Building a Tech Career: A Placement Year at Codeweavers

Codeweavers was recently joined by Edward, a Computer Science student from De Montfort University in Leicester, as part of his university placement year. During the final weeks of Edward's placement, we chatted with him to hear more about his experience and what he learned during his time with the team.

"I joined Codeweavers as a placement student in early September 2023 in the hope of learning more about software development in a business setting whilst also improving a variety of soft and hard skills.

"I first heard about Codeweavers' placement opportunities through my university's job board, and from the very first interview, I was keen to join the team. The interview for this role was completely different to any I had previously experienced. Firstly, it was one-to-one, compared to previous interviews that had been with a panel. This instantly put me at ease and allowed me to build more rapport with my interviewer. Although the Codeweavers team obviously discussed my technical abilities as part of the interview, the focus was mainly on who I was as a person, as opposed to what I did and didn't know in previous interviews. This meant that the Codeweavers interview had a completely different atmosphere, one where I could be myself, and there wasn't an expectation to be something I was not. From this point onwards, I was excited to join the team!

"Coming into Codeweavers, I assumed I would have a week's training before being thrown into a team. However, the structure of my placement year, and particularly my induction, was really well considered. I was put in an induction group, which was made up of other people new to the business and Codeweavers employees who wanted to learn new skills. I stayed with this group for around three months, where we learnt about the Cox Automotive values, the focus of learning organisations and small feedback loops, and some of the technologies that Codeweavers uses. It was also a good chance to meet people from across the business, as many of them came to facilitate during the program.

"In January, I joined the Digital Store team, which focuses on covering all the elements of the car purchasing journey. I was initially a bit nervous when joining; however, when I got put into a mob and started working, a lot of those nerves went away. I have no doubt that without the induction program, joining a new team would have been more daunting, but this experience improved my confidence and was a great opportunity to work with and learn from some more senior developers. In three months of working in the Digital Store, I became a more confident and efficient developer and gained a good level of knowledge on most of the codebase.

"Following this, I joined the Retailer Delivery team, which provides and maintains tools for the retailer network that offers consumers an accessible vehicle buying experience. I decided to change teams as this would allow me to see more of the business, work with people I had not before and see how a different team works to achieve its goal. At Retailer Delivery, I worked mostly with another placement student, which allowed me to work on skills that I may not have been able to improve as much while working with developers with a lot more experience.

"Looking back at my placement, there is so much I can take away that will help not only in the long term as I further my career but also in the short term as I go into my final year at university. One specific thing I can take away is the knowledge and skills to efficiently deliver a working solution to a problem over the course of multiple iterations. My biggest success was being able to seamlessly join and positively affect two different teams in such a short space of time.

"I have enjoyed my time immensely at Codeweavers, in part because of the people and also because of the positive culture instilled here. The Codeweavers and Cox Automotive team have been welcoming and warm towards me. Whenever I need help with a problem, someone is always happy to help, and I always receive constructive feedback on my work. I would absolutely recommend the placement opportunities to anyone who wants to gain a footing in this industry, and I can't wait to continue my journey with Codeweavers through my final academic year and beyond."

If you're interested in joining Codeweavers, check out our careers page for the latest job openings. Alternatively, you can search for careers within the wider Cox Automotive team.

Codeweavers

Our cookies

We use analytics cookies to collect information about how our site is being used. We use these cookies to allow us to improve our services. Tell me more