Applying My Degree To Industry

Katherine Sanderskatherine_sanders@uk.ibm.com

May 4, 2011

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Background Info

• BSc Computer Science, University of Nottingham, 2004

• 2003 – Summer Placement @ Nottingham University Hospitals Trust

• 2004-2006 – Programmer/Developer @ Nottingham University Hospitals Trust

• 2007-present – Software Engineer @ IBM Hursley

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Example Projects That Used Skills I Learned At

Nottingham• Website to track A&E waiting times in real time using

a traffic light system– Web Development– Relational Databases / SQL– User Interface Design

• WebSphere MQ Version 7 – Automated UNIX installation and migration tests– UNIX – HP-UX, Solaris, RHEL, SUSE, AIX– Perl

• WebSphere Application Server Version 8 – Led a team to develop, test and document JAX-WS 2.2 WS-Addressing support– Java– XML– Web Services– Project Management

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Important Skills For Industry

• Testing (Unit, Functional and System)• Security• Performance• Thread Safety• Source Code Control• Serviceability / Code Maintenance• Project Management / Risk Assessment• Legal

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Useful Soft Skills• Your course teaches more than just technical skills

– This is important because technologies are constantly changing

• E.g. The group project gives you an opportunity to learn:– Teamworking– Communication– Adaptability– Taking Ownership– Creative Problem Solving– Drive and Leadership– Passion For The Business– Client Focus

• These are the same skills IBM looks for at Assessment Centres

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Summary

• Technical skills are important in industry• However specific technologies are

constantly changing• Your course has taught you how to pick up

new technologies quickly• Look for opportunities to develop:

– Soft skills like teamworking, communication and leadership

– Industry skills like testing and serviceability

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Shameless IBM Plug

• World’s largest IT and Consulting Services company

• Topped US patent list for 18 consecutive years

• IBMers have been awarded 5 Nobel Prizes, 4 Turing Awards, 9 National Medals of Technology, 5 National Medals of Science

• Celebrating 100 years of IBM in 2011• Award winning graduate employer with

11 different job roles on offer