Software Developer Review

Using applications such as VSCode, GitHub, Trello, Slack to develop software and communicate with colleagues to develop web applications in the form of prototypes. Members of IBM come to my team with an idea and we develop a prototype for them within a 1-2 month timeframe for them to present to their clients.

Before I started working at IBM I have a very little bit of experience developing software for the web, and a good amount of experience programming in C# on the .NET framework, since starting IBM I have built up my web development skills hugely with technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, Express.js, Vue.js, IBM Cloud, JSON and database storage and much more.

I enjoy developing software as it keeps my mind working ad is giving me constant challenges and problems to solve. The training provider has been a bit messy and unorganised to be honest, not at the fault of IBM though. The amount I have learnt and the projects that I have been working on have been brilliant

The on-the-job side of things is brilliant, I am a member of the Rapid Prototyping Team developing prototypes for sellers and architects in IBM to show to their clients to use as proof of concepts, and it is structured very well, however the apprenticeship training side of things with Firebrand has been quite unorganised and lacked communication which has made it difficult to plan around courses and produce some of the coursework.

I have 2-3 managers in IBM that I can go to for support which gives me plenty of confidence in the workplace, and the support received from foundation is brilliant, there are always opportunities to take part in extra courses and events which builds the relationship between apprentices/employees and the employer

The Firebrand courses that I take part in are well organised and are more than sufficient to help me pass my exams, however Firebrand have been lacking in the remote support for the coursework that apprentices produce, as well as general admin/organisation in terms of course dates, progress updates and usability of the online OneFile platform

My qualification is quite broad so at this point I'm not sure how much it benefits my work at the moment, however the principles are still important and will apply to many different jobs that I could be doing. I would have liked to have had a say in the courses that I took or have ones that are more relevant to the job that I am doing right now

There are some outside-of-work activities to take part in such as sporting events, but I would like it if there were more networks made for different interests and hobbies, eg groups for car enthusiasts to get to know each other, fans of PC building to share their knowledge and passion for what they do etc

Yes

They are a very good, stable company that properly value you as an employee, and have a wide support network to aid you if there are problems with anything in the workplace. There is always opportunity to move around and change career path if you wanted to, and IBM support you in that very well

Make yourself stand out, research IBM and some of the things they do/some of the technologies that they use or have created, if you know what you want to do then learn more about that in your free time so that you can talk about that and how you did it in your own time.