Earn As You Learn. Quality Assurance Engineer in Smart

Roisin’s in her fourth and final year of EAYL and currently working as a Quality Assurance Engineer in Smart.

Earn As You Learn welcomes A-Level students who want an alternative to going to university full-time – and to avoid leaving with debt! Joining other apprentices and our teams of exceptional professionals at our Belfast HQ, you’ll have every opportunity to get a real insight into how we’re changing the world and building an exciting, progressive career along the way.

It’s all part of our dedicated training and development initiative, Kainos Academy, and just the beginning of your training and development journey with Kainos.

Read all about Roisin’s EAYL experience…

“After just four years on EAYL, I’m currently working as a Quality Assurance Engineer in Smart. Smart is an automated testing product for Workday, which is a cloud-based platform designed to manage financials, resources, and HR for companies worldwide.

What did you want to do when you were at school?

“Like most 18-year-olds, I had no clue what I wanted to be when I ‘grew up'. For A level, I studied Maths, Irish, Physics, and Computer Science. A bit of a mixed bag, but I chose subjects that genuinely interested me and where I knew I would put in the work to get a good grade.

“Ironically, Computer Science was the one subject I had never studied before. I chose it as it fitted into my timetable and I thought it might be an interesting subject to try, assuming I would drop it by Christmas. After a few weeks, I realised it was something I really was interested in. It was completely new and so different from the ancient ICT which I had gotten used to in my early school years, only learning basic skills such as sending emails.

“I really enjoyed understanding how things work and making sense of technologies I use every day. Eventually, I decided that a role in Computer Science would be a good career for me.

What attracted you to join the EAYL programme?

To me, Earn as You Learn seemed like an opportunity to have ‘the best of both worlds; getting hands-on experience in a job which I was interested in, as well as getting a university degree.

“As well as this, the perks of being part of Kainos were really attractive: flexible working hours, skills funds, the opportunity to work from home, and other perks meant I knew a job with Kainos could easily complement my current lifestyle.

Tell us about your EAYL experience from the start?

“Like all Earn As You Learn apprentices, I started with a four-week training program where I learned the basics of full-stack development and got to meet and make friends with my fellow apprentices. I found this training really valuable in terms of feeling comfortable within the company and an easy way to make some friends before getting onto a project.

“I was assigned a mentor from the year above who guided me through my first year, assisting me with moving teams, university, and even small tasks such as booking holidays and submitting reviews. It was great to have a dedicated person to speak to about any questions I had.

“I spent my first 6 months working on projects within the innovation team. I worked as a software engineer and got great experience in public speaking and research as well as working with lots of new technologies.

“After that, I moved into my current team which is Smart. I initially worked as a software engineer, before moving into my Quality Assurance role which I am currently working in. I got great exposure as a software engineer with my understanding which is helping me in my job as a QA.

“In both projects, I have joined I have had a ‘buddy’ who have supported me in getting upskilled and settling into a new team easily which made the whole process much easier.

What does an average day look like?

“My average day at Kainos starts around 7.45 am, where I walk into the office to start work at 8 am. I really enjoy the flexibility of working hours, I personally like to start early and get home at 4 o’clock!

“Each day, I have a meeting with my team where we update each other on what we are working on and highlight any issues we are having and get some help if we need it.

“For most of my day, I work on assigned tasks. In my team, developers complete tasks with new features for Smart. I then test the new features in a simulation of the live environment. I check that what they have created doesn’t break any other parts of the product and that the new feature works in the way that we’re expecting it to.

“Essentially, I try my hardest to break what the developers have created and let them know of any bugs or issues I find.

“If I can’t find any faults, I approve it to be released to the customer.

“As well as these main tasks, I also work on tasks which improve the efficiency of the QA team as a whole and regularly have the opportunity to deliver presentations, talks, and other events to young people, mainly to encourage them to follow a role in STEM.”

Roisin’s Tips for Success

• Pick subjects you’re genuinely interested in and you’re going to put the work into
• Focus on the main skills you get from subjects, rather than the actual content
• For example, despite not speaking Irish in my daily job, the skills I learned as part of that A level have been invaluable; oral and written communication skills, problem-solving, and even confidence!
• Spend time on learning both inside and outside of the classroom
• There are plenty of meetup groups, books, and free resources online for all interests, I really recommend taking part in the ones which interest you
• Get hands-on experience where you can
• Be prepared to be constantly learning