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Employee Experiences - James James joined SFW in 2007, here's his experience so far:

I read Physics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University and graduated in 2005 after completing my Masters by taking Astrophysics and Condensed Matter Physics as major options. Having the desire to work in academia, I started a D.Phil in Oxford. However, after a year I discovered that research was not for me and I decided that it was time to get a “proper” job. After reflecting on my aptitudes I eventually decided that the IT industry would suit me, despite never having any formal programming training. 

Before applying to various companies I determined what would be important for me in a job. I decided that:

  • The company must be fairly small (less than 100 employees)
  • The company must be located in the South East
  • The culture must be friendly
  • There must be genuine opportunities to progress and gain experience
  • The company must be a Microsoft Gold Partner that does a mixture of consultancy and development work.

SFW appeared to fit my criteria.

I had two interviews with Directors, one with Steve and the other with Peter. Both interviews were relatively gentle and friendly compared with interviews I’ve experienced elsewhere. After the second interview, I was given an offer that I accepted.

In my first week at SFW, I worked at a client site in London, in the Sport England main office. A couple of the SFW developers introduced me to the various Microsoft technologies including SQL Server and Visual Studio.

I realised that there was a learning curve to climb. I have overcome this, in the last year or so, by private reading, going along to the .NET training sessions that one of the senior technical architects delivers and preparing for the Microsoft Developer exams.

In 13 months I’ve worked on 5 Microsoft .NET projects so I’ve certainly managed to gain plenty of industry experience. I’m now confident with Windows forms applications, ASP.NET, XML and web services using both C# and VB.NET. Currently, I'm interested in the latest version of .NET, version 3.5, and some of the new technologies that Microsoft have released such as LINQ and WCF. So far, I’ve really enjoyed working at SFW.

James  - Analyst  / Programmer