SME technician Review

I am training to be an SME technician so my role involves supporting senior SMEs to deliver code and test support to meet business requirements. We use many different applications such as IBM Datastage and SAS packages to write our own code. Test support involves fixing defects and creating environments for testing teams to test our code for the business. I interact with my own IT team and other IT teams, as well as business teams who we consider our customers.

I have learnt many new skills such as writing SQL code and UNIX commands. My role has definitely required my to have excellent time management and communication skills.

I enjoy my role immensely and the team I work alongside are incredible mentors to me with a lot of experience. I feel the actual apprenticeship programme does not support my role however so I would say the overall apprenticeship programme is quite disjointed.

I feel like a valued member of my team. My managers are very helpful and take great interest in my progress, as well as being approachable. My team is made up of many different grades and we all work along die each other which makes me as an apprentice feel even more valued as I often work on the same projects as a colleague several grades higher than me.

My induction and training were well structured by both my team and the apprenticeship programme, however I don't feel my apprenticeship has continued with the same amount of structure. There is a disconnect between the two side to my apprenticeship which has often made it feel unorganised and some parts are very last minute which makes my time management more tricky.

My tutor is always available however the learning content is often quite sparse and I don't always feel guided through it. I haven't enjoyed a lot of my apprenticeship course content with my actual role taking over my time as it is more enjoyable and useful to me.

My employer is very supportive, my manager shows great interest in my progress and I consider my whole team mentors as they have all taught me so much. The HR team deal with any requests and queries quickly should any arise.

I am very satisfied with my salary and I have been able to move out of my parents house and live independently for the first time since starting this role. All my living and travel costs are easily covered by my wage. I also love my office location as it is easy to get to and in a central city location.

I get involved in as many company events as possible. There is an extensive volunteers programme and Lloyds have our own form of social media called Hive which makes meeting and arranging events much easier and more accessible.

Yes

I think they are great employers who make me feel valued, offer me every opportunity I want and offer a career path rather than just a job.

Do you research on the company and it's latest initiatives, talk about being the best bank for customers, put a lot of effort into preparation for the interview and assessment days if you are asked to prepare powerpoint/presentation etc. I was glad to have a LBG colleague as a friend already so I was helped a lot thorough the application process. Also don't be scared, confidence is key and I think it helped me a lot especially during my interview.