Apprentice Review

My day to day job is software development. I mostly build full stack web applications. I take problems faced by the business either engineering or management based and make improvements with software based solutions. I build web applications using a variety of technologies including ReactJS, ExpressJS Django Rest Framework, MongoDB, SQL and more.

I have learnt a huge amount about web development and deployment. I had never built a full stack web application before I started at Arup. I have had the opportunity to learn new technologies like React and improve heavily on my javascript skills. I have also learnt a lot in the machine learning field, which has been very interesting.

I enjoy my programme to a large extent. I find my job very interesting as I am given the opportunity and freedom to learn new things and work with experts in their fields. In comparison, my university time feels less productive as much of the content I have already covered during A-Level or am using at work every day. I would imagines this will improve as my course continues as the content will get more challenging.

I feel as though my programme is well organised. Early on I was assigned a mentor for my course who I have regular meetings with to discuss progress. Quarterly meetings also occur with my course leader. This ensures communication between my employer and university is kept up. I have no complaints about the way the course is being run.

Although I am not in a team of software engineers, I feel as though the support is excellent. Arup has a really good culture for sharing knowledge and despite people being busy I haven't had someone who hasn't been willing to help me with an issue. Often software engineers are presented with unrealistic expectations for completion of work. I feel as though Arup understands that things take time to perfect and doesn't put undue pressure onto it's employees.

Support from the University has been excellent. They have provided a wide range or resources and services to help with academic assignments. The module leaders have been very good with communication if I have any concerns and are very respectful of the fact that I also work during the week.

At the moment I am not seeing a huge amount of the skills I am learing at University being applied to my work. There is some, but the vast majority of the time it is the other way round and I am finding I am learning things from my job and applying it to my university assignments.

Our team has an organised Social Team which are given a budget at the beginning of the finacial year to arrange activities and pay for evenings out. COVID-19 has hit hard on the sorts of normal social activities. Despite this the social team has arranged many virtual events such as cooking classes, sports activities on Strava and random catchup calls. In the wider company there are many virtual sports events such as yoga, circuit training and various clubs for sports like running, cycling and swimming.

Yes

Arup is a fantastic employer who really care about their staff. Everyone I have met so far, even virtually has been super encouraging regarding my apprenticeship. We get the opportunity to work on very interesting projects, while given the freedom to experiment and innovate and experiment within our respected fields

Be yourself. Arup hires people not qualifications. They are looking for passionate people with imaginative ideas and a dynamic mindset. Showing an interest into the company history would be helpful. I think most of all show how much you love what you will be doing in the company. The company is largely made up of technical people so don't be afraid of showing a "nerdy interst" in a subject relating to the job.