My time at Mesomorphic

Ariadna Biczuk share her experiences on her work placement with Mesomorphic.

• 28 September 2017
• By Ariadna Biczuk
•  Work Experience

My name is Ariadna Biczuk and I am 15 years old.

I currently study art, computing, English, German, history, math and biology at school.

My future ambitions are to either study further Arts or Media.

Since studying computing at school I have developed a knowledge and interest in Software Design, and so I was keen to proceed in this area for work experience.

I was introduced to Mesomorphic by my guidance teacher and my friend, Ceileidh who works there and is the daughter of the companies Director and Lead Developer, Barnaby Mercer. Immediately, I was very interested in getting involved! Not long after, I received a message from Ceileidh who was as, or maybe even more, excited to have me join the team!

Day One

Naturally, on my first day I was very nervous to start working with the team. However, upon my arrival, my first impression was a really kind and calm environment. Everyone was very welcome and ensured I fit in and wasn’t stressed.

When I arrived, I met with Tim and Ross who got me set up and introduced themselves and the company to me. I got a tour and soon met Barnaby who I had heard of before, and was very happy to meet for the first time!

Each morning the team do “Stand up”, this is so they can all inform each other what they have been working on the previous day as well as set goals for the current day. After Stand up

I got assigned to shadow Tim while he was developing software. At school I usually focus on the coding for the design of a software so this was relatively new to me. However, Tim was very patient and ensured I understood what steps he was taking. Soon after, I got to take hold of the wheel. At first being afraid I would somehow damage and/or delete his hard work, with Tim’s guidance, I think I did pretty well for a rookie!

The day few by fast, and with only a couple hours left of work, Barnaby and I decided to join forces and assemble a few new desks for the office. I heard the horrors of another team member, Matthew, attempting to assemble one of these desks and the struggles which came with it. Nevertheless, we were still ready for the challenge. In the end, one desk proved to be our breaking point.

Day Two

On the second day, all my nerves were gone.

I was given independent tasks to work on and signed up for member pages such as Slack and Atlassian.

Tim and I worked on testing SnapDragon, a counterfeit software Mesomorphic is developing, which we found some minor errors to work on and I was given the employee Handbook as well as Mesomorphic business plans to read up on.

Around 11am, there was a meeting conducted to discuss how to develop Mesomorphic’s website more. I felt really glad to be able to share my ideas and views on how the website could be improved. I also had the critical job to get more milk as we had run out for our coffee.

After lunch, Barnaby had an idea for me to translate the user interface (Snapdragon) into more languages. I got given the files and began on adding Polish and Korean into the coding.

I was anxious at first to not make any grammatical mistakes as this was going on the website for foreign clients to use, but after proof reading multiple times the translated coding for the main dashboard navigation, it got implemented! :)

Day Three

On Wednesday, I got introduced to Matthew who is another developer who had just returned from New York.

In the morning I was assigned to shadow Matthew, and together we worked on translating more of the user interface. He sent me more files to work on and then explained how he was implementing them into the actual software. This was very important moment to me, I was seeing the work I had been doing, being actually used by the company.

Soon after lunch, I got a monitor and a bracket to assemble. This was when I was made aware of the location of the First Aid Box. As badly as it could have ended, no monitors were impaled by brackets and with some assistance from Barnaby, the set was put together quite nicely!

After finishing all the tasks assigned, I got a lovely surprise of gifts from the team! I received a company hoodie, which made me feel very official, and two other great gifts, along with a thank you card. I was very appreciative to the whole team for making my stay so warm.

Knowing the week was soon coming to an end was a very upsetting realisation to make.

Day Four

The second last day of work was certainly a busy one.

I received an email the day before from Barnaby, asking whether or not I would like to join into the teams weekly tradition of hosting a presentation on Friday. Of course, I happily accepted and used some time to begin planning my short talk!

Matthew and I continued to work on the translations, and I got sent more files which I edited using Atom. As I translated, Matthew was working on implementing all those different translations into the strings. “Team work makes the dream work” definitely could be used in this circumstance.

Tim helped me set up to begin writing up my Blog post, which I was really eager to begin and get some experience in the media side of things.

Day Five

The night before my last day, I had finished and sent off some more translations that Matthew had for me.

Being the last day, I wanted to finish off any work that I had left. Working on my presentation and blog was a priority, as well as anymore translations Matthew maybe would surprise me with.

For lunch, we went out as a team and ate pizza together. Which was a lovely experience!

I conducted my presentation near the end of the day, which went quite well considering how nervous I was!

Having completed my work week at Mesomorphic, I can easily say that it was a worthwhile choice. As well as having gained a larger knowledge in Software development, I have improve personal qualities which will last me a life time.

I would like to thank the whole team for making my week at Mesomorphic so kind and welcoming. I felt like a part of the team and was comfortable with asking for any help.

Mesomorphic is definitely the right place to come to for experience and gaining more understanding in IT!