Software Engineer Review

As a software engineer my primary task is to come up with (often in collaboration) solutions to stakeholder requests and to design it in a robust and efficient way. Internally this means Sprint planning where we are given tickets to do for the sprint, and then during the sprint I spend my time collaborating and writing software.

My Team are world class, not just in terms of skill but also in term of principles. They take the time to explain concepts that might be new to me, even within meetings, and have (often to the effect of slowing down their own work) taken time to take me through what they are working on. They have taught me everything from software engineering, Agile development methodologies, and best practices for many many different things.

It really is an excellent programme, everyone is very accomodating and know that you are there to learn, they never push work onto you. They are interested in how your university work is going, and give you plenty of time to get on with it (often more than the 20% required, if you need it for assignments and the such.) I cannot understate how friendly and helpful everyone is, from the managers to the team members.

It is very well organised. When I first joined as an apprentice, I spent the first few days with my fellow apprentices and meeting my team. I was introduced to my university programme and the many resources I have to independently learn. I was introduced to my tutor here who I meet regularly to discuss my progress and any issues I have. I was also introduced to my lovely line manager who I also meet with regularly to discuss how everything is going. I have an overabundance of resources to my disposal, whether it be further academic learning, workplace learning or anything I could need.

I have an Tutor who is a software engineer in another department who I meet with regularly to discuss my progress, I have a Line manager who provides much support to me. There is an apprenticeship manager who is very helpful and provides lots of opportunities. I have a buddy who I can speak to if I have any problems. Im also provided with lots of equipment to do extra learning, and lots of events to learn more, such as the weekly Mega-doughnuts which is a lecture hosted by a team in arm.

The training provider has several support resources, such as weekly drop-ins with your lecturer and "ACE" Academic workshops to develop further skills. My main criticism of QA would be that they are quite unorganised. It is difficult to figure out what is going on, when, as information is spread out all over the place on their hard to navigate website.

I definitely believe that the qualification is helpful. I've learnt a lot so far that I never considered that I would need, but I can definitely see being useful both now and in the future as general knowledge. I believe it would be more helpful to me if it was at a higher level, as currently we are recapping things I have already learnt academically, however I understand not everyone is at the same level.

There are lots of opportunities for this. My team has events such as 'Squash social' and Board games club, where we go after work to play squash together. Arm also hosts many events such as the amazing Winter party, and the regular Connect days, which gives us a chance to socialise with people around the office outside of our team.

Yes

I can, and have, recommended Arm to my friends because its such a great environment here, not only to learn but also to grow as a person. There are many opportunities and things going on to learn from. The hybrid working at Arm is excellent, as on my team we work from home Monday and Friday and go into the office Tue,Wed,Thurs. There is little pressure to do work, and yet everyone does it anyway to a high standard because they enjoy doing it.

Just talk to your interviewers. Tell them as much about yourself as you can and ask about them. Even the scary interviewers at Arm are nice. The most important thing valued by the apprenticeship program at arm is that you're a good person, and eager to learn more. Computing knowledge is not at all a primary concern.