Apprentice UX Designer Review

I help with research, UX design and UI design, and like to take on extra responsibilities such as helping manage and drive projects forwards. On a day-to-day basis I'll often do some designs, perhaps review with my UX and Design colleagues, and make sure I'm aligned with developers and PO in my squad. I also work on a few projects at once so if I get stuck on one thing I can jump onto something else and come at it fresh later.

I come from a research background so I already had experience of that. And from there I got into UX (as a UX Researcher). But coming into this role, I had little to no experience with UI Design, and had only tried UX Design once. I've therefore noticed that the main area I've improved in is understanding both UX and UI design - even things like picking up all the jargon, which I was nervous about initially

I love my job! My apprenticeship is also enjoyable, although I've found I know quite a bit of the material already (but I suppose that is reassuring!). I much prefer the practical-based assessments, but I feel they're somehow not quite relevant enough to my work - I find myself trying to fit my project around getting a good grade (rather than focusing on best practice and making my own decisions on approaches, etc.)

It's the first year the training provider is doing my apprenticeship, and I think it's very impressive so far!! Although I'd say one of the tutors is very disorganised and this puts all of us (the students) at a disadvantage grading-wise. I have had to take it upon myself to try to organise some areas for this reason.

Lots!! My employer is fantastic and I couldn't ask for a better one. My manager in particular is really invested in me getting the most out of my course, and always encourages me to tell them if there's any way they can facilitate my learning in any way.

I'm not as confident in the support of my training provider. The apprentices on my course have a Whatsapp group where we tend to ask each other questions, as the tutors sometimes don't reply to our messages, or else say 'I'll check that and get back to you' and don't follow up.

So far I tend to have learned most of the content at work before I learn it on my course. But even so, most of the content IS useful. Unfortunately, one of the modules appears to be more of a filler and the lectures don't seem thought through, so that's a shame. But the other two modules I enjoy!

Student 'ambassador' (if that's the correct term). I haven't signed up for any other extra-curricular clubs or events. I assume they haven't been running for the last year anyway, but I don't think I'd want to anyway. I did extracurricular activities during my first degree but I'm not keen to now.

Yes

If by 'company' you mean the place I work, I would absolutely recommend OneFile. It's a great place to work and my colleagues are lovely. I feel I can really contribute to team and company progress, and I'm recognised for my hard work, as I received a salary increade after only 6 months so that was really gratifying. OneFile makes its employees feel appreciated when they do exceptional work, and I just love it!

When you apply, be really positive and emphasise your willingness to learn and adapt. Apprenticeships are also a sensible role to apply for with medium (or smaller) companies like this, as government funding can be claimed to contribute to your salary. The people team are lovely and they seem to really recognise that everyone is a person and an interview can be more of a conversation - no point in scaring the new recruits unnecessarily!