Peter
Lampard

Why did you choose NTU?

I chose NTU as the staff and students gave a very friendly and welcoming impression at the open days which helped make me feel comfortable. The facilities available were also very modern and better than the other universities I considered. The staff discussing the course also seemed very experienced and gave a good overview of what I would cover on my degree. Additionally, I really liked the coursework focused aspects of the Software Engineering course, as I’ve always enjoyed programming more than the theory side of things.

How have you found your experience at NTU? 

I have had a great experience at NTU, the staff have been very helpful in guiding me to develop new skills that helped me progress throughout my degree. I feel my modules gave me a great start with the industry technologies I encountered during my placement. NTU has also proven to be a great university socially as well as academically. I've had lots of opportunities to try new things and connect with people both within my course and during extracurricular activities.

Have you done a placement? 

I did a placement with Pinewood Technologies in Birmingham, a company that develops software for car dealerships. I really enjoyed my placement and feel it's prepared me adequately to work within the software industry upon graduating. I was also offered a role to return to Pinewood upon completing my degree. I would highly recommend a placement to anyone considering taking one, as it gives you that vital real world experience and often (including in my case) you can gain a job offer out of it!

What do you think to the facilities at NTU?

The facilities at NTU have been nothing but great, there's specialist labs for work such as mobile app development and the general programming rooms in our ISTEC building have incredibly powerful machines that can handle just about anything. The library is also great as a study space and is open 24 hours most days for those late night work sessions.

Did you live on campus in first year? What was your experience?

I did not live on campus, as I chose to spend my first couple of years at NTU living in the city in private student halls. I would highly recommend taking advantage of halls in your first year though, whether that be on Clifton Campus or up in the city. It’s a great opportunity to connect with new people and get involved socially with people across a broad range of different courses.

What are you hoping to do once you graduate?

I’ll be returning to work at Pinewood, my placement company, upon graduating university. My goals for the future would be to hopefully work my way up in the company and take on a more significant role as a senior or lead developer as I enjoy my work and the company culture is fantastic.

Did you join any societies/clubs to help you settle into life at NTU?

I’ve been fairly heavily involved in the social aspect of university during my time here. I spent the first few years helping run the Developer’s Society alongside several other committee members. This was a great experience and allowed me to help deliver workshops and contribute to a network of students who can all provide support to each other. I stepped down from this role in final year and took over as President of the Fencing sport society that I’d been a member of since I was in first year. This has also been great fun and I’ve enjoyed helping to get more people involved in a sport that I’m passionate about. Overall NTU is a great place to get involved with societies or try new things and it definitely helps make you feel part of the community.

What advice would you give to others?

My main piece of advice would be to take as many opportunities as you can while at uni, whether that means trying a sport or learning a new programming language. The whole purpose of attending is to build yourself up, develop your experience and learn new things; so any chance you get is going to be beneficial to your future. Take as much as you can from your time at uni and make connections that’ll stick with you long after you leave.