Software Engineer Review

Using a wide range of development tools, I write product code and tests. The work I do is selected from a list of work items chosen by my team to tackle on a fortnightly basis; we're an agile team and work in two week long sprints. I sit in the same area as all of my team, and we have daily standups so there's lots of interaction.

I've learnt lots of new skills since starting my role and developed many I already had. I've come across lots of new programming languages, learnt about how code is actually deployed and built a knowledge of how to use industry essential tools like GitHub. There are many opportunities for training courses - both in person and online.

I enjoy my programme a lot and it meets the expectations I had going in. There's a large variety of work for me to do, my team were really excited to have an apprentice join and I've always felt supported - by all my managers and members of my team.

The university learning is clearly structured; all of our lectures are on one day a week, and we do a clear amount of modules per term. Residential weeks have timetables which are fairly split between the modules covered that term, and these weeks are useful as a basis for the term. We get the rest of the lecture day off work to study - which is enough if you manage your time well. When having multiple university assignments at once though, it does tend to take up many evenings/ weekend days in a week.

Both my Early Professionals Manager and my Task Manager provide a great level of support. My Task Manager sits in the same area as my team, has weekly 1:1 meetings with me and will always find time for me if I need it. My EPM is great at supporting me with any issues I may come across at work - including things like how I'm adapting to the workplace and any struggles in my personal development.

There is a University Mentor for all apprentices on the course who is great at helping with problems or pointing towards further support if needed. It was a somewhat difficult process to get exam arrangements but was all able to be sorted out given time, and there was no issue with the implementation of these during exams.

I've been able to see some common things between my qualification and the courses/ work I do in my role. The qualification so far has been very general so some parts have been useful and some parts have had no link to the work i do on a day-to-day basis.

There are lots of events to get involved in: there are many sports and activities clubs, team celebrations - Christmas meals, pizza lunches, team building events and days, and things to get involved with. There is an Apprentice community which holds apprentice specific events like pub quiz nights and other events after work.

Yes

It's a large company with lots of room for me to develop and learn in. I'm supported by so many different people and know that I'll be able to reach my potential here. I feel like there's a role to suit almost every apprentice and we're supported in working towards our career goals.

When asked to demonstrate competencies, think about any example you can of these - even something like volunteering at an event could be linked to something like client success. Do your research before your assessment day - you don't need to know everything about IBM but what the acronym stands for is a good start.