2024 End of Year Newsletter
- Date Posted: Jul 13, 2024
Hello everyone, and congratulations for completing another year of University! 🎉 It’s been a very busy year, and I, for one, am very happy to finally get a well-earned break after exams. Now that it’s all wrapped up, let’s finish off with the CSS newsletter.
I’ll start with a fun graph:
This year we’ve had slower membership growth, before shooting up with the Ball tickets being released! While not our record, 392 members is nothing to scoff at, and seeing the number of familiar faces at our events has been amazing to see! So many of our events have performed incredibly, and I can’t wait to see what gets planned for next year!
From our largest events, to our small weekly break; we’ve had something for everyone this year, and I hope we’ve been able to make University just a little bit less stressful, and a little bit more fun. We’ve had such a variety, from visiting Bletchley Park and Winterbourne, to our classic Board Game Nights, Hallowe’en Quiz, and Christmas Meal, and so much more! Not to mention the workshops you’ve run yourselves! Chris’ React Workshop, and Matt’s Mapathon and Python Workshop have been great events run by our members (and if you have any idea for one you’d like to run, let us know!) Our community is what keeps CSS going strong, and so we can’t thank you enough for running these events.
Of course, I can’t continue without mentioning our grandest event, the CSS Ball! With everyone dressed to the nines to celebrate the year together, it was such an incredible night that I hope everyone enjoyed as much as I did. Seeing everyone enjoying the night was the highlight of my year. The support from the School of Computer Science, and our sponsors, meant this year’s ball was our most successful yet with 177 tickets sold! I definitely think it was our best ever, and I was ecstatic to hear the same from so many of you too. It really makes being on the committee worth it. A huge thanks to the entire committee for helping to organise it, as well as a special thanks to our DJ, Matt Norton, we truly went out with a bang and had a special night for all!
I’m really looking forward to seeing what gets put on next year. Holly and the rest of the incoming committee have a big job ahead of them, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of old favourites, and some new ideas to refresh your palette. Make sure to check out the committee page to get to know your committee, and send them all your ideas for future events. I wish them nothing but good luck for next year!
So, if you’ve been with us through University, or this is your first year with CSS, thank you for being a part of our community, and for making University just a little more fun!
I hope to see some of you at graduation, and I wish you all the best of luck with University, your jobs, and the future!
Your CSS President,
Matthew Hammond
Just to end off, we do have a couple of messages from our friends over at Bank of America and Kainos!
For anyone who is looking to start searching for industrial opportunities early, Bank of America will be opening their applications early this year, and keep them open until the roles are filled! This is for the following programmes:
- Summer Internship in 2025
- Graduate Programme (for finance only) in 2025
- Industrial Placement Programme (for technology only) in 2025
These applications will be open from Monday 19th August 2024.
If you’re looking to learn more about Bank of America’s culture and organisation, their Spring Insights programme applications will open from Monday 14th October 2024 until Friday 22nd November 2024.
Last but not least, Kainos have provided us with testimonials from fellow students about working for them in a placement year!
Leonardo Bishop – Placement Software Engineer
When I first joined Kainos in August, I was not sure what to expect. Having never worked in the industry before, I was feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness, and the idea of doing something I did as a hobby professionally in the real world was daunting at first. However, not only did this year at Kainos quickly ease any concerns I had, but the amount of feedback and support I have received from my seniors has allowed me to grow and develop as a person. I have been given the opportunity to work on several projects during my time here, including cutting-edge work around generative AI, and have also had the chance to travel and meet clients from across the country. The company culture here is fantastic, everybody is approachable and friendly, and I have never felt like just an intern. Ultimately, my time at Kainos has significantly developed my technical abilities and confidence, and my placement experience will be something I look back on fondly.
Callum Esprey – Placement Software Engineer
I am so grateful to have undertaken an amazing industrial placement experience with Kainos. It has significantly improved my technical skills as well as my ability to work collaboratively with people from a range of disciplines, this being in part due to the comprehensive and broad-ranging training I received at the start of my placement. The culture here has great balance with lots of opportunities to work on innovative and exciting projects or unwind with colleagues at monthly work socials which are always a highlight. My favourite social of the year being the Christmas Ball, held at Birmingham’s Grand Hotel. Personally, I have spent much of my placement working on cutting-edge Generative AI projects, Kainos is making great progress in being a predominate adopter of Generative AI and so I wholeheartedly recommend anyone with an interest in the field to give Kainos serious consideration when looking for a placement opportunity.
As Leonardo and Callum’s placement ends in the upcoming months, we wanted to share exciting news that our 2025 placement opportunities will be going live in September!
If you don’t already, be sure you follow Kainos across social media for updates on these opportunities. You can also visit our website in the interim to read more about and hear stories from our people:
Begin Your Career Story at Kainos - Graduates & Placements
Our placement roles will be found on our website, social media platforms and University job boards come September.