Why Rawnet?
When I heard about Rawnet through a family friend and looked through their website and some of their work, I knew this would be the right place for me to do Work Experience (I was correct!), and jumped at the chance.
What did you do during your week at Rawnet?
I was initially very nervous about starting my work experience on Monday, as I didn’t know anyone there. But as soon as I arrived I was given a warm welcome by the Studio Manager and Head of Culture, Heather, who gave me a tour of the office and introduced me to UI Developer, Jess, who would be leading me through the rest of my week.
Jess explained her role to me and showed me the software she uses for front-end development, she then talked me through some of the projects she was currently working on, including one called “Your Funeral Choice”. I then spent the rest of the day learning HTML coding on Codeacademy and attending internal meetings to observe team communication.
On Tuesday, I spent time with Joe, an Account Manager at Rawnet. He explained his role to me and then gave me the task of reading through a project brief for “Sharps”, and thinking of questions I would ask a client looking to redevelop their website. I also. I also sat in on internal and client meetings with him, this allowed me to gain insights into how questions are addressed within the team and communicated back to clients.
Wednesday was spent with Guti, a back-end developer. He talked me through what being a back-end developer is like, before showcasing the different projects he is working on and providing examples of complex coding concepts. I then spent some time on Codecademy, learning PHP, the language they use in back-end development, which was just as intriguing as HTML. I also shadowed Guti as he fixed code errors, explaining the meaning behind each error and how he resolved them.
On Thursday, I worked with Harry in the Marketing department. He shared his role and demonstrated Google Tags and Analytics, which are key tools for his work. He then showed me how to create different events and variables for forms and websites, and let me create some of my own for “Hypnos” - for a “perfect-bed” questionnaire on the site. Harry also showed me lightning talks he had created and we explored and fixed errors on the "ITV Media" website. I ended the day by attending a UI meeting with Jess, where they showcased new projects and concepts they had been experimenting with, this was really fascinating!
Finally, on Friday, I spent the day with Rose, the Operations manager. She explained her role and how different teams collaborate. She discussed process improvements and shared insights into the overall project workflow. We explored Jira, a tool that Rawnet use to track different tasks and projects and I was then set the task to create some of these boards for different clients. After, I sat in on another internal meeting with Joe, where he presented a new idea to Rose. And lastly, here I am, writing my blog on this invaluable week of work experience!
What did you enjoy the most?
My favourite part of Rawnet has to be the Culture and community here, everyone is incredible and works extremely well together. They all made me feel very included in the community here and helped me “settle in” for my time here. I also loved the music that was played in the background - which led to a more “relaxed” feeling. With such a positive and friendly environment, I can see why people enjoy working here!
A final summary
Overall, my week has been amazing, the environment was wonderful, and everyone was lovely and welcoming throughout, and I feel that I have learnt so much with my time here. I think that having a taste in the majority of the departments was useful to help me find what I like/enjoy most, and gave me a more overall scope of the business rather than just one sector. I’ve found that I didn’t have anything to worry about on Monday, and this has been a great week and a good experience for later in life.
