As part of KMP’s support of the Year in Industry initiative we took on two new students in the summer. This is KMP’s 9th year in the program and the two students are more than 6 months into their placement.
Graham Smith – Junior Developer
Working at KMP has been a non-stop tour around the technical world. I have done so much over the last 6 months ranging from coding for API’s, systems administration, becoming the “printer guy” to cleaning the air conditioning filters (someone has to do it).
Before I came to KMP my confidence in my coding was less than brilliant, but with help and support over the last 6 months it has improved significantly, which will be a great help to me as I go into my final year. Working in a production environment has shown me how projects actually go live and how they can be configured, which is something that is seldom seen in the theoretical and academic world. Being at KMP has also inspired me to look deeper into social media and how this can be applied to various scenarios that I would not have thought of before.
I’d have to say my highlight was completing my first Facebook application, I really put blood, sweat and tears into the project and eventually got a good end result. There were some complex obstacles to overcome, which on reflection provided some of the best experience that I would never have got if I hadn’t come on placement. If that wasn’t enough, then I got employee of the month in February.
Over the coming 6 months I think I’ll see more of what I have learned, and tried not to forget, put into practice and built on even further. As time has gone on I have been given more responsibility, which I see as a natural progression that will probably continue.
My recommendations to future students, in the technical area: be prepared for quite an intense and varied role. Unlike other placement opportunities you will be working on various tasks, often at the same time, so time management is important. Don’t be like me and not drink tea or coffee and therefore not have to make rounds, this could very well mean you won’t get the job…
Tim Brook – Junior Front End Developer
Over the past 6 months at KMP I’ve worked on various projects from small page amends to dynamic websites and emails viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. My knowledge and understanding of HTML & CSS has developed incredibly and I am now starting to dive into HTML5 and jQuery. I have also learnt a lot of skills that only develop by working in studio, from time management to the development of a project, from the initial pitch to it finally going live.
The highlight of my first 6 months here at KMP would have to be completing my first WordPress website build. It was a very steep learning curve but with help and support from the team around me the end result was spot on!
What do the next 6 months have in store for me? Well, I’ll be brushing up my coding & design skills and as these develop, I’ll be working closely with other creatives to build more interactive and engaging sites so watch this space!
My advice for future creative students – first impressions last, so make sure that the first brew is pants! The requests will still fly in but you can always remind them of what happened last time!
Here at KMP we are extremely proud and impressed by their continuing development in the company and are looking forward to seeing how much further they improve in the next 6 months with KMP’s expertise guiding them.
