Apprentice Software Developer Review

My Main role is to shadow my work mentor when required, learn about the basics of the systems my team maintains/work with, work towards my apprentice objectives, respond to any support queries to my team, learn/improve new and existing technical skills such as coding in Java, and study for the university course that my degree works in tandem with

As mentioned in my previous response , i have learnt a number of new technical skills: I have learned Java, both as part of my role in the office and as part of my coursework for university - I am continuing to develop this skill. I have also been introduced to other programming languages like HTML and CSS, and have also improved general office skills such as using more complicated functions of microsoft excel and creating presentations in microsoft powerpoint

I feel that I will grow into the responsibilities I have as part of my program - that is to say, as my knowledge and skills improve, I'll be able to do more of the work that my team carries out on a daily basis. Currently, as I am limited by ability as to what I can do, there is sometimes a limit into how involved i can get - as i develop my technical skills, I look forward to getting more stuck in in the future.

This is a difficult question to answer - each aspect of the program (i.e. work and university) is reasonably well structured. however, the combination of the two is sometimes chaotic. There seems to be very little visibility at work as to our university timetable surrounding exams. Also, out of the 6 modules we have studied coming to the end of our first year at university, only 1 (java programming) has been even vaguely applicable to our role in the office. We also get very little time (none) set aside during office hours to study or do university work, whereas some apprentices in other teams do. I find this difference in responsibilities/opportunities very unfair, as it means some students have extra time to study for exams than others.

Similar to my previous response, this is a difficult question to answer - we are all terated differently according to our teams. For example, some apprentices are able to work from home whenever they decide, whereas | am only allowed to do so wwith prior approval. Again, I am also the only apprentice who's team does not them study in their free time in work - this places more strain on my personal time as I then have to do university work which other apprentices are generally able to divert some time towards in work. However, when it comes to my office environment and on the job learning, I have a good amount of support and advice available from my team mates and coworkers

Similar to my previous response, this is a difficult question to answer - we are all terated differently according to our teams. For example, some apprentices are able to work from home whenever they decide, whereas | am only allowed to do so wwith prior approval. Again, I am also the only apprentice who's team does not them study in their free time in work - this places more strain on my personal time as I then have to do university work which other apprentices are generally able to divert some time towards in work. Also, very little of what we are doing in university to what we are doing in work so it is sometimes difficult to learn about advanced maths, or HTML in web design in a team full of Business analyst's and java developers.

Not very. Despite the fact that you would expect the degree to be focused towards software development (it it literally called 'software development for business'), in our first year at university we have had 8 weeks of Java lessons (1 class per week) and even these have consisted of a teacher answering multichoice questions with the class, as opposed to lecture notes or actual practical examples. To put this in perspective, we have had 24 weeks of maths lessons. Whilst maths is undoutably a useful skill to have in any role, not once have I ever witnessed a member of my team need to calculate a Euclidean Algorithm or work with logarithms. Provided we are working towards a development degree, a greater focus on software development would be appreciated.

one of my favourite things about working in barclays is taking part in citizenship activities - these often consist of helping various charities, both local, national or international. I have taken part in several of these events since being at barclays, and i plan on continuing to do so as I enjoy them immensely and think they are a great way for both a company and an individual to give back to our communities.

No

My only experience of barclays is as an apprentice - which, as I have mentioned in my previous responses, is sometimes disorganised, inconsistent, and ill supported, especially if you have little background knowledge. Often, when we express concerns we are fobbed off. However, as a graduate/intern or someone with applicable qualifications or experience, I think barclays would be a great place to work.

Make sure you know what you're getting into - especially if you have no experience of office/IT jobs before - my only experience prior to applying was retail sales so I found working in an office 9-5 both a welcome relief but also a bit of a culture shock. Also, as previously mentioned, support/time to study for university can be limited so there is a large workload - make sure you are up for it.