Josie, Oxford, Maths
At the beginning of my fourth year, I started vaguely thinking about what I'd do next. I'd done a couple of computing modules during my degree and, although they were strictly theoretical, it was enough to convince me that I might enjoy working as a software developer. Fortunately, Ensoft didn't see my lack of practical experience as a drawback; in fact, I'm not sure I was even asked about it during the interview.
I started at Ensoft in September 2010, with three others, and initially felt rather the odd one out, as the only one who hadn't done any real coding before. However, the training started at a good level; simple enough for me to understand, but not so basic that the others were bored.
After the initial three weeks of 'boot camp', each of us moved into a team to start real work. The teams at Ensoft are relatively small; typically three to five people, one of whom is assigned to be your mentor for the first year.
I started off bugfixing code developed for a wide range of networking protocols, which gave me a much broader understanding than working on one narrow area would have, and was a great way to start off. Four months later, I moved teams to start work on an entirely new project. This was a great opportunity to put my newly-acquired knowledge into practise; but because I still had support from a mentor, it wasn't too much like being thrown in at the deep end!
Although I enjoy the work, what really makes me think Ensoft was the right choice is the people. I'm now living with a bunch of colleagues, and most of my social life is centred around doing things with Ensoft people. Larger 'official' (i.e. Ensoft-sponsored!) socials tend to happen about once a month, but in a typical week there'll be a pub quiz, a trip to the cinema, a bridge night, lunches out (especially on Fridays!), more pub trips, and likely a bunch of other stuff that by this point I'm too sleep-deprived to attend! This winter, a bunch of us are going to New York for New Year. It will be an excellent end to an excellent first year-and-a-bit of working life ;-)