Ross McClung, HND Software Development
Ross McClung, gives us an insight into his journey to become a Software Support Engineer with Sky.
Ross McClung knew since high school that he wanted to work in the computing industry. He told us about his journey with West Lothian College, from how he found us to where his studies have taken him.
“Before joining West Lothian College, I studied locally at Armadale Academy where I stayed till 6th year mainly studying Computing Science at National 5 and Higher level. I knew very early in my school career that the technology field is where I wanted to work after leaving school in. I really enjoyed the variety of the Computing Science course at school, however I particularly enjoyed the software development areas of the course.
“While in my 6th year, I made the decision to study locally at West Lothian College instead of going to University. This decision was helped by meeting some college representatives at a careers fair that the school held. This is when I was able to ask questions about the college, opportunities within the computing department at West Lothian College and beyond. I then decided to apply to the HNC Computing course where I started straight after leaving school in 2017.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the HNC Computing course as I build up more knowledge and experience with programming, web development, project management, application software etc. Once successfully passing my HNC Computing exam in May 2018, I knew I wanted to continue learning software engineering at West Lothian College so I applied to the HND Software Development course where I started after the summer of 2018.
“I really enjoyed the course as it focused more on object-oriented programming, analysis and design, testing, SQL etc. This is when I knew that I wanted to start my career in the software industry. I particularity enjoyed learning about the software development lifecycle which taught us exactly how projects are progressed in industry from analysis, design, implementation, testing and support.
“Halfway through studying my HND in Software Development, The Sky Early Careers team came to the college to carry out a CV workshop. This allowed us to get professional advice on how to word/structure our CV’s. Sky were also offering a one-week work experience in technology. Myself and 3 other students applied to this which lead to a fantastic week getting a tour of Sky‘s Watermark House in Livingston.
“We were able to spend time with people from all over the building who work in various different areas of technology. This gave us a great insight into various different roles within technology at a massive company like Sky. I particularly enjoyed learning about the support roles within Sky. After completing the work experience week in February of 2019, I then passed my HND course in May of 2019. I knew that Sky was the type company that I wanted to work for. I successfully applied and was offered the role of ‘Software Support Engineer’ in September 2019. I now work in a team that supports the Sky Business contact centre and the systems which they use.”
This blog post was reproduced with the kind permission of West Lothian College and was originally published on their website.