Apprentice Software Engineer Review

My current job role is within the CRM and Billing engineering department at BT. This has involved working on a monitoring solution for BT's key customer relations system. My day to day jobs include adding new graphs as required, checked for any possible issues. Recently my job has expanded into the storage area and I am currently being assigned on reclaiming storage from over allocated servers, day to day this involves going through virtual machines etc.

During my time at BT I have developed a few new skills, but not at the depth I would expect. These skills are also in very specialised areas rather than the generalised knowledge that I would expect to be able to develop during my time as an apprentice.

Overlooking the slightly less than expected development of skills, I do very much enjoy my apprenticeship. I enjoy coming to work every day and dealing with different tasks I have been set. I also enjoy the Uni course that I am enrolled on at UOS doing software engineering.

BT makes me feel extremely valued, as an apprentice you sometimes expect to be treated differently. At BT I have not found this at all and we are valued as normal employees. My manager ensures that he has time to talk with me regarding my future career, I get recognised for volunteering work both inside and outside of BT.

The apprenticeship at BT started off to a rocky start as I am on the new trail blazer apprenticeship scheme. The induction event was fine. But it took a very long time to get our NVQ set up and it is still very unclear how our apprenticeship will conclude in regards to the NVQ side of things.

In regards to the Uni side of the training the lecturers are alright, they do offer to help outside of normal uni time, but it is rare that anyone takes them up on this offer. Overall Uni training is what you would expect from a Uni course.

Within BT we receive a lot of support both from our manager and other people across BT. For example my NVQ coach regularly runs sessions to help out. And recently a normal BT employee has been giving up his time to run sessions on helping us with the harder aspects of the Maths during our Uni course! BT are very keen to support me during my apprenticeship.

The starting salary is about on par with other apprenticeships but the fact that we get annual pay rises as long as we meet our apprentice milestones ensures that I am compensated for our hard work. The current pay is more than enough to both live and commute off and is well well above the minimum apprentice wage.

BT has one of the biggest cultures of running extra events, voluntary work, classes, lectures, live streams of big events (WWDC). They ensure that there is pretty much something for everyone.

Yes

During the short 6/7 months I have been at BT they have valued me from the very beginning. They have ensured that all the help I could need is there. I know who to go to if I ever need any help. They are paying for my foundation degree in software Engineering and I am learning on the job. There really is no better way to get a head start in this industry without a debt from Uni!

Ensure that your application stands out from the crowd, make sure you have gone the extra mile in your day to day life and have done at least one extra special thing (developing an App, website etc). On assessment days just be yourself and most importantly be confident!