Developer Review

My job title is 'developer', it involves mostly mainframe work where out customer data is. I don't have to interact with that many people as mostly I am coding. I get odd jobs through different projects to do but the majority of the work is writing programs in COBOL. I think i would benefit from integrating my work with other people so i can liase with others whilst getting on with my job. i think this would benefit me as i would get to know more people from work and i wouldn't feel as 'alone' at work however i do really enjoy the work that i get given.

I have gain the official qualification which is "NVQ level 3 in IT user skills", then I went on to do a number of training courses in COBOL, DB2, SQL. From a personal point of view, I've really developed my presentation skills, as well as interpersonal skills due to other initiatives within the team. I have been told that sometime in the near future i will be given other training and will be attending courses which will benefit me on a day-to-day basis as well as in my future works within the company.

I really enjoy working here and although it took me slightly longer than I'd have liked to initially settle in, I now really feel part of the team. To begin with my expectations were slightly higher than what was delivered but after a short while my expectations were met. I feel as though my programme could be a lot more beneficial if parts of it were tweaked such as what i mentioned in question 1 where i would prefer to integrate and interact with other people in my day-to-day working life.

I think to be recognised within Lloyds Banking Group you have to be proactive and go out and nominate yourself for things, offer to go above and beyond. If you just do your day to day job you're almost seen as 'developing' because there is so much competition. I feel as though there are parts of the workforce and higher up executives who dont seem to care about the 'little people' as much, but from my own site where i work i have had no problem with getting training and being able to speak to managers etc. i just think some emails and stories i hear about other executives are not very professional.

Official training from the central team was really good and i would definitely say i got a lot from it, we had a 2 week foundation course about Group IT and where we fit in the big picture. I was then given a mentor who has supported me right throughout my journey here and if I have a question or anything he is more than happy to help. My team Hierarchy is rather complicated because we are spread across two sites but I have managed to talk to someone from each grade boundary.

Whilst I was on my programme I received a lot of help from my learn direct assessor, however after I rolled doff the programme, I still had a few apprenticeship related queries which have gone unanswered. i think that as previously said, there are parts to the apprenticeship which could do with some tweaking, i feel as though there are people to talk to however in general i think a few things that i mention are overlooked or ignored.

My manager is great and will support me in wherever I want to go. I haven't had much experience dealing with the HR team but from the odd occasion where I have had to contact them, everything is done online and it is very difficult to actually speak to someone. Overall I can't fault my team for the support I've been given and everyone has been great. I think that they are very professional as a whole and i would say that in all the problems and queries i have had they have dealt with them very well.

I moved house for this job so my travel costs are limited, but in comparison to most other apprenticeships that I looked at, the salary here is excellent, we also get free BUPA healthcare which is an added bonus. Career progression is quite slow to begin with though. I think that overall although the financial aspect of an apprenticeship isn't very good, the work experience and the fact that all the education is paid for is worth it on it's own.

We have a chistmas meal once a year and that' about all the activity that I've had with my team outside of work. I would like to see more activities planned with staff members and internal activities such as fund raising for example. I think that the business could really push for everyone to get together as i think it would help morale and get all the colleagues to know each other a lot better too. This would also be something i would like to get involved in as well.

Yes

It is a really good place to work, there is a structured training plan in place and if, at the end of the apprenticeship, you feel you want to explore other areas, that's not a problem and people will always support you no matter what you want to do. I would say that because the education is paid for and there is some support for you it's a good way of getting your foot in the door definitely. I think the company is a good start to anyone's career.

In the application process, there are 2 sections: a group activity and a singular activity. During the group activity try to think outside the box. During my application process, I applied for a role in Gloucester but was given a role in Wolverhampton so I had to explicitly ask to be moved. There were very accommodating though. There is also a long transition period between the interview and being told you've got the job, which I'd like to change.