Success Story
Paul Payne, Manila Analyst Programmer
Joined the LexisNexis Visualfiles Graduate Scheme in 2004
After earning myself a place on the LexisNexis Visualfiles graduate scheme in 2004 I spent nine months moving around the organisation in a variety of placements with the hope of becoming a consultant. At the end of this period I had attended multiple training courses and worked on five or six systems. This gave me a strong understanding of the company’s methods and practices, as well as a sound technical understanding of the Visualfiles product. One thing that really struck me at the end of the nine months, was how much I had learnt in such a short time – and the learning certainly didn’t stop there!
In the year that has followed I have had two main roles. After finishing the graduate scheme I decided to put my consulting ambitions on hold in favour of a deeper understanding of software development. To achieve this I took on a product development role for a team creating the next generation of Visualfiles products - Manila. My role as Manila Product Developer was to use the Manila development environment to build demonstration systems to showcase the power of the product and also to test its functionality. This was an excellent opportunity for me to take my knowledge to the next level and gain experience in one of the core software development frameworks – Microsoft.NET.
During my time as a product developer I took it upon myself to prototype some web functionality with Manila using Microsoft Visual Studio and more specifically ASP.NET. By this point I had become fluent in VisualBasic.NET (which is used as the Manila scripting language) and from there, I started to code my web prototypes using Visual C#, adding another string to my bow. After another nine months at LexisNexis Visualfiles I had gained truly extensive experience in Microsoft technologies and caught the programming bug!
My experience with Visual Studio and C# programming soon paved the way for another move into the Manila Development Team and my current role as an Analyst Programmer. My team is responsible for creating and maintaining the Manila development environment. I really enjoy working in the team because I deal with cutting edge technology on a daily basis. When I first joined the team I was given the task of re-writing the development environment to improve usability. This was a massive undertaking and a steep learning curve, but also an illustration of the amount of responsibility you can receive at the company if you work hard and show initiative. My role also gives me a good degree of freedom to research new products and technologies to see how they will fit in with our objectives. Over the last six months I have worked with all the next generation Microsoft Technologies including a trip to Microsoft’s offices to ensure our product will be fully compatible with the new Windows Vista Operating System.
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