At Elementz, we’re proud to invest in the next generation of tech talent. This summer, we welcomed Joshua and Jordan, two bright university students, into our team for their placements, and they absolutely smashed their projects. Diving headfirst into new technologies, industry challenges, and our fast-paced culture, they quickly became valued contributors.
Hear directly from Joshua and Jordan about their experiences, the skills they gained, and the moments that made their placement unforgettable.
What did you learn during your placement?
Joshua: When I started, I had never used Angular or Spring Boot, the two technologies Elementz is built with. I’ve now got a good bit of experience with both of these, and am generally much more confident working on large-scale web projects like this.
Jordan: When I first joined Elementz, I assumed the world of subsea integrity software would move incredibly slowly. I was completely wrong! The team is fast-paced, curious, and focused on continuous improvement. While I initially thought my limited Angular experience would hold me back, my fresh perspective and prior experience with other frameworks allowed me to help the team simplify and maintain code more effectively. And yes, I can officially confirm that office temperature debates remain heated, literally and figuratively!
How did you find working at Elementz?
Joshua: Working here has been a fantastic experience; everyone is so friendly and helpful. I’ve never felt uncomfortable asking for help, and I feel like I’ve had a meaningful impact on the application as a whole.
Jordan: Elementz has a huge focus on creating a positive work culture, like our “breaking build” sessions every Tuesday afternoon. During these sessions, the entire team gets together to upskill, often by watching short videos followed by discussions and practical application. Despite initially preferring remote work, I found being physically in the office invaluable. Just by listening in on daily conversations, I gained lots of insights into technical and product decisions that would have otherwise passed me by.
Did you gain any new skills or experiences you didn’t have before?
Joshua: As I mentioned, I learned two entirely new technologies, but I also gained valuable experience with the overall development process, especially agile methodology, which I’ve come to understand is key to keeping everything running smoothly here.
Jordan: Absolutely! During my placement, I got hands-on with performance optimisation and digging into real-world bottlenecks. I worked on building solid unit tests and got comfortable navigating a large legacy codebase. It really gave me a new respect for clean, maintainable code and the value of thoughtful design and strong typing. I’ve also become way more confident explaining technical decisions, especially when working across teams. Upgrading those legacy systems was definitely tough, but it was crucial for security and made life much easier for developers. Taking small, steady steps with careful regression testing is definitely the best approach going forward.
What was the best part of your placement?
Joshua: I managed to break the office chair they gave me on my first day and so I had to build myself a new one!
Jordan: There were plenty of memorable moments – building an MVP arcade game, karaoke at the Elementz birthday night out, and a great day at the Perth races. We also had regular board game nights (complete with pizza and drinks, naturally). Even after officially leaving, we’ve been invited to the upcoming day out, proving that once you are a part of the Elementz crew, you’re always welcome to come back and join the fun!
What would you tell students who are about to start a placement at Elementz? What should they expect?
Joshua: I would tell them how great an experience it is. At Elementz, I really felt like part of the team, working on the same level tasks alongside the other developers and having my input valued just as much.
Jordan: Do it! If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll quickly find yourself fully integrated and making contributions through feature development and bug fixes. Initially, my biggest challenge was acquiring domain knowledge rather than technical issues, but fortunately, my mentor, our product expert, and the wider team were always available to provide support. Regular weekly check-ins with my mentor were fantastic and made sure the entire placement went incredibly smoothly.
Was there a particular project or task you enjoyed working on the most? Why?
Joshua: In the last couple of weeks, I took on the task of implementing a new feature into the application with quite a large scope: “calculation prompts”. This needed some parts to be built from the ground up in some cases and required me to make use of some aspects of my university course I had only learned somewhat recently for the more technical aspects of it. It was amazing to build an entire large scope feature in its entirety and see it merged into the application.
Jordan: If you had asked me during the middle of troubleshooting some bizarre bugs whether I was enjoying myself, my answer might have looked a little different… Looking back, however, resolving those complex issues and preventing customer frustrations has been incredibly rewarding. I averaged about four bug fixes or new features per week with minimal kickback. The Elementz-themed cupcakes for hitting bug-fixing targets helped with morale! While many exciting projects I contributed to remain under wraps (I’ve sworn secrecy), I highly recommend keeping an eye out for Elementz at Offshore Europe.
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