Technical Consultant Review

As a technical consultant my role changes based on the project I am involved with. In my business unit as an "edge" worker I am involved with projects on client sites or can work remotely depending on the customer. The projects I have been involved with so far were primary Office 365 Migration projects.

I have learnt lots of new skills. I have built a lot on my existing technical knowledge through the Microsoft Certifications and learning on the job. The actual degree has had modules that are relevant to my role but is often interlaced with more soft skill subjects such as management techniques which are less relevant.

I thoroughly enjoy the program in terms of my day job. I know that I will get out of it what I put in and have been encouraged to learn new technologies that I am interested in. The degree has been Ok. At times it has lacked relevance to my role and seemed disorganised but now, in my final year, its a lot better.

It has been very organised in terms of both work and the degree. Throughout the first year there was lots of support and frequent team building, business efficacy and soft skill work shops. After this there has been lots of support from the early careers teams. The degree from QA was initially quite disorganised but through constant feedback has improved.

Although I appreciate that your experience can vary based on the team and manager you are with, I have found that I have received the right amount of support. What I mean by this is that I get the support I need without feeling smothered and I know that if I do need more support there's multiple people I can speak to for it.

I have regular meetings with a "Skills Coach" every 3 months or so to make sure I am happy with my work and the degree. They are also to ensure I am given enough time to complete the degree course during work. I feel as though these are basically just form filling exercises but also I have never raised any issues so in that case it may be more useful.

Some of the modules have been very relevant to my role but others have been irrelevant. I did expect this as the degree is quite broad. Also my job roles can vary quite a lot, although at this point they haven't been, so it may be that in the future the modules that I thought were less relevant may help me perform my role better.

There are a lot of extra-curricular activities. There is an early careers committee that send out emails multiple times per week with both optional and mandatory upcoming events. These are usually social or network activities but there has been sports related ones too. Some business units do have sports teams as well but they are managed more locally rather than offered by the company.

Yes

In my own experience, the company has been very supportive of degree apprentices and has put in a lot of work to structure activities and supports for us. We have had regular pay reviews based on performance which are a great incentive, regardless of the amount, especially for people coming out of school who may need some time to adjust to work life and need praise more regularly.

Know your stuff and know the role you're applying to. Obviously I can only speak to applying for technical roles but I had to give a short presentation about a technology related to the company and putting a few hours towards preparing and doing some research on HPE will go a long way to prove your interest in the technologies and your work ethic.