Associate Engineer Review

My role within the team is to work on the front-end development on the feature team work. I also have responsibilities of scrum-master, where I run the morning team stand-ups, sprint planning and sprint retrospectives. I also get the time during the week to focus on university coursework if required.

Have learned new skills and developed existing skills already in my time at M&G. New skills I have learned is the react JavaScript development, Java for backend development too. I have also learnt about all the different environments code gets passed into when being tested before being release into production.

Like everything in life, the programme throws up its challenges. For example trying to balance the coursework for a full time university course, as well as trying to complete my work responsibilities to a good standard can be very challenging. However, this is all part of the fun of trying to push yourself and challenge yourself every single day.

When we first joined, it felt very unorganised and last minute and there wasn't much plans for us in terms of work and the first 6-12 months was mostly orientated around university work. However, since then it has felt a lot more structured and the organisation has worked hard to integrate us into teams where we can contribute and put into practice things we have learnt while at university.

The support from M&G has been excellent. Anytime we need to take to meet a deadline for university they are more than accommodating to help us meet that. They are also very good at supporting you through any personal issues that you may have, for example the global pandemic in the past year, the organisation has supported everyone in adapting to working from home and been understanding that adapting to that big a change takes time.

From Heriot Watt the support is there is your require it. Your personal tutor is always in communication with you to make sure you're okay and if you need to have any support. I have also had extra support given to me by Heriot Watt with modules I have struggled with to help me understand it better.

If I am being honest, I have found what I have learned from Heriot Watt interesting but not always relevant to what I do in the workplace. However, even if I don't put everything I have learnt at university into practice at work, I have certainly implemented some of the things I have learned.

There are several clubs and activities at M&G plc, however during the pandemic these have been hard to run remotely. However pre the pandemic there were plenty of groups such as the junior-dev community and the coding clubs where you can learn a new programming language in a group.

Yes

I would recommend M&G to anyone as fantastic place to work because of the working culture and support from everyone. Everyone is so supportive and friendly, which makes attending work so enjoyable. Also the opportunities to learn new things and grow in your role is something that is actively encourage which is great.

I'd say be honest on your application, M&G is a place where everyone is encouraged to be themselves and the workforce is a diverse one. Another tip I give when applying to M&G is do your research around the organisation, it will help impress everyone if you know your facts and history of the organisation.