developer Review

Developing proof of concepts/prototypes for potential clients. Working alongside technical sellers to develop solutions to their clients isuses and making them think more about the experience, not the technologies. Also running training and education for UK and european technical architects to ensure they have basic technical development skills to work with clients

So many new skills learnt. From almost no skills, to technical (e.g. web development, cloud, html, javascript, CSS, frontend frameworks such as react, angular, and vue, as well as deeper technical and computer science topics such as databases, data analytics and Machine Learning, and interpersonal and professional skills through working with senior businesspeoples in IBM.

It's been good. The work itself is interesting and varied, and there's no single thing I'll be doing every day. The team I work in has a great culture, and the wider company culture is very good too. This means I feel welcome at IBM and want to work hard.

Mostly. The work is very good, and I get feedback on my performance, which is good. There's a lot of work-side support for university, even when university takes up more time than allocated. I have a mentor and senior executive mentor, which means theres someone from the wider business who can talk through things with me

It's pretty good. The IBM Apprenticeship programme is very well organised, however the degree is poorly organised in a lot of cases. The IBM attitude to supporting us is very good, and we have plenty of profressional and interpersonal help if needed. Thi makes the programme pretty good overall

Not a lot. I have a tutor who I never see (she only works 1 day a week, which is not the day I study at QMUL), and who never emails us. The wider university does not seem to know or care about us, often there are sessions booked on days we're not there, and there's not a good mix of teaching. - workload from 3rd year upwards is a lot - lots of evenings & weekends working - campus modules don't match up at all - e.g. doing bayesian maths but not statistics, doing software engineering but not object oriented programming - not enough early years programming - Data analyst pathway has a bunch odd modules that don't seem to fit in (e.g. web design & technology) - work based projects aren't taught especially well - not seen as a full student so most lecturers have no idea what's going on - not able to attend final year project lectures, extra programming or writing sessions, or most tutor's office hours because they fall on days we're not in - there's lots of cramming in labs/tutorials on the same day because the normal labs aren't on a day we're at uni - Sometimes not given rooms/space or TAs for the above reason - early (1st & 2nd year) work based projects have some pretty arbitrary goals that don't match up with work (edited)

A lot. My travel expenses to the office (and further afield) are covered, and expenses to university are covered. Pay is decent, and I get a good benefits package. However there's not a great social scene, but that doesn't bother me too much. Living costs are covered well by my salary

Pretty well - My travel expenses to the office (and further afield) are covered, and expenses to university are covered. Pay is decent, and I get a good benefits package. My living costs are covered well by my salary and I get the odd bonus too. The starting pay is terrible however this increased fairly quickly which means I'm now in a good position

Yes - there's a few social events, but not many. There's a lot of giveback opportunities to volunteer at events (e.g. careers fairs, local schools, as a STEM ambassador, etc) which means sometimes it's tricky to do everything! There's also a lot of external learning activities too

Yes

Good pay. It helps with living costs.... Also the culture is pretty good and there's lot of opportunities to move around, progress, change role, and learn more which means you get a good range of experience, and put on a real project, really soon. Which is actually pretty good.

- be aware of the long application process - have some pre-planned answers to common interview questions - don't worry if you don't know everything - The IPAT is designed to be stupidly hard! - the salary may start low but it gets a lot better fairly quickly. - enjoy it - it;s a good place to work