Application Support Review

Application Support: involves me creating fixes for programs that experience issues during their run time. I regularly have meetings with my manager, and I am greeted at every opportunity by all of the managers on the floor as well. I do not have any interactions with external sources, I do not have a customer facing role. I am responsible for my own work load, and take my own initiative to learn more on the job at a quicker pace.

While in this role, I have learned many new skills. I came into the department knowing little to nothing about IT, I can type and play console games, that was about it. Now I can write a program in COBOL, USE SQL and even understand other programs that have been written. With the apprenticeship learning, I have been able to learn much about networks, utilizing the OS for Windows, the importance of security, and how to configure a secure network. I have learned a lot in the last 8 months.

I am of an older age than most apprentices, I'm currently 27, and I have been enjoying this program far more than I had imagined. I wasn't particularly fond of school, but I have found the apprenticeship work to be very interesting, gratifying and most of all useful. I would recommend the program to any and all of my friends and family, as there is much to learn here, as well as many experiences to be had.

I feel like a very valued member of my team. My manager will regularly ask during team meetings if anyone would like to volunteer to take on some work, and when I do offer, my manager will proceed to advise me with whom can help, as well as encourage people with the right expertise to come to my aid. This is not entirely necessary, as everyone is extremely happy to help out.

The program is relatively well organised. With the program being run by people, and requiring your calendar to match up with your assessors calendar, you will regularly find clashes for expected reasons. I had some issues getting the time to have meetings with my assessor for a short time as I had mandatory work on, as well as time off for annual leave, as did my assessor. This was able to be worked around though. The studying is brilliant, you are able to complete any or all of the work from home, and are completely capable of getting assistance from your assessor whenever needed. This is much easier by e-mail than face to face, due to the assessors having many meetings with many other apprentices, but they will generally respond within a few hours.

I receive all of the support I could possibly need. I can't thank my assessor enough for the help I've been given. When you think you have finished your work, you send it off to your assessor for them to read through it, they will then let you know if it is good to go and be submitted, or advise you to add a few things to ensure you are capturing everything that is needed. I have been very appreciative of this.

With my employer, I haven't received any assistance in regards to the courses and essays I have completed, but the day to day work is another story. I have had time with my manager as a one to one basis to teach me areas of my role, take me step by step through systems, and I have even been given a program to write, test and implement into production already. I have taken every opportunity there has been, and I have been able to progress further than some of the apprentices that have been here a year or two longer than I have. My manager has been the key to my successes thus far!

My salary is very much capable of covering any costs I have. I have 2 children and a fiancée whom stays at home with my boys as they are only 1 and 2. I live some distance away, and drive 40 miles or so each day for work. I would say that the wage we are given as apprentices is very generous, and I am very pleased with the wage.

outside of work, there are almost limitless opportunities. We have e-mails daily with new activities that are available for everyone, these range from bee-keeping to programming clubs. There are also limitless volunteering opportunities, and RBS will give you a set number of days to take as Volunteering days out of your working calendar. these days can be used for almost any charity work of your choice!

Yes

I have enjoyed every minute of my apprenticeship thus far. The people are all happy to help, eager to share knowledge and all work well as a team. I find it has given me a really good setting for a long career, within a mature environment. I see endless opportunities in the Technology side of RBS to branch out into should I wish to make a change in the future, but for now, This is the best job I have ever had, and could ever ask for!

I would strongly recommend getting to know about the role you are applying for. Do some homework on the bank itself, get to know the general area of which you are applying for, dress smart for your interview, and during any and all interactions... Leave your phone in your pocket. If I could have been told anything before I came into this role, I would like it to have been: it's not as intimidating as you may expect. The people are nice, the work is not going to be too hard when you start, nobody expects you to be able to write a program from scratch on day 1. They will teach you EVERYTHING you need to know!