Software Engineer Review

Lead test analyst, day to day testing on my project. Acceptance, smoke, performance and security testing. Agile ceremonies, stand ups, strint planning retrospectives. Some development work. Deployments and testing within different test environments. Communicating issues from a test perspective to the test manager within the centre. Knowledge sharing within my community.

Developed my automation testing and development skills greatly. As well as domain and environment knowledge. Build and deploying knowledge. Tools include, selenium webdriver, jenkins, gatling, jira, confluences, postman. Scala and Java language knowledge. Massively improved testing skills completing various ISTQB qualifications throughout my 5 years at the company. Knowledge of the tax system as a whole.

The program is good for learning and developing skills in the software engineering and tester profession, program is well structured with clear goals and milestones throughout. The level 4 qualification at the start was very tedious and not very challenging, would have preferred to get straight into the degree as I already had a-levels at this point.

Program is well structures and its always clear what is required from you in terms of your education. However most of this is down to the university constantly keeping you updated rather than Capgemini. The apprentice program manager is difficult to get hold of in order to get questions answered.

Initial support is very good for the first two years with constant meetings with you external reviewer from QA and you're well looked after within the organisation. However once you are handed over to the university they are most relied upon for your development, and many feel forgotten about within Capgemini when the next intake of Apprentices come in.

QA give alot of guidance and support when completing the inital 2 year level 4 apprenticeship. And Aston university are very good with supporting you through the degree. They're always there to answer emails with questions or give extra support when needed. This is a particular highlight of the apprenticeship.

I don't think I've ever used a single bit of knowledge from either the QA apprenticeship or my degree with Aston uni in my job role. Everything I know and use on a day to day basis is learned on the job rather than from an training providers.

There are many extra curricular activities to get involved in, sport teams a on site gym which has its own staff and is for members of capgemini only. We're also encouraged to go on conferences which costs will often be covered by Capgemini. There are many apprenticeship events aimed at attracting talent that we can also get involved in.

Yes

I would recommend Capgemini to a friend as the experience and learning on the job offered is priceless for someone coming out of school or college. The qualifications on offer also look very good to other employers. However the pay often will be much less when compared to non apprentices who after a year or two you will be doing the exact same job as.

Make the most of support offered to you on the job and treat everyday as a learning experience. It is this knowledge that is most valuable within the company as the knowledge you gain from the formal qualifications, is either a waterdown version of what you've already learned or is completely irrelevant to your job role.