Apprentice Network Engineer Review

My day to day overview is I log on at 8 am and first start checking the ticket queue to see if the APAC team had missed anything then if the queue is empty I will start checking what change plans I will need to do in order to make correct changes on to devices, as I continue to do this I will all in parallel check the ticket queue and have meetings with my colleagues discussing various devices, my day usually ends at 4/5pm.

I have learnt many new skills that are vital to my career such as , troubleshooting , time management, taking responsibility, management of resources and people and also I have been qualified recently in network+, security+ and network servers and infrastructure exams, so my knowledge on the technical aspects of the job is very strong.

I enjoyed the programme a lot because Fidelity and especially the ENS, EVS team were very welcoming and everyone was eager to help me out if I ever get stuck plus when we were in office before COVID-19, everyone was easy to talk to and I did not feel alienated.

Very well structured - I had constant meetings with my learning mentor and boss every week to discuss my progress and where my weaknesses were and this helped me a lot leading up to my exams as they were very difficult exams and very different to what I had seen in the past with A levels and GCSE's

I received a lot of support from my employer - Dean and Vinny set up a catch up meeting during the week so I could discuss any issues or troubles I was having, Nathalie another colleague of mine set up a catch up 3 times a week to help me understand business practices.

When I was revising for my exams I spoke to Dean and Vinny and they allowed me 2 weeks before the exam just to revise and focus more attention on the revision then actual business work I feel this helped me a great deal because I did not have the added stress of dealing with tickets while revising.

My qualifications helped me so much - I felt way more confident in conducting troubleshooting for tickets and even just understanding what was happening to certain devices, and most of this knowledge becomes muscle memory which in turn makes you very good at handling most tickets. This also opened up the opportunity to start handling tickets for my colleagues and being useful to them.

There are lots - for instance when the new apprentices started (2019) we had a few drinks nights out in london that was organised by the early careers team, and at kingswood in surrey there were football matches going on for charity and walks for charity. so the variety is massive.

Yes

Absolutely amazing company - everyone is so easy to talk to, I was not alienated as an apprentice and I was included in every meeting and really good atmosphere at the office and extra curricular activities are very popular with the employees and Fidelity very much care about their employees, so yes I would recommend FIL to a friend.

Be yourself in the interview - demonstrate a little knowledge in the field you are applying to, be confident in the answers you give and when you first start off, make sure you get to know everybody and they're names because they will be helping you out most of your apprenticeship.