Scrum Master Review

During my cyber placement, I had numerous tasks, from tracking new vulnerabilities that were constantly being found, to chasing the relevant teams to get these fixed. I also helped to educate Santander employees through Phishing campaigns, around the country. In my current placement, I am now learning the role of scrum master, and working with Agile methodologies.

Numerous skills have been picked up along the way, throughout my apprenticeship, from communication with different colleagues and senior stakeholders, to managing my time and tasks more effectively. I have also learnt to work in Agile teams, and how teams can work much more effectively and efficiently, through the use of Agile working.

I thoroughly enjoy my apprenticeship programme at Santander. The teams I have worked in, have always encouraged us apprentices to achieve our best, and helped us to do this, by providing numerous experiences and guidance. Furthermore, the culture at Santander is great, and people really do try to embrace it.

At Santander, I genuinely feel valued. You don't feel as though you're just going to be treated like a new college leaver. Pretty much from the start, I was given tasks of responsibility that were of great importance to the bank, and it was really good knowing that the teams see you as a true asset.

The programme is well structured, with a good ratio of working days to study days. One day a week, is completely dedicated to apprentices for their study, as part of the degree course they are on. The teams you work in, are fully cooperative with this, and are always willing to help if needed. The only difficult part, is working a long day 2 days a week, when you have lectures after work, which can be tiring. However, its manageable!

The support from our training provider is fantastic in most aspects, with easy access to tutors and progress managers. Most of the time, they are open to providing you extra support however, sometimes it lacks. When this happens though, our contact at the training provider, is always ready to handle this, and get any issues or problems sorted quickly.

From my employer, lots of support is received. This can be from arranging development days, and team shadowing, to flexibility when you need it. Santander are also very encouraging, and arrange workshops for us to attend, which can be great use, and educating. These often help improve our skills and knowledge of the bank, however I think it would be great to have these arranged more often, to further broaden our understanding of the bank and its structure.

My salary package is great for an apprentice and allows me to enjoy myself, in terms of having a comfortable life outside of work, whilst being able to afford accommodation and travel costs. Furthermore, the company always pay for travel expenses when going on business travel. Overall, I believe my salary package is fairly good.

Outside of work, there are several opportunities to help out at local charities. These are called discovery days, and are almost mandatory for each employee to do, at least once a year. Helping the wider community is highly encouraged here at Santander. Of course, there are also Christmas Party events which are always great fun.

Yes

The opportunities that have been made available to me, especially as an apprentice, and the support I receive from the company, and the teams I work in, is fantastic, and makes the apprenticeship enjoyable.

When applying to Santander, be honest and open with your answers. In terms of online tests, it is good to do a bit of preparation for these, and they will be the initial stages for the application process. I would also encourage people to attend the onboarding event, as it is very useful to get to know the programme a bit better.