Office Queens University
Management School
2007/08 BSc CIT
28
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Skills Acquired In my time at UCF I developed
both new and existing skills. I furthered my
knowledge of the software packages Microsoft
Access and Excel. I also learnt about new
technology such as the APRIL program, skin
scanner and joomla. Through managing a large
data orientated project, I learnt the value of
team work, communication and the importance of
attention to detail.
My Work At UCF During my year of professional
experience at UCF, I worked in the Cancer
Prevention Dept as project assistant in the
Smokebusters Club. This is an anti-smoking
initiative for 9-11 year olds. Throughout the
year I worked on updating the Smokebusters
database, preparing several large mail outs for
schools and developing content and design ideas
for the newsletters. I also had the chance to
develop ideas for a new and improved website for
the Smokebusters club. This included developing
ideas for games and activities on the site.

• About UCF
• The Ulster Cancer Foundation, which was
  established in 1970, was the first local cancer
  charity. Its main role is to help patients and
  their families cope with cancer. All money
  raised on behalf of UCF is spent in Northern
  Ireland to help local people.
• UCF provide and invest in a range of services for
  the community
• They are one of the major funders of research in
  NI and promote high quality research into the
  causes, treatment and prevention of cancer.
• They undertake education and prevention
  programmes targeting young people and those most
  at risk.
• They participate in public campaigns and advocacy
  work in order to raise public and professional
  awareness of cancer issues and to improve local
  health policy.

Life at UCF UCF is a superb organisation and
everyone made me feel welcome and part of the
team from day one. Due to the nature of the
project, job satisfaction was extremely high as
you really felt you were doing something very
worthwhile. I also got to participate in things
that I would never have considered doing, such as
working at health fairs and fundraising events.
Ronald Hill Ulster Cancer Foundation

2007/08 BSc CIT
29
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience

• Role
• I worked in the IB GCS team on a number of
  projects
• Developing, Testing and deploying a new support
  system for the bank
• Looking after the IT Inventory system for the
  whole of IB saving IB over 7.8 million.
• Testing and deploying a virtual desktop
  infrastructure for IB
• Getting involved in incident and problem
  management analysis.
• Working with support teams to help integrate
  systems from Bear Stearns into JPMorgan.
• Cost savings across IB
• Working on support desks helping IB staff with
  problems.

Personal Profile Name Davy Grant Company
JPMorgan Chase Bank London Position Business
Analyst Department Investment Bank Global
Client Services (IB GCS) Date June 2007
August 2008

• Company Profile
• JPMorgan Chase is one of the oldest financial
  services firms in the world. With assets of 1.7
  trillion it currently is the second largest bank
  in the United States. JPMorgan recently acquired
  the failing Investment bank Bear Stearns.
• The Chase brand is used for personal banking
  services within the United States.

• Experience and Skills Acquired
• Team working
• Communication both oral and written
• Taking ownership and responsibility of tasks
• Working in a large global organisation
• Working to meet deadlines
• Working with people from other countries

• Technologies Used
• C.NET
• SQL Server
• Lotus Suite
• Big Fix
• Exchange 2007
• Office 2007
• Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Visual Studio
• Novell

2007/08 BSc CIT
Davy Grant
JPMorgan
30
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
David StothersFab24 ME Systems

• Placement Role
• Within Intel I was assigned to the Fab 24
  Manufacturing Engineering Systems group. My job
  involved
• Automating Excel packages for accessing data from
  within the factory to assess the state of factory
  tools.
• Writing VBA applications from within Excel to
  process the data from the factory into a
  readable, understandable format.
• Maintaining automated daily and weekly tasks.
• Optimising current systems within ME
• Creating other useful programs within ME for
  ergonomic safety, coded in VB and C.

• Skills developed
• Throughout the year I took several training
  classes suggested by my superiors. These include
• VBA training courses
• Presentation Skills courses
• LEAN Training
• I believe my confidence in presentations has
  increased throughout my time at Intel, and I have
  increased my knowledge of programming through VB,
  C and VBA.

Background of Intel Intel was founded in 1968 by
Gordon E. Moore and Robert Noyce, and has grown
to be the worlds leading producer of semi
conductor devices, and over 100,000 employees and
200 facilities worldwide. The companys most
successful products are the standard computer
processor, present in side most modern
computers. The site at Ireland is the most
profitable out of all the plants, and is
responsible for chipset and processor
production. Intel is heavily involved in the
community with an aim of over one million
volunteer man hours for this year, worldwide.

• Achievements
• Developed an ergonomic safety application that
  will be proliferated across the site, and
  possibly Intel worldwide.
• Saved ME Systems group 4-8 hours and a poor
  record for sustaining tasks every week by
  optimising automated systems, and preventing
  severe failures.
• Obtained 5 department recognitions throughout the
  year, for Lean thinking, safety, innovation and
  volunteer work outside of Intel.

David Stothers Intel
2007/08 BEng ESE
31
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
NTNI Mission Statement 'To develop a successful
IT enterprise capable of delivering value added
IT and business solutions within the Allstate
domain and beyond with selected business
partners, developing and managing our staff and
processes in a quality and harmonious working
environment in which all people are treated with
fairness and respect'
What The Team Does In the Regression Test Team we
work in cooperation with teams from the American
company Allstate to test insurance software. We
support the Auto, Property and Commercial areas
during the weekly TACF (Transmitting Alstar Code
and Files) process of shipping code to production
and for project deliverables. The regression
team is responsible for the creation of automated
scenarios and for data validation.
Student Profile Name Gareth McCarter Company Nor
thbrook Technology (NI) Team Allstate PQS -
Regression Testing (WinRunner)
Technologies Used Mercury Interactive WinRunner
7.0 IBM Reflection Terminal Emulator Visual
SourceSafe 6.0 Microsoft Visual C
Experience Gained (Professionally
Socially) Working at Northbrook was somewhat
unique, as the clients where also our colleagues.
Working on a continuous basis with teams from
Allstate helps develop team work and
communication skills, and due to the 6 hour time
difference and weekly code releases, good
organisational and time keeping skills were
necessary. On the social side there are monthly
Beer Pizza nights, which hardly need to be
explained (the company provides tokens for 4 free
drinks and a slice of pizza for each employee).
Various other activities are organised throughout
the year, which include Go Karting and wall
climbing.
Gareth McCarter Northbrook Technology N.I.
2005/06 MEng ESE
32
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Art Technology Group
Role at ATG Intern Software Engineer Assigned
to 4 different projects throughout the year.
Affinity Selling, Recommendation Tracking, Direct
Editing, Response Management. Responsible for
development of new classes, bug fixing, automated
testing of new code, running QA tests on
products, setting up new ATG installs.

• Experience
• Friendly Atmosphere
• Helpful staff
• Interesting projects
• Challenging problems
• Broad range of technologies
• Good social activities

Personal Profile Name Christopher
Kearney Degree Electronic Software
Engineering Company ATG Location Belfast Role
Software Engineer

• Skills
• Java
• JavaScript through Dojo and jQuery
• XML
• HTML
• JSP
• Teamwork
• Communication
• SQL
• Developer tools
• JDBC

The Team
Company Profile Name Art Technology
Group Founded 1991 Location Throughout North
America , Europe and Asia. ATG develops
e-commerce software solutions, click to call,
click to chat, automated recommendation and
reporting software. ATG powers the websites of
some of the worlds biggest brands.
Christopher Kearney Art Technology Group
2007/08 BEng ESE
33
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Name Tyrone Kelly-Grier Pathway MEng Computer
Science Placement Meridio Position Software
Developer
Role in the Company

• During my placement I worked in the Services
  department. The services department are a team
  of Meridio experts available to advise, help and
  implement Meridio solutions for the customer.
• The services they offer are
• Meridio Implementation
• Meridio Consultancy
• Developer Support
• Training
• My role in services was varied and this allowed
  me to gain a wide experience in the workplace.
  My roles included
• Built a performance application for Lewisham
• Upgrade Testing for Ferrari
• Product Testing Kofax EzeScan
• Assisted in the development of NTFS Migration
  Suite

Company Profile
Meridio was founded on the objective of becoming
the leading software company developing
enterprise Document and Records Management (eDRM)
software for use on Microsoft software. The
company has met this objective and is now known
as a leading global supplier of Enterprise
Document and Records solutions. Meridio have
designed their products to integrate smoothly
with Microsoft products such as Word, Outlook,
SharePoint and other Microsoft Office
applications. This allows customers to implement
the product into their infrastructure with
minimal costs and training.
Skills Acquired

• Knowledge of a new programming language C
• Experience in new technologies Silverlight, WPF
• More professional approach to problem solving
• Enhanced communication and presentation skills
• Improved my time management and team working
  skills
• Became more mature and professional
• Obtained C qualification

Tyrone Kelly-Grier Meridio
2007/08 Meng CSc
34
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Company Profile Kainos Software was
established in 1986 as a joint venture between
Fujitsu and Queens University. Currently over
250 consultants are employed by Kainos, over 5
sites, in Belfast, Dublin, London, Glasgow and
Gdansk, Poland. Customers include Bank of
Ireland, the Audit Commission, Eircom and
Shipowners, and the company had revenue of 25m
in 07/08. My Role in Kainos I held the position
of Trainee Software engineer, working on 3
different projects throughout my placement. I was
responsible for development, testing and support
of an EDRM project for Shipowners, and
development and testing on Eircom and ViVo
projects. The working environment was relaxed and
comfortable, with help available when needed.
This was true in all the projects I worked on
under various managers.
Projects Shipowners The Shipowners project is a
major EDRM undertaking, involving the
development of a front end SharePoint portal,
with a lot of work going on behind the
scenes, including a Meridio system, K2 workflow
processes, and integrating with an existing
legacy system. The first month on Shipowners was
mainly testing to get to know the system, as well
as some simple fixes. As time progressed I was
given increasingly complex tasks, such as
creating controls that integrated with Meridio
and K2 that would be used in the SharePoint
portal. Eircom Eircom is one of Kainos biggest
customers, and the eCom project is the longest
running ongoing piece of development. I spent a
month on eCom, excluding one week training in
GTX, the main programming language that would be
used in development. As well as
developing and testing GTX code, I
was responsible for developing PLSQL
procedures which were called from
the GTX code. ViVo ViVo is a project involving
Video and Voice interaction with mobile phones.
A website was required for the product for use
at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. The
website was quite simple with regards to
technology used. I was given a few PhotoShop
documents to convert into a website using HMTL,
CSS and PHP.
Skills Gained Technologies C - The Java
knowledge obtained in the first 2 years of the
degree transferred well to C, used on the
Shipowners project for controls code
behind. ASP.NET - Previous experience with PHP
was very useful in learning ASP. SQL - I
received training in MSSQL, and used PLSQL in the
Eircom project. K2 - Workflow application.
Integrated with C Controls to create work
processes on the SharePoint portal. Meridio -
Acquired basic knowledge of Meridio and custom
Kainos APIs. SharePoint - Basic knowledge of
administration and troubleshooting. Web
technologies - Both ViVo and Shipowners involved
use of HTML and CSS, and the Shipowners portal
incorporated a lot of JavaScript. Soft
skills Communication - Heavy use of phone and
email for internal communication. Time
management - Deadlines and prioritising
tasks. Social - Many social events such as
karting and dinners.
Adam Brennan Kainos Software Ltd
2007/08 Meng CSc
35
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
SAP Research CEC BELFAST

• Name Gary Robinson
• Age 21
• Course MEng Computer Science
• Placement SAP Research CEC Belfast
• Role Student Software Engineer

My placement with SAP CEC Belfast commenced on
July 4th 2008 to which I joined as part of the
XtreemOS project. The project mission is to
create an Operating System capable of abstracting
grid technologies quite simply put Enabling
Linux for the Grid. As apart of the XtreemOS
project I was involved with testing and
developing tools for SAP application deployment
within a Grid environment. Furthermore, I was
involved in developing Total Cost of Ownership
utilities (TCO) for SAP Hosting.
SAP Research CEC Belfast was founded in January
2005 , as one of the newest centres of research
for SAP which has 40,000 employees worldwide. It
is embedded in an advanced research environment
including the Belfast e-Science Centre as well as
two nearby universities QUB the University of
Ulster. The centre is involved in two main
research programs, Software Engineering
Architectures and Knowledge People Interaction
with a strong focus on Grid Computing. There are
currently 19 employees (11 FTE, 5 PhD, 7
Placements) working at CEC Belfast which is based
on-site at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown
campus.

• SmartFrog R/3 Deployment created a SAP R/3
  deployment utility, using the SmartFrog
  framework, to deploy, install, and uninstall SAP
  components remotely. Intended future use will be
  for cluster/Grid deployment.
• Kerrighed Clustered OS Installation on SUSE Base
  System over x nodes created a repeatable
  procedure for installing Kerrighed on a SAP
  supported OS SUSE Enterprise Linux. Involving
• Kernel configuring, patching, and hacking
• NFSROOT setup and maintenance.
• TFTP, DHCP, NFS, PXEBOOT setup and maintenance.
• Involvement in Suite Design -- member of a
  2-person team creating a Level of Isolation
  service provisioning tool (using sub-versioning
  tools). Also was the sole developer on a TCO
  program for SAP hosting to calculate disk setups
  in and out of rack setups to help save operating
  costs.

• Improved Knowledge of Java
• SmartFrog (framework created by HP labs) this
  is a deployment framework that allows programs to
  be remotely deployed to nodes within a network. A
  description language.
• Improved knowledge of Linux (SUSE and Kerrighed
  specific) started off as totally inexperienced
  user ended off as a competent user with lots of
  kernel configuration, compilation and hacking
  experience.
• Giving Software Demonstrations
• Understanding Patent Practices
• Taking Workshops
• Problem Solving
• Leadership Qualities
• Working with Clustered OS lots of work with the
  Kerrighed OS and SLES10 SP1.

Work Atmosphere

• Mutual respect
• Helpful colleagues
• Professional environment
• Commitment to professional development
• Friendly atmosphere (multiple social events)
• Easy access to e-learning materials over SAP
  Corporate Portal
• Everyone is on first-name basis

Gary Robinson Research
2007/08 Meng CSc
36
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience

• About Liberty IT
• Subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Group (Boston based
  global insurance ranked 94th on the Fortune 500
  list)
• Develop a wide range of IT solutions for Liberty
  Mutual Group
• Rapidly expanding since its establishment in
  1997, now employing over 250 staff
• Based in the heart of Belfast city centre in a
  new office complex on Adelaide Street

Skills Acquired Working at Liberty IT allowed me
to develop both my technical and soft skills.
Technically I become proficient in using the
following technologies Liberty IT treat all
placement students as regular members of staff
this allowed me to quickly become a team player
giving me the opportunity to develop my
communication and team work skills. Whilst at
the company I was also given the opportunity to
give a number of presentations and technical
talks.
"As a part of Liberty Mutual Information Systems,
enable Liberty Mutual Group to exceed their
business objectives by delivering high value,
market responsive IT solutions"
Other Experiences At Liberty IT there is a
strong focus on social activities. For 3 per
month all employees can join the company social
club. Each month the club organises a social
event that is free to all members. This is a
great way of meeting members of staff outside
your team. During my time at the company events
included The charity committee also hold
regular fund raising events. Whilst at the
company I was involved in running the Belfast
marathon to raise money for local charities. The
committee also held a quiz night, dragon boat
race, football tournament and a number of coffee
mornings.

• My Placement Role
• During my time at Liberty IT I was employed as a
  Placement Software Developer on the CF Output
  project. CF Output is responsible for producing
  insurance declarations sent to customers. Four
  developers work on the project in Belfast
  alongside a number of Business Analysts and
  Verification Engineers in America. The key
  aspects of the role were
• Development and enhancement of the project code
  from requirements
• Responsible for development of test strategies
  for all written code
• Active participation with both local team
  members and American colleagues
• Building collaborative customer relationships

Why Liberty IT? I had a great experience at
Liberty IT in both a work and social environment.
From the start I was treated like a regular
developer and given every possible opportunity to
prove myself and make the most of my time at the
company.
Matthew McComb Liberty IT
2007/08 Meng CSc
37
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
About Kainos
Social Experience
My placement year at Kainos was not only
excellent from a professional point of view, but
it was also as a great social experience. Kainos
has many annual events such as the Summer BBQ and
Christmas party, as well as the many nights out
and events organised by the team. We had a
really great atmosphere on the Eircom project
team that I was assigned to and have made many
friendships that have extended beyond the end of
my placement.

• Kainos Software has amassed a wealth of IT
  experience
• over the last 20 years to place them as a premier
  solutions
• provider for many business in Britain, Ireland
  and beyond.
• Cutting edge business solutions currently offered
  include
• Speechstorm Kainos has built the largest
  speech solutions division in Ireland employing a
  team of 16 speech technology specialists. Eircoms
  1901 customer service system is just one of the
  projects the division works on.
• EDRM Information Management solutions
  incorporating
• MS Sharepoint, Meridio and K2.net, Kainos is a
  Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that has
  designed and implemented solutions covering
  document and more latterly records management
  since the early 1990's and as such has a wealth
  of knowledge and experience.

Skills Obtained
QA / Testing
Development
Design
Requirements
I was involved with the pilot of QACenter a
testing and defect management tool that was under
trial for rollout as standard throughout the
company. I was required to use the tool on a new
EDRM project and provide feedback on the results.
I was also required to give several presentations
to others within the company on the advantages of
the tool. On the eCOM project I also used the
tool for two complete System Test cycles.
I worked through two full development cycles on
the eCOM project writing unit tests, coding,
reviewing code and running the unit tests. GTX
was used for the application front end. SQL
skills where required for the Oracle database
used on the backend. Sun OS was also used for
our databases and source control. This allowed me
to gain experience of using Unix systems.
For the majority of my placement year I was
working as a developer on the eircom eCOM
project. eCOM is eircoms call centre software
used by agents when handling calls from
customers. I was required to produce a design
document that outlined changes to the retrieval
of data from one of eircoms external customer
records systems
I had the opportunity to join the Requirements
Working Group. This was set up to standardise
Requirements Analysis across the company,
promoting the use of UML as standard. I was
involved with providing feedback on a trial of
Steeltrace - a requirements analysis tool and
producing the working group newsletter.
Student Name Company Name
2003/04 BEng
Thomas Swann Kainos Software Ltd
2005/06 BEng/BSc
38
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
My year of professional experience with
ALTA stands for Adaptive Learning, Teaching and
Assessment. Alta Systems specialises in
developing online assessment solutions for both
schools and students at home. Their main two
clients during my year of employment were CCEA
and SQA. My main role in the company was to
produce questions to be used in the online
assessment system in primary and post-primary
schools. I did this using Macromedia Director
and its associated language Lingo. For each
question code had to be written so that the
question functioned correctly and then they had
to be made appealing to their audience by adding
appropriate images. Some examples of questions
that I did can be seen on the right.
During my year of employment with Alta Systems I
enhanced many of my skills. Using Director and
Lingo has definitely improved my programming
skills. I also learnt many practical aspects of
multimedia such as the use of suitable colours,
layout of objects and size and choice of images.
I also improved valuable skills such as team
working skills and communication skills. My
placement year was undoubtedly a huge success and
I would definitely recommend working with Alta
Systems to anyone interested in working in the
area of multimedia.
Student Name Company Name
2003/04 BEng
Tracey Rutherford Alta Systems
2005/06 BEng/BSc
39
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Company Details
Nisoft is a multinational company with offices in
Belfast, Singapore and Denver. They are a
specialist software company dedicated to
producing software solutions employ in the region
of twenty staff around the globe.
Customers
My Role
Nisoft's sell software to many different
multi-national companies including BP, Centrica,
Edenderry Power, American National Power, DuPont,
Queens University and Powergen.
I worked for Nisoft for a year as a Trainee
Software Engineer. My role involved working
alongside the rest of the software team to
produce variants of Eclipse for new Clients, and
to work on modifications to older versions of
Eclipse.
Software
Nisoft's main product is called 'Eclipse'. This
is a leading 'Safety Document Management Systems
used around the world.
Skills
Eclipse is created using Borland's Delphi 2006
Development Environment.
Whilst working at Nisoft I used Delphi 2006, and
coded in Pascal. My programming has greatly
improved because at Nisoft I has the chance to
code everyday. I received experience in working
with SQL Server and ORACLE and now feel in using
the more complex functions that Borland's Delphi
environment has to offer.
This software is used to use visual components
with Object-Pascal. This combination allows
Nisoft to produce cutting-edge versatile, and
bespoke software that meet and exceed clients
specifications.
Student Name Company Name
2003/04 BEng
David McConnell NiSoft
2005/06 Bsc Computer Science
40
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Placement Role
In Relay I was a junior programmer who mostly
worked on their main application WorkCentre. A
specialised insurance software. I also worked on
some other internal applications to help improve
time management and organisation in the
company. This involved me learning and
developing on the skills mentioned below .
Close to QUB. 10 min walk. Located on Ormeau Road.
Student Name Company Name
2003/04 BEng
Matthew Bibb Relay Business Software
2006/07 BEng/BSc CSc
41
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Ecom Software Limited Based on the Lisburn road
overlooking Drumglass park, Ecom specialises in
intranet and internet browser based software
solutions. While Ecom develops a broad range of
applications for a wide variety of clients its
core offerings are website content management
systems and online expense claims and purchase
order systems.
Placement Role On my placement I primarily
supported existing products liaising with clients
via phone and email and troubleshooting problems
remotely. I was also involved in the development
of new products, being given the opportunity to
contribute to multiple aspects of the software
development process including design,
implementation and testing.

• Benefits of Placement
• Experience of the following technologies ASP /
  VBScript, VB 6, ASP.NET / VB.NET, AJAX, ActiveX,
  DHTML, Perl, Microsoft SQL Server, Internet
  Information Services, Active Directory, Windows
  Server

• Enhanced Soft Skills including Teamwork,
  Communication, Time Management, Problem
  Solving, Troubleshooting, Self discipline,
  Adaptability
• Company social events (not for the faint
  hearted!)
• Opportunity to participate in the Belfast City
  marathon as part of the Ecom relay team.

Reflections on Placement On the whole I very
much enjoyed the placement experience. Despite my
status as the student I felt like a valued
member of the team, even being given a software
project to develop on my own near the end of my
placement. I would not hesitate to recommend
Ecom for placement, the amount I learned even in
the first couple of months was phenomenal and
the people there were the friendliest bunch of
guys I could ever hope to work with.
Student Name Company Name
2003/04 BEng
B McLeod Ecom Software Ltd.
2007/08 BEng/BSc CSc
42
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Profile
Projects
Like to work for
Name Michael James McMeekin Company Microsoft
Ireland Role International Project
Engineer Team Windows Live EMEA
Name Windows Live OneCare Role Localisation
Program Manager Task Vendor Management across
EMEA Name Windows Live Anti-Phishing Role
Localisation Program Manager Task Vendor
Management across EMEA Name Windows Live
EDB2URL Role Lead Developer Task Plan, Design
and Develop
Hours Pay Experience Porridge Benefits
Subsided Canteen, Heavily discounted
store, Flexitime, a lot of events, Relaxed work
environment
Skills
Languages C/DHTML/AJAX/ Technologies ASP.NET
2.0/WebServices Other Good people and time
management skills
Michael James McMeekin Microsoft Ireland
2006/07 BSc BIT
43
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
ICS Computing is the largest privately owned
provider of HR and Payroll software and services
in the UK.

• Placement Role Software Release Co-ordinator
• I assisted the product development team to manage
  parallel development projects.
• I controlled the release of software to new and
  existing clients.
• I liaise with the sales and business analyst
  teams to keep them up-to-date with new
  development undertaken both.
• I helped to develop procedures in accordance with
  ISO9001 standards to control the above tasks.
• I investigated the integration of the Perito
  product with new tools and technologies.
• Produce management information in relation to my
  role and customers used for support and invoicing
  customers for the work they required.

Brief description of company ICS are one of the
leading providers in the UK and Ireland of,
Accounting and Distribution software and Public
Sector Software which help you to manage some of
the most complex business processes in a way that
is innovative, flexible and future-proof. Perito
Accounts Software A financial and business
management solution that is robust, simple to use
and acts as the backbone of operations. It
incorporates both financial accounting and
distribution software, giving the user complete
control over the financial core of their
business.

• Skills and knowledge gained though placement
  experience
• Enhanced communication and self awareness
• Time and task management motivation, flexibility
• Analytical problem solving skills
• Knowledge of Perito accounts, business awareness
• Producing reports and management information,
  networking and negotiation

• New software and operating systems used during
  placement
• VMS, alpha tape drives
• Citrix Program neighbourhood,
• PowerTerm, Starteam, WebEx
• Synergy DE, composer, Perito
• ODBC Open database Connectivity

Student Profile Name Patricia-Anne
Kearney Pathway BSC Business Information
Technology Company ICS Computing Position
Software Release Co-ordinator Department
Accounting Software Division Product Perito
Accounts
Patricia-Anne Kearney ICS Computing
2006/07 BSc BIT
44
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Personal Profile Name Neil Young Course
BSc Business Information
Technology Company Lagan Technologies Position
Pre Sales Consultant
Skills Acquired SQL ,XML, BPM, HTML Lagan
Frontline, Lagan E-Forms
Company Profile ? Established 1994 ? Primarily
Based in UK and USA ? Main product produced is
the Frontline CRM solution ? Lagan is the
leading supplier of CRM solutions to UK local
government with over 80 customers
Lagan Experience Being a member of the Pre-Sales
team, I was involved in working on demos that
were being used for Lagan contract bids (such as
the bid for the city of Miami). I would prepare
demonstrations which would show the benefits of
Lagans Frontline Product and how it could be
individually tailored to suit their particular
needs. Then I would make a ScreenCam recording of
the demo in action. Another main activity I
performed was the creation of E-Forms for
customers using a combination of the Lagan E-Form
GUI and XML. Working for Lagan helped me to gain
further insight into working within an I.T based
environment, it also helped me improve my team
working skills by co-operating with employees
from other teams and departments.
Neil Young Lagan Technologies
2005/06 BSc BIT
45
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
Ireland Ltd
Name Clare Hagan Course Title BSc Business
Information Technology Job Title Finance
Clerk Job Responsibilities Raising and credit
control of Sundry Invoices, processing Beer
Vouchers, handling and upkeep of Discount
Databases, dealing with suppliers who owed the
company money and stock, and reconciliation of
control accounts. InBev! InBev is a global
brewing organisation which was formed in 2004
when Interbrew and Companhia de Bebidas das
Americas (AmBev) combined. It is headquartered
in Belgium and is the biggest brewer by volume in
the world, selling 190 million hectolitres per
year, which accounts for 13 of the world beer
market. InBev has more than 200 brands worldwide
including three of the most well known Stella
Artois, Brahma, and Becks.

• Skills Acquired
• During my 10 months of placement in InBev Ireland
  Ltd I acquired many new skills. A few of these
  are
• I became more confident in myself and in my own
  working ability
• I learned to manage my tasks and my time more
  effectively.
• My communication skills improved immensely,
  especially on the phone, as well as verbally with
  colleagues and managers.
• Relevance of Placement
• My placement was more relevant to the business
  part of my degree as it was in the Finance
  department. Through working with other
  departments I was able to see how theory I had
  learnt in university was put into practice in the
  daily operation of the company.

Clare Hagan InBev Ireland Ltd
2005/06 BSc BIT
46
Computer Science
Year of Professional Experience
About ISB ISB is part of the Corporate Services
Department of Belfast City Council, Northern
Ireland and has been providing IS/IT services to
Belfast City Council and other organisations for
over 30 years. ISB has been awarded the
prestigious Charter Mark for excellence in
customer service. ISB was the 1st Internal
Service in Northern Ireland to be awarded Charter
Mark, and only the 5th in the UK. Now that they
have set a standard they endeavour to continue to
support users to the best of their ability in
Information Systems in the future. ISB
employs 120 staff, although numbers vary
according to workload and demand. ISB strives to
deliver quality IS services to all our customers
at all times.
Student Profile Name Deane Woods Course BSC
Business Information Technology Company Name
Belfast City Council (ISB) Position Desktop
Placement Student Placement Length 13 months
Skills Acquired at ISB During my placement year
I have gained and improved upon many skills. I
have had extensive experience in the field of IT
Support. My time management skills have improved
as I have had to deal with high call volumes. My
communication and teamwork skills have improved
as I have had to work efficiently and effectively
with several other teams, people and companies to
get calls closed.
My Role within ISB I was the Desktop placement
student. Although I also worked with the
Infrastructure team quite closely as they
amalgamated these teams within the previous year
and only hired 1 student within 2006/07. My role
was mainly Desktop IT Support to Belfast city
centre locations for example City Hall and the
Waterfront Hall as well as many other council
buildings. I dealt with all desktop issues
including hardware and software problems. I
worked closely not only with the Infrastructure
team but also with the Service Desk, ISB
developers and external companies for example HP
and Dell. During my placement with ISB I closed
over 540 calls.
Our Vision To work in partnership with our
customers to deliver relevant and effective
services which establish Belfast City Council as
an innovative Local Authority offering
leadership, quality and choice to its citizens,
visitors and businesses.
Deane Woods Belfast City Council
(ISB)
2006/07 BSc BIT
47
Website Demo
Careers YoPE Website www.cs.qub.ac.uk/yearout