Devops Engineer Review

As a devops engineer, I am responsible for maintaining the development systems and processes used by the project team to create digital solutions for clients. This includes automating deployment proceedures, automating testing, deploying the system to the target platform for the client, designing new deployment strategies, and debugging system (Linux) issues when they arise.

When starting the apprenticeship, I had hardly any technical experience. Thanks to CGI, over the past three years I have been able to gain experience in Ansible and Jenkins automation, Red Hat/CentOS Linux administration, virtualisation technologies (VMWare), container platforms (Docker), and a variety of languages and frameworks (Java, HTML, CSS, Bash, Angular, TypeScript, Javascript, SQL).

The work side at CGI is really interesting and rewarding. I get exposure to opportunities and technologies I would not have access to without being at CGI. The side of the course I least enjoy is the teaching from the training provider (University of Winchester). The communication between the university and students has been appalling at times, with the Uni trying to change on of our assignments in Week 11 out of 12 (3 weeks before it was due). The lectures leave much to be desired content wise, with only a few being engaging and exciting.

The course covers a wide range of concepts and subjects, ranging from business focused modules such as project management, and business transformation, to more technical modules such as software development. To help with managing your time, CGI assigns a workplace mentor who will have regular catch up meetings. Within the workplace individuals are also willing to support you with sharing knowledge and reviewing work where needed.

Each apprentice is assigned a workplace buddy (often who has already been through the degree apprenticeship scheme), and a workplace mentor to monitor their progress. From my experience, managers have been understanding of the workload and commitments that degree apprentices have. In your last year of study, CGI also provide an extra 30 days of leave to support you working on your dissertation - a real lifeline in a stressful final semester.

The University of Winchester provide next to no support for additional training. They seem to instead not understand how much work you have to do, always adding additional workload when you least need it (e.g. setting multiple formative assignments and weekly activities to complete that do not contribute to your grade OR learning/knowledge).

Nearly all of the technical knowledge I have gained has been from the workplace. If you are a technical apprentice, the university degree provides you with a good basis for academic writing, understanding of business process and management, but does not significantly improve your technical skill set. The qualification is also often frowned upon by other employers, as it's an unusual degree (they often prefer a straight computer science degree). However, the experience you gain in the workplace more than makes up for this shortfall.

Within CGI there is a sports and social club, where subsidised sports and social events are run. Previous activities included cocktail masterclasses, meals out, airsoft, go-karting, ascot/epsom races, pub parties, running events, golf tournaments, badminton, bouldering/rock climbing, and anything else that members want to suggest. Within projects there are also often team lunches and other activities occurring throughout the year.

Yes

There is a lot of opportunity for learning new skills and technologies. Joining the CGI degree apprenticeship provides not-only a degree, but three years of experience working for a industry leading IT and business consultancy. This experience is invaluable when comparing CGI graduates to full-time-uni graduates, as it gives them real-industry lead knowledge, making them more employable.

At the assessment centres be yourself, and don't over think anything. If you've got through to the assessment centre stage then you are likely qualified on paper. The assessment centre is for both YOU and CGI to get to know each other. The assessment centre is a long day, but food is provided (in non-covid times)!