My Cirdan Placement Experience: Catherine McCabe, Placement Lab Analyst
Catherine McCabe joined Cirdan as part of our 2024-2025 student intake. During her placement year, Catherine has been involved in many projects as a Lab Analyst and part of Cirdan’s clinical team, focusing on both design and clinical aspects involved in the development of our Laboratory Information System, ULTRA.
We caught up with Catherine to find out more about her placement experience within Cirdan, what she has enjoyed about her role, and what she will bring from her experience as she transitions back to university life.
What did your job role involve at Cirdan?
During my placement at Cirdan, I worked in both the Design and Clinical teams, helping to bridge the gap between the technical and clinical sides of the business. A big part of my role was understanding how pathology labs work, and turning that into clear, useful documentation for our software developers. This meant creating user stories to help the team build new features which meet the needs of lab staff.
I also got involved in correlating features of ULTRA’s software with specific lab workflows, and gathering requirements for improvements. Then I supported the verification and validation teams to make sure everything we delivered met the needs of our customers. I even had the chance to create training materials for both new team members and clients, which was a great way to share what I’d learned!
What are some of your most memorable moments from working at Cirdan?
One of the highlights of my time at Cirdan was getting to work closely with professionals from both the Design and Clinical teams. I felt lucky to learn from such experienced specialists and see how different parts of the company come together to solve real-world problems.
I also really enjoyed the moments when something I’d worked on, like a user story or a piece of documentation, directly helped the developers or made a difference in testing. It was great to see how my work contributed to the end product.
Outside of the day-to-day tasks, I’ll always remember how welcoming and supportive everyone was. Whether it was social events, support with work, or just the general atmosphere, it made the experience so much more enjoyable!
What are your plans for when you go back to university?
When I return to university for my final year, I’m planning to build on everything I’ve learned during my placement. Before working at Cirdan, I was mostly focused on medical devices and hadn’t really considered software as much, but getting hands-on experience with it has really opened my eyes to how interesting and impactful it can be. I’m hoping to explore that more in my studies, and maybe even focus my final year project on something related to medical software or imaging systems.
Thank you Catherine for sharing your experience with us as part of Team Cirdan. We are delighted to have you on board!
Interested in taking up a placement role with Cirdan?
Please send your CV to recruitment@cirdan.com.