Junior Software Developer Review

My role is a junior software developer. This could involve many different things, such as designing a solution for a client, writing the solution, or even installing the hardware for the client. I spent a long while travelling around the country going to client sites to set up their systemsor

I have learnt skills at work, such as increased coding knowledge or ladder safety training!!. I have also learned a lot of interpersonal skills while interacting with both clients and colleagues. I have become a lot more confident both in myself and my technical skills while working at CGI

I enjoy the program a great deal. Everything work based has been brilliant, my team is very supportive and helpful, and I do not feel patronised by the senior members, which is something I was worried about. However, the university side of the course is pretty grim in comparison to other degree apprenticeships, and I would make huge changes if I was in charge.

I feel very valued by CGI and by my team. CGI endeavors to keep its employees in roles they want to be in. Although I have enjoyed my role from the start, I have witnessed several of my colleagues on the SDP swap roles into vastly different areas, such as from testing into project management. The effort and money put in to making this change just to keep my colleague happy makes me feel valued as an employee.

There is a lot of room for improvement here. At work we are treated essentially as a full fledged employee, which is fantastic. However, some of the teams people were placed into at the start did not match up with what they said they wanted to do, what their experience is in, or even with their uni degrees. Also, the university structure is poor, with one 10 hour day and communication with the lecturer in charge of the programme is difficult.

this varis greatly from lecturer to lecturer. The raw resources provided by the uni of winchester is immense, being able to access almost every journal I find if I go through the right channels. However as mentioned in the last question, the lady in charge (on the uni side) gives out conflicting information and can be difficult to get responses from. Some lecturers answer questions very vaguely, whereas others are pretty good. All of them empathise with how much work we have, however.

I feel I receive a lot of support from CGI. As mentioned previously, they will help you move if you want to, as long as they feel you've given your current role a fair go. It is the kind of environment where if you ask for help and support, it will be given, but if you don't ask they're not gonna babysit you. In other words, it's very friendly and adult.

I personally have had tax problems this year, but that is a problem with HMRC not with the company. that said, even with only 70% of the money I should have, I have still been pretty fine. I pay rent on a fairly expensive property, budget for food, save a fair bit, then still have a reasonable amount of money left over. I would say it's a comfortable wage

The sports and social club is amazing if you take advantage of it. Basically you pay £5 a month out of your salary, then any event you want, as long as there are 4 or more employees who want to go will have £40 per member paid towards it. The only caveat being you have to invite everyone in sports and social club, but that's never been an issue so far. Thus far I've done golf, thorpe park, and got tickets to craig david concert, the lion king and gone to harry potter studios.

Yes

I think CGI's main selling point is that they give potential apprentices the chance to work in an environment where they are treated as an adult and an employee, and not as an apprentice, I feel CGI is excellent for that, due to the relative disconnect between work and uni. While your team knows you have a lot on your plate and will cut you some slack because of it, I am effectively on the same level as everyone else, am given the same opportunities, and am treated with the same level of respect.

Don't give short answers, do some research about recent projects they've done or been a part of then talk about those and how they interest you. CGI is just as interested in if they can be good for you as they are in if you can be good for them. If you get to the assessment centre try not to worry, if it doesn't work out then it might be because they thought you wouldn't like it, in which case you dodged a bullet.