Student showcase helped Sam secure employment

Showcasing her work in a students’ exhibition helped Teesside University graduate Sam Waistle launch her career with an international rich-media company.

Sam, who graduated from the BA Web and Multimedia last year, secured employment with Amplience before she’d even graduated – after impressing the firm with her work at the University’s annual ExpoTees event.

ExpoTees enables talented final year students from the University’s School of Computing to showcase their work, while connecting with the many employers who attend the annual event. Amplience, which has offices in Middlesbrough, New York and London, is this year’s headline ExpoTees sponsor.

Sam, 22, of Stockton, is currently working as a QA (Quality Assurance) Engineer with Amplience. She said: 'Being involved in ExpoTees really helped me to launch my career. It was nerve-wracking meeting employers who came to the ExpoTees event to see our work, but it’s a great opportunity.

'ExpoTees helps students see what employers are looking for, while also putting employers in touch with talented students. It also helps graduates to stay in the area, while helping to promote Teesside as a thriving place for technology.'

Sam said she initially chose to study at Teesside due to its reputation and location. 'Teesside is close to home and when I heard it was known as a good university for technology I thought I’d be a fool not to go there. I chose to study web design as I’d been interested in coding and web design since I was about 11.

'We were taught in school how to create our own HTML page and from then I was hooked. Throughout the degree we were taught to always thoroughly test our work, which helped me develop a keen eye for errors. This helped me land the job with Amplience in QA.'

Amplience, which is among firms recruiting talent in the region by getting involved in ExpoTees, has taken on several Teesside University graduates after seeing their work at ExpoTees.

John Williams, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) with Amplience, said: 'ExpoTees offers a great opportunity to meet and recruit talented graduates. Having such easy access to students has allowed Amplience to build an exceptional multidisciplinary technical team, which has been instrumental in developing a world class software platform.'

John, himself a Teesside University graduate, added: 'We’ve built up a great relationship with the University in recent years, as it’s been really easy to engage and have direct contact with students during their final year. Being able to meet students face-to-face at events such as ExpoTees is vital, as it provides a chance to get a better understanding of their work and what they are passionate about.'

Darren Lee, Head of Development at Amplience, said: 'The students who take part in ExpoTees demonstrate a willingness to put in hard work and apply what they have learnt. Speaking to students in person and seeing their work has really helped us understand what they can bring to our business. At Amplience we have been very pleased with how well expo graduates have become important members of our teams and we look forward to meeting this year’s students.'

Now in its ninth year, ExpoTees will take place on May 14 and 15 at Teesside University’s Darlington campus.

Past graduates have gone on to work on award-winning film and game titles, securing employment with companies who initially saw their work at ExpoTees.

The first day of ExpoTees will focus on computer science, digital media and web. Student work can be seen alongside interactive and experimental exhibits using Arduino, robotics, augmented reality and virtual reality.

The second day will focus on games and animation, celebrating work which demonstrates creativity, imagination and industry-standard skills from students on the University’s CreativeSkillset accredited courses. The games lounge enables visitors to play titles produced by students, while a cinema shows students’ short films.

CBeebies will also return to ExpoTees to run their popular Life's a Pitch event during both days of the exhibition, listening to students give a ten minute pitch.

---

More information on ExpoTees