My time working on the DPL

jduw1
Monday 18 November 2024

Hello, I’m the admin for the mediation service, but for the last few months I’ve been afforded the opportunity to do some work on the Digital Pattern Library.

I am also an undergraduate IT student at the OU, so being able to work on a real and meaningful web-development project is something I was very interested in getting to do. I’ve been very lucky not only in getting to work on that, but also in getting to meet all of the digital communications team!

Web development has been a more recent interest for me, as originally, I had wanted to get into game development, however, learning more about the stress associated with that field, and a timely module in my course on the basics of web development, steered my interests toward dev work on the web.

Working on the News and Updates component of the DPL was very different to dev work that I’ve done in the past, which has been entirely on solo projects. Understanding how each component fits together (I may or may not have tried to write my own grid at one point) was incredibly new to me and something that I know will be very important when moving into this field. Additionally, learning about and working with git was also an incredibly valuable experience, one that I haven’t been exposed to before and that I suspect will be pervasive throughout any dev work-oriented career.

The thing that I valued the most, however, was the advice and encouragement from Nick and Teo, both of whom took a lot of time to help me think about what steps I should consider taking next and whose insight and advice was invaluable in understanding what it’s like to actually work in web-development, rather than just to study it. I also hugely appreciated a shorter chat I had with Mike about his thoughts on the industry too, which also gave me plenty of food for thought.

I enjoyed my time working on the DPL, Thursdays became a day that I would look forward to, knowing that I’d get to work on something that was interesting to me and that had an impact on something meaningful. I’m going to miss working on it and with all of the team (however distantly). I wish all of the digital communications team nothing but the best!

John

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