It’s been just over a year since we launched our #futureisbright graduate training programme. This blog looks back at some of the highlights so far.
The start of a new calendar year also marks a significant milestone for many of our graduate trainees as they move into their second year on the #futureisbright programme. We thought it would be a great time to reflect on all the skills they’ve learned so far, so we asked each of them to tell us in their own words what was the single most important lesson they’ve picked up along the way in 2021.
Tomáš Ferenčík
QA Engineer in Brno
In this last year, I learned a lot about programming, automation, and QA processes and using these skills in the company. I was involved in interesting projects and have tried a bunch of technologies. During this journey, I have acquired so much knowledge and enhanced my skills. It was because of my great colleagues, who have helped me to adapt to a new culture. Because of their strong support, co-operation and trust, I have been successful so far and see myself growing eventually in the organisation. This journey gives me a new excitement to work further.
Erik Šarlák
Finance Team in Brno
The most important lesson encompasses several points. First and foremost, it was a challenge to create Power BI reports for the company from scratch without experience. Even now, we are still improving current reports and starting to develop new ones. The job provided me with great experiences working with our top managers, CFO and financial controller and I also acquired better insights into the processes in our company. The next challenge is day-to-day work with the data, where you still can find ways to improve your knowledge.
Patrik Muszka
Video Producer in Marketing Team in Brno
Last year was an amazing ride full of challenges, a lot of creativity and new experiences. Picking only one thing is really hard. I think the most important lesson is to be open to learning a new skill. Being helpful will probably bring a lot of new tasks which seem really hard or even impossible in the beginning, but at the end it will benefit you the most, not only professionally but also in your personal life. For example, agreeing to help with organising the Brno Office 5th year anniversary party brought me closer to my colleagues. Other projects have given me new skills in editing, graphic design, and various design software systems.
Ian Sit
HR Officer in Hong Kong
This role and the nature of HR enable me to work with different people within the business, it was a challenge to understand different perspectives and to look for a solution which benefits most of the people. I was given the opportunities to work with the management and executive team to improve processes and employee work experience last year. From these uneasy yet valuable experiences, I learned to think widely, look at other angles and analyse an issue in a big picture view, of course enjoying the challenges throughout the journey! In the remaining part of the programme I look forward to more opportunities to grow.
Eric Leung
Framework & Integration Team in Hong Kong
In 2021, I mainly put my time on the K8R project, which is based on the RDK software platform. It is maintained by multiple groups and experienced programmers. On a project involving many people, the code base can start to become inconsistent and it’s an interesting challenge to make sure it all works smoothly together. We had a real puzzle to figure out the expected behaviour of several pieces of code, but in reading and understanding how the whole system works, I learned a few programming hacks, and system architecture designing principles. When I realised how everything is connected, it actually taught me to see things as part of the bigger picture.
Joe Ng
Framework & Integration Team in Hong Kong
Last year was definitely a challenging one for us, and probably everyone in the world. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation, I learned to reprioritise my tasks to fit my work from home schedule and keep a good work/life balance. Meanwhile, as I was working on the development of the H200 (a 4K UHD streaming device), I learned more about the Android platform architecture and resources and realised the great effort required to maintain our product across different Android versions. 2021 was a milestone for my growth and I am looking forward to an even more challenging yet meaningful 2022 to learn a lot more.
Matthew Lam
DevOps Team in Hong Kong
The most important thing I have learnt in 2021 is to be proactive. Although I am a junior staff member only, I need to be more proactive instead of waiting for instructions from my manager and senior colleagues. For example, when I find a problem, I should try to identify the action items and discuss them with other colleagues if necessary. When I have doubts, I should ask for help as soon as possible. It is also important to share information with others too. I think junior staff like me could be more vocal instead of just listening to others.