Digital Product Manager Review

Product management, developing new digital products and managing interactions with other teams of developers etc. Day to day requirements are setting up new programs, interacting with design teams, working with legal and compliance colleagues to release a new software solution or improve an existing one. Specifically I'm working on mortgage related technologies

Yes, I'm still studying and learning now, general management skills and how best to interact with different people has been a key component to early modules. Personal development strategies are helping me to plan for my future career. Also self-learning strategies are becoming key as the quality of course materials provided by Anglia Ruskin is lower than I expected

At the moment I'm not particularly enjoying the program as a whole. I think this is largely due to the lack of clarity around some of the assignments and subjects being studied. I've previously completed a degree with the Open University and found the course materials to be routinely excellent. No so much with those provided so far by Anglia Ruskin

Not very well. There has been confusion around the dates of events. Lack of clarity around the location of events and overall a feeling of having been rushed into the program. Part of this I appreciate is because the program changed somewhat this year so many of the students, myself included only found out about it a couple of weeks before it started. There has been support from the staff via email etc. as needed to overcome this but it hasn't felt that well organised

I've not really found a need to ask for much support from my employer so far. Most of the study hasn't been directly related to what I've been working on so it isn't something I've had to test. I have been repeatedly challenged about time out and cost of the course as this has had an impact on my business area but a result has been a negative feeling about that. Nothing major but something I've been aware of

I've emailed for support a couple of times and received it very quickly and helpfully from the lecturers which has been great. Overall the support has mainly just been in terms of them running the courses at the face to face events and not much outside of that. I'm aware that support is available if I ask for it but so far I've not really sought that out beyond just basic technical questions etc.

Not much so far but It certainly seems like it will do and it also looks like it will be something that significantly helps my future career aspirations. The future modules to be studied hold a lot of promise. I think overall that this will have been well worth a couple of years of my spare time

Yes there are plenty of opportunities for extra curricular activities at my work place. I don't tend to take up many of these due to distance to my work place meaning that to attend one outside work days would likely mean 3-5 hours travel and events after work are difficult to get involved with when considering how much time I already spend on other activities and now on this study

Yes

Yes, I would recommend Barclays to a friend. It's been my primary employer for 21 years and offers a good range of benefits beyond just salary. Overall there's lots of opportunities to change and progress within the company and overall I feel it's still a relatively secure job which I find important to me

Decide what you want to get from it and aim to achieve that. There's a whole range of job opportunities available and many different chances to learn a lot of transferable and useful skills. You'll get a decent pension and benefits package in the mean time and opportunity to contribute to charity through various schemes available to staff