This page is specifically dedicated to thoroughly explaining my prior work experience and elaborating in detail wherever possible about what I contributed to and achieved during my time in various roles.

3t-Drilling Systems

• Placement Graphics Developer/Software Developer

• Employed: Jun 2022 - Sep 2023 (1yr 4mos)

Going for this placement could possibly have been the best decision I made whilst attending University as it was an invaluable experience, so much so that I got it extended 4 times because it was teaching me so much and because of how much I enjoyed working there.

It showed me what working in a real company is like, with a genuine workflow, unlike the simulated one at university. While university prepared me well, it can't match the real experience. There were two takeaways that I believe were more important than anything else, the first being how to work to a deadline, there are more expectations in a job compared to a university deadline and there are more people relying upon you to get that work done so being able to deal with that pressure was a sharp learning curve compared to only relying upon myself. Secondly is the ability to work with someone else’s code or work in general, learning how to figure out a codebase or how a project works allowed me to fix problems a lot faster and work more effectively. Also knowing to dedicate some time to using a project and learning how it works is a tool that will stick with me forever now.

Whilst on this placement I also had some fantastic experiences travelling which I’ve since learnt is not something that is particularly common on programming placements. I went on 4 different trips during my time at drilling systems and also learnt a lot on them.

The first trip I went on was to Dubai & Abu Dhabi to support an install of a simulator I was working on for a client, this gave me first hand experience of dealing with clients and the pressures that come with being on site with a very limited amount of time to finish the task at hand

Whilst in Dubai i also got the chance to go up the burj khalifa which is an experience i will never forget

The second trip I went on was to Scotland to learn how to use a wireline drilling rig properly as at the time that was a simulator I was developing, something I never thought I would do, it really helped when it came to making the similar accurate to real life.

I then went on another separate trip to Scotland to show off a combination of wireline, and coiled tubing simulators at a drilling and well intervention expo, while this was good experience it also taught me that manning an expo stand at that sort of event is not my forte. Although that could also be because I knew everyone there knew more than me about drilling.

My final trip was to the Netherlands to be the sole developer responsible for the software install of a CTS and WLS simulator for a client and then do all the testing to make sure it worked as it should. This was possibly the most stressful experience I had during my time at DS as there were some issues that should have been fixed before hand that I and the software team had not been made aware of. That being said I managed to work with the team back in the UK to get both simulators to a working standard with the ability to update them remotely after before leaving.

Here is a link to the main simulator i worked on, however I had a hand on at the time I believe every simulator drilling systems worked on.

You can check out the work that drilling systems do on their linked in page here.