Since 2022, multi-national business software developers IRIS Software Group have supported University of Salford students through scholarships, engagement days, mentorship and career talks to help inspire and support them throughout their academic journey.
We were welcomed back this November to IRIS’ Manchester office for another Engagement Day for our second-year students studying Computer Science and Software Engineering. During the Engagement Day our students received a tour of IRIS’ cutting-edge workspace, listened to talks from software engineers, accountancy whizzes and recruiters. This was crucial learning for our students to help them better understand what a career in software engineering can look like as well as top tips to succeeding in interviews, they even took part in a head-to-head paper airplane manufacturing competition!
After learning about a new way to develop coding, one of our students said: ‘Hands down, the most practical and coolest thing I’ve seen… It’s something I will absolutely try to put into practice’. They also found a session on agile working particularly useful, saying, ‘Going over agile techniques will help with my studies, we are starting a hack camp this week, the presentation was very insightful as to how we should plan our time effectively’.
Similarly, another student noted how the agile working session aligned with their own studies and knowledge helping them to understand how agile working functions in a workplace: ‘I had a basic grasp of Agile methodology; however, the engagement day was a real eye opener into how exactly Agile would be applied in a real organization’s structure’.
The industry insight and advice delivered by IRIS was invaluable and massively appreciated by our students, with one student saying the most important thing they learned on the day ‘would be researching organizations to ask insightful questions about structure and behaviour to prove my interest in more than just the role’.
We would like to thank IRIS for hosting our students and staff at their Manchester office and delivering an insightful and valuable peek into the lives of software engineers. Our students can now more confidently apply themselves to their work and prepare them for their work in industry.
