Since 2012 1E has operated a Graduate Training Scheme within our software engineering department. We all recently joined the company as part of their second intake of graduates. This graduate diary series we hope will allow future graduates to get a feel for life at 1E.
During our first week in 1E we were introduced to the rest of the staff within the department, who were very welcoming and at ease with both us and each other. We were invited to an engineering team day, where everyone was very open about the processes used in the past and how they could be improved.
The engineering team day involved discussions on how to work better individually and in our respective teams. We also partook in some team building exercises which were quite challenging but also fun. The evening was accompanied by a trip to the pub. A bit conscious, (this was our first day!), some of us were a little reluctant. But after some gentle persuasion, we had one, or two drinks. The rest of the first week flew by. As well as the wider engineering team, we got to meet each and every one in all departments within the company, and had HR and IT inductions. We were also instantly involved in the calendar of 1E activities and competitions, of which there are many. Kanthiraj and his mentor even to win the company's Christmas tree decoration competition.
Later on in the week, our line managers treated us to a company lunch in order to get to know us better. We started to work for different teams but we had enough time to have regular knowledge sharing sessions amongst ourselves to learn about principles used within 1E such as testing methodologies and virtualization technologies. We were introduced to our mentors and given objectives for the next few months which were generally our work flow. We each began work on separate products.
The Engineering work floor is the coolest place in the whole company building with high tech trolley labs, the network scalability lab, engineering desks, and most importantly a fully stocked kitchen for snacks and breakfast, courtesy of a weekly Waitrose delivery (No joke!). We communicate with the team using Lync and Yammer, and access the knowledge base using SharePoint and Confluence. Fortnightly engineering meetings and monthly company updates by the CEO eliminates the question ‘What’s going on?’, that seems to plague so many companies.
An achiever of two star accreditation and appearances in the Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For, after just one week, any doubts and nervousness we may have had as new starters were long gone.