Work Experience

Dylan - A week on the research and development team

I chose to do my work experience at SCT as I noticed it was a company that was doing research and development, which is the field of work I am interested in going into.

The team created a nice workplace; it wasn’t overwhelming at all as everyone was really kind and welcoming. I was also able to meet at least one person in each department which just isn’t something I would be able to do in many other places.

On the day to day about half of my time was spent on developing the first stages of an app project with Kara who was also doing work experience at the time. The other half of my time was spent on speaking to all the other departments and learning what it is they do, how they do it and what it leads to.

Looking back, I really did learn a lot about the industry I am interested in working in and it was especially good when I was talking to all the different departments and engineers about what they do. It was so nice to see how well my current studies actually apply to this field of work.

Finally, I am really grateful for the opportunity to be able to do work experience here as it really did open my eyes to the world of work; I was actually speaking to people learning about what they do, and the app project really gave me an overview of what it was like to work in a real team and contribute to an important project.  

Kara - A week as a customer experience designer

My name is Kara, and I did a week’s work experience at SCT, as a Customer Experience Designer. I currently study English literature and language, digital media, and history for my A-levels. 

One of the key reasons that made me want to do my work experience at SCT was the chance to take on a more involved role at a close-knit company, compared to joining a very large company where I wouldn’t be able to make much of a difference, and be one of ten other students doing work experience. SCT also provided me with the chance to be an internal liaison between their company and an external digital marketing company that they use. This gave me experience of an official digital marketing company and what they focus on, whilst also allowing me to implement my own knowledge into my work experience project. This project aligned well with what I do in my digital media course, which includes designing products like adverts and videos. 

My first impression of the team was how friendly they all were, and by the end of the week I felt like I could ask them for guidance without feeling nervous or intimidated. My first impression of the office was that it was a nice space to work in. I’m not very used to offices, so it took a bit of getting used to, but the building was easy to navigate, and my desk was well-equipped with everything I needed. 

If I could come back in the future, I would love to help with the social media marketing and designing user experiences for their customers. I think I’d like to be able to interact more with the team and help SCT grow on modern social media. 

During my week at SCT I was tasked with designing a sample of a mobile app, which my partner and I, who was more involved with the technical side, would present to the team at the end of the week. This gave me the opportunity to use a design software called ‘Figma’ for the first time, which I used for the UI (user interface) design aspect of the project. This was my favourite task, as I love working out colour schemes and composition for products, so spending an entire day focusing on this was really cool. At first, I did find the in-depth look into aspects of a mobile app to be challenging, as there was much of it that I hadn’t delved into at school before, and therefore writing a presentation slide on my ideas for it was difficult. However, once I was taught more about it and I understood the company’s function better, I was able to effectively work on this task. 

This work experience has made me realise just how enjoyable a marketing or UX (user experience) job is, as previously I was leaning towards different aspects of digital media. It’s made me feel a lot more capable and ready to take on a job as well, as I’ve learnt much more about how companies operate. Something I’ll take away from this experience is how to work in a team like SCT’s, and how to market and design products I didn’t necessarily know about beforehand. 

The most fun part of the week was the company lunch we had on my last day. It was great to chat with everyone on the team, and it really made me feel like I was part of a community. I also found my final presentation interesting. The atmosphere throughout made me feel comfortable and stopped me from getting too nervous. The feedback I got from the team afterwards was also incredibly valuable. 

For any other students interested in doing work experience here, I would definitely recommend it. You can easily get help from the right people at the right times, and there’s a variety of different jobs within the company that you can gain some experience in. Personally, I know very little about computer science, but I found it really interesting to hear about other team members’ jobs in aspects like mechanical engineering and software development. Currently, there’s not many internal digital marketing or UI/UX roles, but they were very accommodating and set up an opportunity for me to speak to a very knowledgeable external marketing team and gain some integral advice. It's a brilliant chance to engage in a professional but relaxed environment, where you get to learn a lot of new skills.