Software Engineer Apprentice Review

Currently I am working in a Infrastructure team with project managers. I attend daily meetings on application that we are developing and on monthly basis I get to run some projects myself. These projects include database patching (takes half a day) where I need to get 5 teams to coordinate and executing different tasks at the same time. Other project that I've got to run (usually takes week or two weeks), is Data Copy Process where I need to get lot of people from two different datacenters and other departments to execute tasks so that we can copy data from a dc to another. This involves lots of communication between different teams as well as many many filled forms and created Standard Change Requests.

I have learnt new skills that are relevant to my apprentice, but I didn't expect that I would learn more than that. The resources to learn something "off-topic" are really great. For example, last month I learnt every day little bit about influencing on our "Habit Calendar". That really sparked my interest and now I've bought books to get myself more immersed in the topic. It's not only influencing that NatWest inspired me to learn more about, but also women rights and the climate. I find that these are quite interesting and important topics per se, but I wouldn't take the time on my free time to find out about these if I was a complete novice. But now that I have that spark lit by Natwest, I find myself trying to find more environment friendly products and reading about them.

I'm really happy how it all has worked out. I was a bit afraid of working from home, but somehow I feel like Zoom has even lowered the barriers a bit. I've been able to have had chats with more senior members of staff that I probably would try to avoid at the workplace because of my insecurities.

I have all the support that I need and if I'm ever struggling with my course work, my colleagues are happy to jump right in to give me a hand. On top of that, my assessor is excellent and we frequently chat about our course work with other apprentices to see if we can help each other out a bit.

My line manager is excellent, he has this coaching log for me, where my colleagues can pick up things that my manager wants me to learn. Then they set up a call with me to go through these things. I would wish more structured apprentice activities, so that we could get to know each other better. I know that I'm free to contact whoever I want, and so I have done, but it would be nicer to have more collective way of getting to know one another.

My assessor is really great, she is always there for me and I know that I can email her whenever I need anything from her. She's helping me so much and always providing very good guidance on all assessments I am taking. I'm enjoying it, but I would wish for a bit more variety when it comes to answering the questions.

It's hard for me to say just yet. So far my completed assessments have been very general like Health and Safety and Interpersonal and Written Communication, but I'm sure that once we get into bit more technical stuff in the course work, it will be a great asset for me and my team.

During international women's month I joined a lot of different webinars to get more knowledge on the topic and that inspired me to join my work's gender network! I have also applied as a volunteer for COP26 which was encouraged by my employer. They also support me by giving extra days-off for those who want to volunteer in the event.

Yes

I feel like this is the chance I've been waiting for. I feel like I can become whatever I want if I just keep learning and network with the right people. I have told my friends already that they should apply, because this company feels like a dream come true.

Be yourself. To me it seems like NatWest wants to hire people who are good fit for the company culture, so if you get hired for who you are, you're definitely going to get the most out of it. Do your research as well. It's easier to give good answers when you know what behaviours the company values.