IT Architect apprentice Review

I've been assigned to a public sector project where my day to day tasks vary. My role involves attending meetings regarding the solution provided to our client and supporting the design authority. I also get to do more technical work in my role supporting the infrastructure and test teams with machine builds and administration. I travel to the client site to install and deliver the solution.

Prior to this role I knew very little about design architecture or certain technoligies such as active directory and powershell. I feel like I've picked up the basics fairly quickly and confidently say I'm contributing to projects. I've improved my speaking skills as there are opportunities for this with courses and to apply these with everyday meetings & conversations in the workplace.

I'm enjoying my programme a lot. I feel as though theres enough support to be able to do the work. if I have any questions or issues I feel confident in asking and approaching people. Outside of my project, you can join lots of comunnities based on your personal interests which is something I like a lot.

This will vary from role to role and university attending. Personally I've found the programme to be really well structured with an exceptions. I know when my deadlines are and exam dates, the tool the university uses to monitor is easy to use and theres a strong support network both within ibm and outside for those attending the same university or at least mine. The exception being the way feedback on assignments is given, there is often little feedback given and you have 2 assignments. You submit your second assiggment before getting feedback on your first which means you can't apply any of the constructive criticism and risk being marked down for the same mistakes. There is an additonal non graded assignment but this is very short and done near the beginning of the course so whilst some feedback is useful, it doesn't feel significant enough to make a change. The university however is very open to feedback and have begun making some changes.

I find my manager on my project to be very suportive regarding my own personal development, my workload and managing my university work. My foundation manager is also verys supportive and has been able to answer any question or concerns I have. I will say don't be afraid to ask questions as many people are willing to help.

Most of my support comes from peers. I am able to ask the university for help/advice but I have not done this often. There are additonal workshops/seminars available on essay writing for example. If theres any concerns or issues my university success manager is able to address or raise them.

At the moment, I would say not very as my role is more technical and we have only focused modules that were focused on business ethics and marketing campaigns. These are useful to know but don't have a direct impact on my day to day role. Our later modules cover mathematics and coding which is more inlign with my role and interests. Overall I would say it does help me to perform better and there's a good breadth of topics to learn.

I mentioned earlier but there are many communities that range from presenting, book club, football, gaming, wellbeing and role specific. I'm in the book club, gaming and wellbeing communities. There are also social events that happen roughly once a month for the entire apprenticeship community which is a good opportunity to meet new people. We're encouraged to attend networking events both inside and outside of IBM.

Yes

They're very supportive of new hires and theres a lot of different opportunities within ibm to help develop your career whether it be specific projects, courses or networking opportunities. I really like it as I have structured career path I can follow and that there is a large cohort of apprentices which is great as you have others in a similar position to you.

Be yourself, there aren't any trick questions trying to catch you out. I would say make sure you do your research so you can talk about IBM, most people will focus on quantum computing so I would say look at other projects/news as that's most applicants go to topic and theres plenty of interesting projects to talk about.