Apprentice Software Developer Review

My role depends on what project I am on but I have responsibilities very similar to a junior developer. I have responsibilities to finish my tasks on time to meet the deadlines of sprints but I also have the support of many colleagues if I ever get stuck as they understand it is a learning process for me as well as a job. I am treated more or less equally to all other members and I feel valued at the company.

I have learned an extremely wide set of skills as CGI has provided me with many different opportunities on various projects. They include backend projects such as Java, front end projects using Angular/React, and also cloud technologies with Azure, AWS and Google Cloud platform. I would have never been able to experience and learn so much technologies myself in such a short time span.

I do enjoy my programme most of the time and I feel very fortunate to have such great learning opportunities on so many different projects and technologies. I also feel valued and respected and I have no doubts I will blend right in as a Junior developer role when I graduate. The only bad point is that it can be quite difficult at times having only one day for uni per week but CGI has been supportive in that respect.

Sometimes it can be a little messy due to the nature of the programme. For example, in first year, we did classes from trimester C first, before A and B, but it would have been much easier doing it in the correct order as we could have certainly made use of the knowledge gained from the other classes. However, overall it is decently organised.

There is a lot of support from CGI, with monthly catch-up calls/meetings and I feel CGI really recognises that university work is top priority over work. They help alleviate the work from the office if I am feeling tight with deadlines and sometimes allow me to work during office hours too.

I do not really have contact with Skills Development Scotland so I only view them as a funder. CGI gives good support and so does university - however, there are times when communication between university and CGI is bad and from that perspective, there are some problems sometimes. Overall, I feel I have enough support.

Rather than my qualification (university classes) helping me at work, I strongly feel it is the other way around. My knowledge gained from work (and self learning) has vastly aided my studies in university. Quite often, before I take the class, I already know about the topic (e.g. cloud technologies) as I have used it at work already.

There are quite a lot of apprenticeship get-togethers that happen along with monthly catch-up calls where the apprentices can talk about their different experiences from different regions and universities. There were quite a lot of activities such as STEM and visiting schools before COVID but that obviously has stopped since the lockdowns.

Yes

CGI is a great place to kickstart a career in software development if you are fresh out of school with little experience. They do not mind the lack of experience but understand that the most important part is motivation and passion. As long as you are willing to learn, CGI will provide you with all the support you need for a great future career.

Understand what you are signing up for - while CGI gives good support and learning opportunities, it is not easy to work four days and go to university one day a week. You will have to sacrifice a lot of weekends for self-study and there will be stressful times. However, it is a great opportunity for anyone passionate about coding and I highly recommend giving it a go.