Technology Consultant Review

As a consultant your day-to-day varies. If not aligned to a client then I am free to work on internal or paid trainings through the company (with business justification) and working on my Uni work one day a week, to ensure I meet the 20% on the job learning legally required. When aligned to a client it can depend on what role you can fill. Currently I'm working with a client in the financial sector. The majority of my day is filled with engaging with the client via email, meetings or reports. Aside from that, I also am responsible for migrating users from an on-premise environment to a cloud solution.

I've been on the degree apprenticeship for three and half years and learnt many new skills with my employer. Personal/professional skills have been, confidence, public speaking, email writing. I'm progressing on various Microsoft certifications. Internally I have graduated from HPE's Early Career programme. In-role I have learnt how to work in different sectors and their environments, SQL databases, many migration tools and a lot of Excel.

I really enjoy working at HPE. They have a good company culture an really helped transition me from the academic world in school to reality in a office environment. The work is always suited for my role and I never found myself being "worked to the bone" but if I wanted to challenge myself the correct support system was readily available. With this being said, I'm not fond of the degree side of the programme, hence the lower score. Where the company excels in support, I felt the training provider for the degree has fallen short.

There was a four week induction to the company and the organisation, which equipped me with the knowledge I felt I need to start working. After that I had another week induction into my team and what the had planned for myself which repeating some of the content but also clarified what I would be doing. The support received from my manager and mentors has been very beneficial. I have fortnightly 1:1 meetings with my manager and monthly calls with mentors. Studying is self-paced and so is down to my own prioritisation.

I receive a lot of support from my employer. I have fortnightly 1:1 calls with my manager where I can discuss anything I need to regarding work or the degree. The team and wider colleagues are all approachable and will always set time aside if they're not free at the time of asking.

We have a skills coach assigned to our group where we have individual meetings to discuss progress on the degree programme amongst other queries. Now that we are towards the end of the apprenticeship a lot of the meetings feel like box ticking exercises and not support. When Covid took over, the provider was quick to move our sessions from in person to online workshops, where we could continue to progress on that module.

Nearing the end of the programme I'm able to look back over all the modules we have completed. I'm disappointed that a digital technology degree is involving chartered management modules into my learning, something I do not find interesting or relevant to my role. I have completed 16 modules and of those I would say that 6 of them were relevant to my role.

Yes! We have social events with the interns occasionally. There are many volunteer activities to join for many charities or even one you suggest. We also have many networks for people to join such as the young careers committee, who help set up these events. Due to Covid over the last few years there hasn't been many events set up, understandably.

Yes

The work environment is very friendly and supportive. I have learnt a lot whilst working here and never felt like an idiot for not knowing something. As an apprentice people understand if you don't know something and are very helpful to teach you, even offering their own time. Extra curricular activities are fun to be apart of.

Be articulate in interviews. Able to accept criticism. DON'T BLAG (they're experts). Remember to ask questions (e.g. what will be expected of you etc.) The application, interviews and assessment days were what you would expect. Make sure you are prepared for them and don't worry if you think you did badly in a question or activity.