Case studies : Junior Software Programmer: James Ley

James Ley is a Junior Software Programmer at Dorset Software. Before joining the company he graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BSc in Mathematics.

During my final year at University I spent a number of months considering what career to pursue, and found myself applying for jobs in a fairly wide spectrum of the job market including Accountancy, Actuarial work and Software Development. I applied to Dorset Software after seeing an advertisement on Prospects and, after a successful interview I joined Dorset Software.

I have been involved with a project building a Content Management System (CMS) to assist Medical Practitioners with patient referrals to hospitals. This project saw me getting more involved with the design process associated with software development. The development for this project was fairly rapid, with each day being spent speaking to the client about their requirements, developing a suitable solution and then feeding the results back to the client for their feedback. CMS projects often require some compromises to be made in order for the benefits of using the CMS to be fully appreciated, as such it was important to try and fit the client requirements to the structure of the CMS.

My day-to-day routine very rarely follows the same pattern due to the variety of work on offer within the Company. For the previous 5 months I’ve gained experience of testing where I was responsible for the construction, documentation and execution of formal test scripts for a company who develop custom labelling software. On a day-to-day basis this role involves consulting the functional specification of the system being tested, testing the individual components of the system and then formulating a formal test plan that outlines how the system will be tested. The formal test documents are then executed and are used as objective evidence that the software has received sufficient testing and functions as expected.

Since joining Dorset I have progressed from the Graduate Software Programmer level to the Junior Software Programmer level, which reflects the knowledge and skills I have gained. I hope to continue developing my technical abilities and soft skills through both the practical work and training available at Dorset. As Dorset is a Microsoft gold partner I also hope to complete some Microsoft technology exams over the coming months; and am also looking to gain some experience in non Microsoft technologies such as PHP.

The training offered at Dorset Software is second to none and, provided you’re willing to put the hard work and time in, provides any eligible graduate with the necessary skills to begin a successful career in the Software Industry. Even if you have little experience in this sector I would strongly recommend you apply; you’ll be amazed how quickly you gain quality experience and skills.