Over the past two weeks I have been doing work experience at DoES Liverpool. I choose to do it at DoES for the simple reason that I wanted to experience an abnormal working area. I quickly learnt that the working area wasn’t the normal 9-5 office. Sitting on the wardrobe opposite my recently assigned desk was a blue toy called Bubblino (http://bubblino.com/). After sitting wondering what it did for a few minutes an outburst of bubbles erupted from its mouth. Adrian later explained that he had made this appliance so it blew bubbles every time DoES Liverpool was mentioned on Twitter, leaving me with a taste of what was to come.
The first couple of days I was used as a guinea pig to try out their latest instructions on how to build an “arduino weather dial”(https://doesliverpool.com/groups/internet-of-things-making-for-kids-from-does-liverpool/). This was enjoyable and gave me a different angle on the services DoES offered. Their main service being hot-desking, giving people a desk for just £8.00 a day, as well as selling packs to school with instructions on how to build simple but clever electronic based products.
Next I had a go in their workshop. Being about as in practical as they get I found myself feeling like a ticking bomb ready to blow up and break any equipment near me. To my astonishment I didn’t break the expensive 3D printer or the even more expensive laser cutter(probably because it was already out of order). I got the hang of the cutter quickly thanks to the help of Patrick and completed that day by writing a set of instructions on how to use it for the DoES wiki page.
The rest of my time in DoES I was left to my own devices with the help and support of the highly qualified people surrounding me. I decided to split my remaining time in half. Half I spent learning HTML, CSS and “a bit” of Ruby (however, after just learning loops in Ruby I felt like my head was about to explode if I learnt any more). The other half of my time I spent marketing DoES. Which went from putting products onto Ebay to standing in the middle of Starbucks handing out leaflets.
I have learnt a lot in my last two weeks and feel that I have learnt a lot about adult life. I’ve met some remarkably intelligent people and also learnt that I am never going to work for anyone. I cant thank DoES enough and wish them every success.