Desktop Support Review

My job role is Desktop support. The daily responsibilities include fulfilling user's IT requests and also assisting with any IT issues they have. There are training sessions that are held where equipment would have to be set up in training rooms which require different set-ups.

Many new skills either been picked up through the actual apprenticeship or through different experiences. There are many different sessions that are held to give a better understanding of different systems in place. The qualifications gained and the training has helped a lot especially in the job role I am in. A+ is the qualification that has been gained. It makes it easier to understand an issue and also what is the next steps to take. Through the experiences, I have been able to learn a lot more than I expected within the time span. Been able to learn more about why some problems occur and also how to plan against it happening again or to others.

There is a lot of work to do daily and there is always a different experience. I think this is what makes the work exciting as you can't really guess what issues may happen during the day. The team are really good and collaborate well, they do support during different issues if they can help or point in the right direction to get help. Overall, I think it has been better than I expected as it has been a really good experience and has helped with gaining a better understand of the field that I have chosen.

I feel like my manager does set tasks that challenge me. He sets things that he knows would be quite tricky to find out information for but still has faith that I could do it. It helps to show that he has trust in me by giving me challenging things to find out or do. I feel like people do appreciate the help and are friendly when they are receiving support. This makes it a lot easier when dealing with them as they are not giving a hard time while you are trying to find a solution.

I think the programme has been very well organised and thought through. The induction sessions and training dates are told well in advance so that you know exactly when you would need to do something or go to a meeting. They follow a good time scale as there is enough time to achieve whatever it is you need to. The studying is done but they do allow time for extra studying and do try to help as much as possible when something is hard to understand. In regards to support meetings, we have a buddy/mentor system which allows us to have a casual meeting to discuss anything that needs to be discussed. These do help as it is less formal and a bit more relaxed than a full meeting.

Sometimes the training provider is actually very helpful but there are other times when it is quite challenging to get an answer or a response. I respect that they have many apprentices to look after but as it is a less frequent thing I feel like there could be better communication. We only really get to find out stuff every month when our assessor visits us but other than that, nothing else. They do help whenever they can though. I do really enjoy the training sessions as the trainers are really good. They do teach a lot and it does actually help.

Nomura are very good at providing support as they do help as much as possible. They do always try to find different ways to help support whenever they can whether it be; giving training sessions, meetings to find out what we are having problems with or just in general whenever there is a problem.

The salary has really helped with living in general as it was more than I expected considering it was an apprenticeship but it does show a lot of faith. Travel is covered even though it is quite expensive per month but the salary does cover it. General living and going out is covered also. Overall, the salary does meet my costs.

Nomura hold many events which they invite everyone to. An email is usually sent out detailing a different event - normally every week. They do update you about any changes or with any more details about the event. The sporting events are bit more rare than the others but there are some.

Yes

It has been a really good experience and is a good place to learn. They have a structure and show you what you could become if you do work hard. They do support and help whenever they can as well.

Be prepared as there are a lot of important people in the company and it is always good to know who they are. It would also be good to research exactly how banking is done and to have a good understanding of how it works. There are also many meetings outlining the company hierachy and it is important to pay attention to this.