1. What made you decide to apply to Citrix?
When I was applying for roles I was looking at job descriptions and on reading the Citrix description they appealed to me as they were trying to improve the work space and the workflow for a better future. They mentioned cloud computing and cloud technologies, both of which sounded really interesting. I was looking to work with different technologies and be involved on real products within the industry, something which Citrix offers.
2. As a software developer, what do you feel is the importance of an Industrial Placement?
For me it was important to learn more about the 'end to end' process, gathering requirements from customers or how to start an idea or a project. I wanted to learn how to put those requirements into a developed solution that can then be delivered to customers. The full software development process was really important to me. I'd done software engineering and a few courses and projects but nothing start to finish so it was nice to see this process from a big company’s perspective, going year to year, planning for the future.
3. What is a typical day at Citrix like?
The day is pretty flexible, which is what I like. I usually arrive between 9 and 10. Normally we have a daily 15 minute stand up with my team, we all get together and all say within 1 or 2 minutes what we've worked on the day before, what we are working on today and if we have any problems or any questions. After that I set my goals for the day. I usually have an hour for lunch to disconnect, to have a real break from work. When I feel like I've accomplished what I've needed for that day then that's pretty much when I sign off for the day.
4. What projects did you get involved in during your industrial placement?
When we started we had some very helpful training on what Citrix does, the products and how we get and solve projects. This meant we knew what to expect. After which we had a little basic training in our teams on the languages we were going to use, the technologies we were currently using and what we were trying to implement for the future.
I mostly work on one project at a time. So I started on a user interface/experience project when I started my placement for a few months. After that I moved onto a different project working on the back-end server for one of the platforms used by our customers.
Citrix is great as it keeps things flexible depending on what you’re working on and what you want to do. Hopefully in the future I'll get to move again to something like Cloud Micro Services.
5. What has been the most enjoyable aspect of your industrial placement at Citrix?
Probably the thing I've enjoyed the most is the atmosphere here at Citrix. When I joined there were 25 interns who started at the same time. It was nice to have that experience of us all starting at the beginning. Interns can work on side projects, we can work together and we can share experiences. It wasn't frightening, we all started together and helped each other when senior engineers asked us to work on tasks.
6. What advice would you give to anyone looking to apply to Citrix?
I'd always advise people to just apply to Citrix because depending on what you want to do it's easy to find something that suits you. We support a variety of programming languages and agile methodologies. I didn't know what I wanted to do or which area I wanted to go into but you can find your own area with all the help and support you could want from your manager.
7. Has your industrial placement at Citrix helped you determine your career direction?
Yes, definitely. I think there are so many programming languages and so many companies to work with nowadays that it's easy to get confused. I know what I like to do and the technologies I want to work on and this definitely helps. I don't know specifically, as areas within software developing can be very niche, but I'm closer to finding the path that I want to get more experience in thanks to my work at Citrix.