RPA Developer Review

I am an RPA (Robotics Process Automation) developer which means I automate manual and repetitive processes so that they can be done by a robot. This also includes creating documentation and testing the solution. This is done for clients of IBM so I travel a lot for work and have lots of client interaction.

I have developed my communication and presentation skills i.e. soft/interpersonal skills. We have a two week induction when we first start which goes over a lot of this in detail. I have also learnt some technical tools like Blue Prism, AA and UiPath for my day to day job.

I enjoy what I am doing and the team I work in are very good. There are a lot of graduates and apprentices in my team which makes work more fun. There are a few organisational issues with management but a lot of these have been sorted. Overall is a nice place to work but feel I have been lucky with the team I have.

The IBM mentor is usually very helpful and reaches out for meetings each quarter to keep track pf my progress. My uni mentor does the same with meetings but I don't find these very valuable. I struggle with the amount of uni work I have whilst also doing my job, have voiced this struggle and not much was done to help.

My employer manager is very supportive of my work, especially my apprentice manager. My day to day mangers and client managers struggle with how much time I need to take off for uni and training days etc. This has proven an issue a few times with trying to get time off.

The way my degree is delivered isn't the most efficient way to do it I believe. We have a mix of e-learning tasks and online lectures but I find the online lectures to be boring and doesn't give us much new content. Fewer lectures would be better. We are given one day a week to do our work which at the beginning of the year is enough with some extra evenings, but at the end of the year isn't enough.

I haven't really applied any of what I learnt for my qualification in my role. This is because the soft skills they taught us, I already had training for from IBM. The SQL and python modules aren't relevant to my role although interesting, and I haven't had chance to implement the business tools/techniques we have learnt because I am not a BA.

We have networking events once a month but I can't always attend this due to being on client site. This reason also stops me from joining other groups/clubs like sport because of the travel. We have a bug apprentice community which is nice and I try to attend those events as much as possible.

Yes

Work whilst getting paid and learning a lot. Would be wary because I know a few people who have had a bad experience due to the team they were put in, or being expected to live in London on an apprentice salary which isn't feasible and there is no support for this.

If you're joining a consulting service line, be prepared to travel a lot and live out of a suitcase. You're expected to work just as hard as anyone else which is a good thing as they won't treat you differently. Lots of experience at an early age is great.