Junior Developer Review

Junior Developer. I have changed what I do on a day-to-day basis recently. Firstly, I was helping with the Protective Monitoring solutions of servers but now I have moved on to Environment Support, helping to respond to emails, fix any issues people are having and log defects.

Yes, I have started to learn how to code (coming from a non-coding background it has taught me a lot). We have training provided by QA. I have been to 3 of these courses which are based on teaching us how to code in Java.

I am really enjoying this programme. The teams that I have been placed in have been great. It also surpassed my expectations as the company as a whole cares about their staff.

Very. The teams that have brought me on have been really supportive of me, trying to get me to learn their roles and what they do, training me up so I can be a valuable asset in the future,

Although CGI seem to have an idea of what they want from the apprenticeship and QA do, there seems to be a lack of communication somewhere, therefore the training is not well organised. However the rest of it seems to have its expectations and structure.

The training courses themselves are good, they tend to give you enough knowledge to be able to complete tasks based on the learning objectives. However QA as a provider have been terrible. They have a disorganised company structure, meaning that they do not respond to emails in a satisfactory time. Also, some skills coaches have left and they cannot seem to fill that gap, causing a huge void in learning and help.

From the employer there is a lot of support. My manger has meetings with me and we have spoken about where I am, what I'm doing and whether I want to move teams to do more/a wider variety of work. The team I am in also understand that at points I will have to take time out of the project work to do apprenticeship work.

The salary meets my costs very well. I can save a large chunk of my salary whilst having to pay for travel, housekeeping and social activities. The only downside is that the location of the office is quite far from where I live, and I was not able to change my base location to a closer office to claim back some of the travel expenses as they are quite high.

Yes, there is a Sports and Social club that you can sign up to for a cost per month that gets you free/discounted activities with other members. There are also voluntary activities which you are able to book your time to so you can still get paid for it.

Yes

They seem like a great company, support your apprenticeship as well as have a culture which is great for a workplace. It is also a great opportunity that cannot be missed.

• BE PREPARED • Research into the company o Do not just look at Wikipedia, look on the website of the company o Remember a few interesting facts o Read up on a few news articles – could be good and bad  For bad – these could be asked as a “What do you think is the biggest issue facing ___ right now and what do you think you’d be able to do to help?”  Do not get freaked out by this – simple – hard work, determination, willingness to learn in order to be able to help in the future o Look up competitors and maybe bad things that have happened to them/good things o Look at their clients • Research into the role from the website o What you’ll be required to do o Where it may be going in the future • Relax and be yourself