“I learned a lot about practical software development.”
Jori – fifth-year electrical engineering student at Tampere University, majoring in embedded systems with a minor in software engineering.
Experiences from a summer job
Bitwise's name had stuck in my mind from various recruitment events. I'm majoring in embedded systems, so when I found out that Bitwise works on a wide range of embedded projects, applying for Bootcamp felt like a very natural choice. On top of that, the chance to take part in the various training sessions included in Bootcamp really appealed to me.
At Bootcamp I learned a lot about practical software development. For example, I got to know AWS cloud services, the new features of C++ and, as a new version control tool, Gerrit.
Over the summer, I implemented new features for a data collection program that reads data from the CAN bus of a mobile work machine. I also made a program for running a PTP time server on the work machine. In addition, I looked into how IoT sensor data can be sent over a LoRaWAN network to a cloud service for visualisation.
Communication skills are an important part of a software developer's job
As well as software development, during Bootcamp I learned about communicating with the customer and about working in a team as a software developer in general.
In programming work, the programming itself often isn't the hard part. The challenge is often understanding what the customer wants the program to do. That's why a software developer needs good communication skills, so that any unclear situations can be resolved.
Alongside the work, the mentoring organised as part of Bootcamp gave me the chance to learn a lot from Bitwise's more experienced software developers. I got different perspectives on how to approach and solve different problems.
During Bootcamp I also took part in free-time activities like karting and minigolf. I really enjoyed them, and they were a chance to get to know my colleagues better.
I'll be back at Bitwise in January, working alongside my studies.