“The placement gave me real life working scenarios”

Ella Chambers tells us how her placement year helped with her career

Ella Chambers undertook a placement with Sponge Learning as a Junior e-learning Developer during the 3rd year of her course* at the University.

“Graduating university, I felt so much more confident and knowledgeable with a placement year behind me and felt that I had more to show off and offer.”

^{*Internet Design, now}^{BA (Hons) Game Arts and Design}

Securing the placement

The team from Sponge came to the University to do a talk during one of our modules – they were really friendly and welcoming; meeting them and seeing their talk is what inspired me to apply for their placement. The team and the working environment that they spoke of was enough to inspire me to want to work there.

I filled in an application form online, then had a telephone interview, an in-person interview, a test, followed by another in person interview. At the time the process felt quite lengthy and very nerve wracking but was great preparation for ‘real life’ interviews, any companies I’ve interviewed for have had equally lengthy processes, so it helped to know that I had been successful at it once before.

Roles and responsibilities of the placement

@I worked very closely with the whole development team and felt very fortunate to work with a group of very kind experienced people.
@Created projects for a large variety of clients from Tesco to Ecco creating pieces of e-learning content that could be used within their businesses to educate their staff on various topics.
@Became a part of the quality assurance process and helped to assess work created by other members of the team.
@A few months in I was given the responsibility of managing the Learning Management System.

@Often helped to solve client issues or bugs that were found within our e-learning modules.
@Got to create more gamified e-learning modules, which were particularly fun and challenging.
@Worked with various other teams such as design, learning & development and project management. It was really beneficial learning how to work and communicate well with other departments.
@Towards the end I was lucky to be quite independent and confident in my role. I was genuinely sad to leave the team.

Support during the placement

If it wasn’t for Sponge coming to the University and doing the talk, I wouldn’t have ever found them. I wasn’t at all interested in doing a placement before I went to that talk, so if it wasn’t for that then I wouldn’t have done a placement!

Our lecturers were amazing; I think that the support we had from some staff during my second year is what helped me feel confident and allowed me to present myself well during interviews. During the placement my lecturer was always there if I needed help or advice. I knew that if I ever felt concerned about something that I had a safe space where I could go. I was also in the year of placements that were affected by COVID so they were also there to support with all of the unknowns that came from that. Throughout the whole four years they were absolutely amazing, and I owe a lot of my drive and ambition to them. I don’t think I’d be in my current role if it wasn’t for the time they spent with me, and how they helped me to grow and push myself.

I think attention to detail was probably one of the core skills that we learnt at university, which was crucial to the placement, it helped me become better at quality testing my own work and others. Also bug fixing, being confident at finding solutions to new issues and being able to solve them yourself without having to lean on others.

Skills gained and benefits of the placement

Having never worked in an office environment there was a lot to learn with just general office etiquette and confidence – my office job following this was nowhere near as daunting as it would have been had I not done a placement.

The placement helped with being able to communicate effectively and not being afraid to admit when something isn’t going well; I was lucky to be surrounded by an amazing team who were there to support when it was needed. I know now that one of the things my current team like about me is that I can put my hands up and ask for help when I need it.

The placement made me better at productivity and time keeping – at my placement and my current job we had to time our work so that it could be charged correctly; it’s something that I know some people in the industry struggle with, but thanks to my placement I can do it without any stress.

It also further developed my quality assurance and bug testing skills which are two key components at my current job.

How the placement advances career options

The placement gave me real life working scenarios to talk about in interviews when finding my first full time job out of university, which I think was attractive to those who were interviewing me. It also made me feel more confident because I knew that I would be able to tackle whatever was thrown at me.

At Sponge I had great line managers who were kind enough to write great recommendations for me on LinkedIn which helped when applying for jobs.

My lecturer can vouch that I was not even vaguely considering a placement until I saw Sponge and I am so glad that my mind was changed, it was one of the best experiences of my working life yet and had so many benefits and many that weren’t career based.

Benefits of the placement

Overall, my placement just confirmed that I wanted to be in the technical industry – after the year I realised that e-learning wasn’t my calling, but even knowing that now I wouldn’t change a thing. Graduating university, I felt so much more confident and knowledgeable with a placement year behind me and felt that I had more to show off and offer.

All the students in our year who did a placement came back to 4th year as different people. We were all so much more organised, productive, motivated, and hard working. At that point we all wanted to finish so badly but wanted to finish well and make ourselves proud. When given the opportunity to work in groups we always gravitated to each other because we had so much in common and our placements really gave us a strong work ethic.

Study BA (Hons) Game Arts and Design

Bring your creativity to the world of computer games. Learn 3D modelling, 2D art and animation, level design and gameplay coding. Games industry experts will guide you through all aspects of game design and development, building a full understanding of the game creation process and allowing you to specialise in the areas you find most engaging.

Learn more about the course