Current rotation is in the Voice+AI team that deals with delivering news on the main BBC Alexa skill. Its been a great project to be a part of - delivering news - what the BBC is best known for, on a brand new platform.
The best piece of advice I can give is that you get out of what you put into it. Pair regularly and depending on the team; try some tickets for yourself when you get more comfortable and be ambitious. Don’t just pick the easy ones; you will learn much more that way! The more obvious advice is make sure to ask questions, there is no bad question and make the most of the rotation you are in.
Work on side projects when you start off in a new rotation, this will depend on what product you are working on, but for most they will give you some time to get a grip of the technology you will be using. For example in Voice+AI I made a tram finder app for the Manchester Metrolink to better understand how Alexa skills are made. Within a web team I had a go at making my own back-end API / website using patterns the team used. I feel that for me I get the most out of this. It might feel wrong to work on something that doesn’t contribute to the overall product but in the long run it will give you a much better understanding for you to be able to work on the product with greater confidence and much earlier than if you hadn’t.
I implemented a way for the Voice department to test Alexa skills functionality using a library called Botium. Basically end-to-end tests that are vital to a live product.
This tool also allowed developers to test Alexa skills without getting an Alexa device out the cupboard and manually speaking into it, massively speeding up development.
I worked with multiple teams in Voice+AI to accomplish this and implemented it into the main Alexa skill that is now part of the build process and used across teams.
I presented this in one of the All Hands meetings with the testers in Voice and the reaction was great. This has definitely improved my ability as a software engineer and my confidence when it comes to adding bigger features and interacting with other teams.
I have been involved in a STEM event at a school that was running a business event. Classes had to come up with business ideas and propose them to us, kind of like Dragons’ Den. I have only done this once so far and very much enjoyed it and would recommend to try at least one STEM event and put yourself out there. It is extremely rewarding to help the younger generation get into STEM subjects and just a good day out!
I have been part of the hack day that was put on for the graduates in December 2019. It was such a great event working with the grads in the year above and a great opportunity to work with your fellow grads, as you don’t really get that opportunity in your rotations. This was also a great learning experience and not just engineering but management and coming up with a project from scratch.
I have also had the opportunity to go to Amsterdam to attend IBC in 2019 and I cannot wait to go!
