Software Engineer Review

Work on a SCRUM development team which produce APIs for HMRC. The APIs are used by third parties to communicate with HMRC services. I choose from a list of tasks that need to be completed, usually involving coding in Scala, and work on it until completion

Yes, I have already improved my general programming skills and learnt a new programming language (Scala). I have also learnt a load of general skills regarding working on a software team such as ways of working (pair programming, SCRUM story pointing) and soft skills like presenting and teamwork have improved

I enjoy the work side of my programme a lot. Despite it being impacted by working from home, I find the work I do daily to be engaging, challenging and enjoyable. The university side is more frustrating, but I understand that that's just the nature of higher education.

Each individual part of my programme is fairly well structured. There is the odd hitch now and then, like not being able to get admin rights for uni work on my work laptop and things like that, but there are no major issues which I would complain about

I have a whole network of people who constantly offer their support and who I feel I can reach out to if I ever had any doubts or questions. I have a reviewer, scrum master, manager, tech lead etc. who regularly offer their support to me. Couldn't be happier

Definitely less than from my employer, but not so much so that I would deem it an issue. Lecturers are happy to respond to questions and reservations that I have, but sometimes the responses and feedback is a bit lackluster and I only meet with my reviewer very rarely

At the moment, not really at all because the things we are learning are very low level and mostly thing's I've done before (first year) but I can see things starting to relate more and more to my work as the course continues.

There isn't much since I'm working from home, but I do attend extra-curricular meetings and discussions on occasion and I feel like community culture and networking is heavily encouraged at my workplace. Given the lockdown, I don't see how the extra-curricular activities could be improved any more.

Yes

They're incredibly ethical and considerate of their workers. I feel genuinely appreciated and cared for by the people I work for and that's a huge break from managers in the jobs I've had in the past. I believe in the values of the company.

Focus more on your interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence than your technical things. They seem to care more about how well you'll get along with people at the company than about how good of a programmer you are, because they know you could always improve over time