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alternateContent+="''aquila's administrator is the best application available on the market.''
Andrew Binns,
AON Consulting
Our team has been impressed with the quality of the software and the quality of aquila's support.''
Robert Head,
F&C Asset Management
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case "diagram_p238":
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case "diagram_p218":
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case "diagram_p60":
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case "graduatePoster_p259":
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case "graduateProfiles_p258":
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";
alternateContent+="Name: Jacqueline
"; alternateContent+="Age: 25
"; alternateContent+="Employer : heywood
"; alternateContent+="Position: Graduate Implementation Consultant
"; alternateContent+="Qualifications: MMath (2:1)
"; alternateContent+="University: Wadham College, Oxford
"; alternateContent+="Start date: September, 2009
"; alternateContent+="My first year at heywood has been incredibly varied. I spent my first few months working with the Operations Director on a number of projects before settling in my current role in the Migration Team (more info below), where I have been for six months. Here's a selection of the roles I have undertaken…
With lots of projects on the go at the same time, I find it useful to recap what's going on at the beginning of the day. This keeps me organized and helps me make sure all my deadlines are met.
"; alternateContent+="Part of my role in the migration team has evolved to include meeting clients before they are due to go live on their new altair system in order to train them how to use it. This is something I enjoy and find useful in my job as I get to understand more about how different clients use the system, and requirements they might have in the future. In any business it's important to 'understand' your client base and this is a great way to get to know the users.
"; alternateContent+="The altair product currently uses one of two database platforms. The company is moving to only support one of these, and I am working on completing the database migrations for the clients that use the 'old' one. I found this a bit of a challenge to start with, as, although my background is in Maths and I would consider myself a 'technical' person, I had little experience with the tools that I was going to need. On the consultancy side, I have been testing the migration technique (developed by heywood) on our internal accounts, and have progressed to on-site test and live migrations. I have also produced documentation about the procedures involved. This has turned into large project and it's exciting to be involved throughout the planning and implementation stages. It's also an example of how heywood is willing to challenge its employees whilst providing the support needed to succeed.
"; alternateContent+="The heywood offices are in a nice town with a variety of shops so I usually pop out for a walk or go to the gym. Friday's are pub lunch day with a group of colleagues in the excellent pub across the road.
"; alternateContent+="As for any business that has the need to deal with sensitive client data, Data Protection is a high priority at heywood. We have to ensure that, where it is essential that we use genuine client data, it is held securely and in line with Data Protection requirements. Everyone in the company shares this responsibility, but I have been particularly involved with directing actions within the team that I work. This is an interesting project as it requires me to meet with people from around the company that I wouldn't otherwise work with, and develop procedures together.
"; alternateContent+="Pensions is a constantly changing marketplace, and altair is a relatively new and evolving product. As such, new releases of altair are delivered periodically to heywood clients. With each new release comes the requirement for thorough testing to ensure high quality and client satisfaction. Consultant testing comes towards the end of the development and testing process, and is particularly important to ensure correct functionality before delivery to clients. This is a good chance to see and use new developments in the product, and to contribute to discussions on possible improvements.
I took a slightly roundabout route to my position at heywood.
I completed a Masters degree in Maths at Oxford followed by two years of teaching secondary school maths (including one as Head of GCSE Maths) as part of Teach First (a leadership training and social change scheme). Various other roles I have carried out include working at the Financial Services Authority, an actuarial firm, and studying Business at the Tanaka Business School, London. I'm also currently creating and marketing an educational website.
After deciding that I wanted a career change, I was looking for a demanding and varied role that would keep me interested and develop my skills. I wanted the chance to study for further qualifications, work with intelligent people and feel that my career was important to the organisation I chose to work for.
I have found that heywood offers all of these things. It's a medium-sized firm of around 100 employees which offers the flexibility of different job roles, but is small enough to feel that your work is important and gets recognised. The opportunities are there for you to direct your career as you want - for example, my teaching background has led me into client training (as mentioned above).
On beginning work at heywood, I was assigned a mentor - a direct point of contact for all those questions that come up when you're new to a company. In fact, my mentor has been a continuous point of contact even after those first few months! I also had monthly appraisals (now six-monthly) designed to give me positive feedback on my progress and set goals to achieve.
I have enjoyed my first year at heywood, learned a lot and feel that my career is progressing well."; alternateContent+="
";
alternateContent+="Name: Luke
"; alternateContent+="Age: 22
"; alternateContent+="Employer : aquila
"; alternateContent+="Position: Graduate Systems Developer
"; alternateContent+="Qualifications: BA Maths (2:1)
"; alternateContent+="University: Cambridge
"; alternateContent+="Start date: October, 2009
"; alternateContent+="As a systems developer my role involves coding, maintaining and fixing our market-leading solution for life and pensions companies, administrator. As you would expect from a market leading solution, the software is highly functional and covers a vast array of business areas from member administration, annuity quotes, investment strategies to pensioner payments. Initially, I focused on gaining a broad understanding of the full system capability but then I specialised on just a few elements of the system with a view of becoming the 'owner' of them. This is a big responsibility since any enhancements or changes that need to be made to a part of the system you own will need to be approved and sanctioned by you.
Once I had identified the areas of the system that appealed to me the most (the member self service website in my case) I set about learning all the relevant details. There are extensive internal training courses that cover all the coding languages needed to work in this area and this was my starting point. Once the internal training was complete, the company pointed me towards external training and I am currently half way through working towards my Oracle Certified Programmer for Java 6 qualifications.
The role is demanding and challenging due to the complexity of the solutions required and the fact that the pensions market is constantly evolving means that more advanced solutions are constantly required. However, my colleagues are extremely supportive and accessible so my questions are always answered. It is very satisfying when work I have done gets used by clients to help millions of pension scheme members.
"; alternateContent+="The first thing I do when I get in is check my e-mails for any code quality changes I may need to make. These can come from two sources; the automated checker that checks for minor mistakes or efficiency improvements and code reviews from other developers who test the functionality of my code as well as checking the comments written within the code to make sure that the code is understandable to other developers.
"; alternateContent+="The development department is split up into five teams who work on different areas of the system. Once or twice a week my team will have a meeting to discuss any issues we are having with regard to the enhancement we are currently coding and to determine how to share out the work. Here at aquila, graduates are encouraged to put forward new ideas if we see a better way of doing things.
"; alternateContent+="The main part of my job is writing the code for our product administrator. For me this is the most challenging part of my job as it requires the implementation of complex requirements and ensuring that the functionality being added to the system behaves as expected in every possible circumstance. This includes updating an advanced error reporting system to help our clients use the program and notify them if they are doing anything incorrectly.
Once I've finished writing the section of code that I'm working on I port it into the main build. By doing this all the other developers are able to access my code and the automated build that runs constantly will check that my code compiles and hasn't caused any of the tests within the system to fail.
"; alternateContent+="Everyone within the company is extremely friendly and at least once a week we go out for a group lunch. On the other days I generally go down to the local sports centre either to play in the local squash league or to play five-a-side football in a friendly 'development verses the rest of the company' match.
"; alternateContent+="For every bit of code that I write there needs to be at least two different automated tests for it. I write both these tests which are checked into the main build. This means that if any further changes are made to my code we will still know that it correctly performs the functionality that it is supposed to.
The first type of test is the unit test, which tests the logic of the code that's been written. Every line of code must be accessed by at least one test and this is often much more challenging than it sounds.
The second type of test is the integration test which takes some sample data, runs my part of the system and then checks the resulting data against the expected outcome. The challenge here is to provide data that will test all areas of my code and hence prevent any client data from causing a system error. To help ensure that every piece of code is covered by an integration test there is a second layer of integration tests in the form of an automated test pack. These run a large amount of data through an entire process to ensure all the different pieces of code link together as expected.
"; alternateContent+="There is a strong emphasis on quality at aquila so all new code is system tested. This process involves another developer or business analyst taking the requirement from which you coded, devising a series of tests to make sure the area of the system fully meets the requirement and then systematically carrying out these tests after the code has been completed. Any errors will be sent back to the coder to fix, through an internal tracking system.
Additional testing will be carried out by a benchmarking tester, who designs a series of tests to check the performance of the program across different networks. A developer is required to implement any suggestions made to improve the efficiency of their code.
A final series of tests will be carried out by a consultant during the quality assurance testing (QAT) period just before a release. Any errors they find will then be given back to the developer to correct.
"; alternateContent+="After each area of code has been completed, feedback will be given by consultants during a demonstration. This highlights any areas that can be improved and provides a chance for developers and consultants to discuss the most cost-effective solutions to any issues that might arise.
The meeting also provides a chance for the consultant to explain their next requirement, presented in the form of a document and answer any queries that the developer may have.
"; alternateContent+="A key part of building and maintaining a large program such as administrator is providing high quality documentation explaining what each area of the system does and how it can be used. This is in addition to the comments left in the code to help other developers gain a quick understanding of its logic.
I had several offers when I graduated from university but I chose aquila because of its strong reputation and position as market leader. The first thing that struck me when I started was the quality of the staff employed. Everyone has lots of software development experience and knows our product thoroughly. This makes it easier to ask questions and also contributes to the high quality output the company produces.
Also, being a relatively small company in terms of staff numbers, we all know each other well which gives a personal touch not necessarily available in the bigger companies. A benefit of the small, open-plan office is that your hard work is noticed and your achievements recognised.
I was assigned a mentor for the first six months of my time at aquila. This was a great help because I had a direct point of contact for the range questions that arise when one is new to a company. There were also monthly appraisals for the first six months which give me positive feedback on my progress at the start of my career. My colleagues are extremely supportive, accessible and ready to help me should I need them.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year at aquila. I have learned an incredible amount and met some fantastic people. I have been given extensive responsibilities from an early stage and I can see that I have had an influence on company performance.
"; alternateContent+="