"Once I started the internship, I really enjoyed the work I was doing and the office environment and progressed to the Graduate Software Engineer role at Calnex when I finished my degree."
What did you study and where?
I studied Computing Science at Edinburgh Napier University.
What initially attracted you to the Graduate role at Calnex?
At first what attracted me to Calnex was the summer internship position available while I was studying, as it fitted with my university schedule and I was interested in working on actual software rather than an IT help desk, which Calnex offered. Once I started the internship, I really enjoyed the work I was doing and the office environment and progressed to the Graduate Software Engineer role at Calnex when I finished my degree.
Tell us any highlights you have experienced since starting with Calnex
The highlight of my career at Calnex so far was designing and developing the Background Traffic app for the Paragon Neo. It was a project that I designed and developed myself, with help from coworkers of course. I really enjoyed it because it's something that is actually useful to our customers, and it allowed me to learn how to develop an app for our system from the ground up, from database to front end.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I really enjoy the helpful and friendly work environment at Calnex. Everyone is very kind and ready to help and teach, which was very helpful as an intern and makes the work go much easier and faster as a graduate as well. I genuinely enjoy the time I get to spend with my co-workers, and the culture of the company is rewarding and encourages growth.
Most challenging aspects of your job?
The most challenging aspect of this job is learning about the field that we work in. Network synchronisation has a lot of standards that we need to follow, and the standards update constantly so we have to keep up with them. There's a lot of specialised knowledge that you need to learn in order to understand what you're working on at Calnex, but there are knowledge courses that Calnex runs that teach us about the field, and lots of learning resources are available when needed.
What advice would you give to anyone considering a Graduate role at Calnex?
I would advise anyone that is considering joining Calnex to do it - it is a very good environment to work in. Just be ready to learn about the field of network synchronisation, and do some research about it beforehand!
Tell us something that surprised you about Calnex when you came?
Definitely the work culture and my co-workers, I didn't expect work to be such a friendly place and the work to be so rewarding.
