UX Apprentice Review

I have to do designs, host workshops and attend meetings. I mostly spend my day on Adobe XD mocking up designs and refining them throughout the day based on feedback from my manager.

Yes I have learnt how to use Adobe XD. I have also developed my communication skills and learn a lot more about the financial industry.

I really enjoyed my program as I think UX is extremely new to the industry on his very exciting. I also love how much I get to talk to people and how I play such an active role in the company and my contributions are useful and used. A few of my designs have already been built and are live which teams use.

As this is a new program there has been some issues with the organisation and just the overall running of the program. I think there has been a lot of confusion around uni and also with my employer of what is expected of me. However I think the University is adjusting but there have been issues with the option choices for next year.

In my first assignment I worked completely independently on it and did not receive as much support as I would’ve liked. However this has paid off as I now developed my skills independently and my manager has gotten more involved in this new assignment. He has helped me a lot again my confident in the workplace.

I have attended writing courses through the University to help me with my assignments. I have also frequently been in contact with lecturers who have offered to go through my work with me and help me improve it which I found most useful. I feel like I have received a lot of support

I think university is a great way of being able to explore the more theoretical side of my course and allows me to develop new skills and research methods. One issue I have found is that university sometimes doesn’t take into account how the real industry works and how I haven’t been able to apply all the skills learnt.

Due to Covid this has been very limited and I have only been in the office a handful of times since starting. However my team has attempted to do social events such as Christmas quizzes and regular team calls. I hope to attend one of the payday drinks that will be happening soon.

Yes

I think it’s a great place to work and it has a really nice atmosphere. You get out what you put in and there is a lot of opportunity for growth and development within the company. It is also a nationally recognised company and provides extremely great training courses through providers.

Just be you. If you have to change yourself or say what you think they want to hear then AJ Bell isn’t the company for you. However confidence and friendliness does go along way.