DevOps Software Engineering Apprentice Review

I work as a full stack software engineer. This involves working on production applications for internal monitoring tools. I work on all aspects from design, development, testing, deployments and providing operational support for the applications. Most days are the same primarily writing code/tests often in a paired programming situations.

Yes, I've developed my existing software development skills from college and put them into practice in a genuine environment. I've learnt new languages as well as infrastructure skills such as working with unix systems. Lots of soft skills such as communication, leadership, time management have also been developed as I'm given the chance to use them.

My day to day work provided by the company is great. Everyone in the team are accommodating and open to help. The company provides a reasonable amount of development opportunities. However, they did stop their rotational programme after our first year which limits the teams/areas where we can develop new skills.

The majority of my time is spent within my team which is just business as usual and doesnt have any additional structure to it. We have had issues with our training provider where they change timings or structure last minute with little to no communication regarding it

My team are very accommodating and open to help whenever I have any questions regarding the work. Getting answers to general apprenticeship questions is more difficult and often required my line manager to go off and contact many people to get an answer as we dont have a dedicated person to contact (We did during 1st year but the position was removed and never replaced).

We've had numerous issues with our training provider regarding support as well as delivery of the content for the degree. We have had occasions where lecturers refused to answer questions when asked or gave completely different answers depending on who asked. We have also have entire modules taught completely incorrectly resulting in us having to self teach the whole module (We notified the training provider early of the issue but they took 2 months to respond to it).

Whilst the degree does cover some of the higher level concepts that my role covers it does not go into detail in the specific areas which I need to know. A lot of the degree content is outdated, wrong and in some instances promotes dangerous practices that should not be applied to the role. Some modules are completely unrelated to my role.

There are a range of sport activities that are on offer at our workplace, the majority of which I do not make use of. Our team does do a social meal about every quarter. As far as I'm aware networking events don't happen and if they did they are localised to one location which we can't travel to due to cost restrictions.

Yes

The general environment and culture within the workplace is very inclusive and open to learning and everyone is friendly. Generally there is a good set of career progression for early careers (Not so much for seniors). Pay/compensation is reasonable for early careers (again not so much for seniors).

Have a good attitude to learn and a want to develop skills. Have the ability to adapt to different roles and business areas as processes can differ. Having existing technical knowledge can help understanding of core areas of the network however isn't required.