Application Developer Review

I am an Application Developer in a large team creating and developing a payment engine. No day is the same for me, our team has adopted the agile methodology for software development, and therefore the day normally starts with Stand Up. This is where the feature teams(around 5-7 people in each team) meets at the team Scrum Board (which is spilt into 3 sections : To Do, Work In Progress and Done and had tasks on) to pick up new tasks, discuss what each member has been working, as well as potential challenges to coordinate efforts to resolve issues or bugs. Stand Up usually lasts for 10-15 minutes. After this meeting each member works on the task they have picked up, we mainly code using Java. There are also meetings during the day to discuss the software architecture of certain tasks and pair programming. There is a lot of contact between our team and Subject Matter Experts and Operations to specific certain requirements.

My job role is technology based and I come from a background with no tech knowledge. All the skills I have learnt have been from training provided by J P Morgan and learning on the job. This includes learning the coding language Java from scratch in a few months, for this I participated in 4 training courses and pair programming with my colleagues. Along with this I have learn and been through the full software development lifecycle from start to completion. I have further developed my communication and team collaboration skills from working in a large team and communication with other teams (e.g. testing and environment teams).

I really enjoy my role as an Application Developer; my team have been very supportive and helpful throughout. If I have any questions about certain tasks they are answered quickly and they are always willing to help. The work has been exciting as we are developing a new payment engine which had led to lots of connections; as we have teams in India, America and China. There has been a lot of support and encouragement from our schools team that are happy to help with any queries.

I feel very valued at J.P. Morgan, the team let me get involved with all tasks, and I even own part of the project. I feel the team have taken me in although I am new and have given me real responsibility that gives business value. Recognising comes in the form of reviews where our Application Owner can see the progress we have made.

Our programme involves 4 days in office and 1 day study day, I personally feel this is a good work/study balance as we have 3 exams. Our lectures are on our study day and are online through BPP lasting around 4 hours; the rest of the day is used for revising. We have 5 sets of lectures for each exam along with face - to - face sessions with the lectures before siting our exams. There is also a coursework section that involves meeting set objectives and a face- to - face interview to achieve a level 4 NVQ in Providing Financial Services. Our programme organisers have been very supportive and have answered all queries and questions directly.

BPP are our training providers and provide our lectures. These are online for 4 hours once and cover the content of the CISI work books. BPP have also provided all material needed such as CISI books, slide/work book and provided mock exams. We also received frequent face-to-face sessions with sessions with our lecturers before siting our exams. Coursework wise we have a delegated person we submit our coursework too, they read and send it back with comments on improvements or sign it off if complete. They also set up call every few months to check how we are getting on.

I have received a lot of support from my team and manager. I have been on a few training courses that have helped build my Java knowledge. I also have a mentor and a buddy (an apprentice from the cohort above) that I can go to if I have questions that I don't want to ask my manager.

Meets expectaion, covers living costs. I relocated for this apprenticeship and I can comforable pay rent and cover the cost of living in Bournemouth. Buses are provided my work and cost a reasonable amount per month.

My team are very social and have been out for meals, trips and activities such as go-karting. Not only this J.P. Morgan offers extracurricular activities, I am currently learning French at work and part of the work’s sailing team. As a cohort we have also participated in lots of charity work including participation in Round the Island Race to raise money for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and other charity events. We've also had team bonding activities as a cohort outside of work such as an evening at a climbing/activity centre.

Yes

J.P. Morgan is a great place to work with a great culture. There is opportunity for progression and a huge variety of roles.

There are 4 stages of the interview process: -phone interview -group assessment center, including aptitude test -insight evening (talking to managers) -video interview You don’t have to have any experience as long as you have/ expected the requested grades.