Developer Review

My job title is 'developer', it involves mostly mainframe work where out customer data is. I don't have to interact with that many people as mostly I am coding. I get odd jobs through different projects to do but the majority of the work is writing programs in COBOL.

I have gain the official qualification which is "NVQ level 3 in IT user skills", then I went on to do a number of training courses in COBOL, DB2, SQL. From a personal point of view, I've really developed my presentation skills, as well as interpersonal skills due to other initiatives within the team

I really enjoy working here and although it took me slightly longer than I'd have liked to initially settle in, I now really feel part of the team. To begin with my expectations were slightly higher than what was delivered but after a short while my expectations were met.

I think to be recognised within Lloyds Banking Group you have to be proactive and go out and nominate yourself for things, offer to go above and beyond. If you just do your day to day job you're almost seen as 'developing' because there is so much competition.

Official training from the central team was really good, we had a 2 week foundation course about Group IT and where we fit in the big picture. I was then given a mentor who has supported me right throughout my journey here and if I have a question or anything he is more than happy to help. My team Hierarchy is rather complicated because we are spread across two sites but I have managed to talk to someone from each grade boundary.

Whilst I was on my program I received a lot of help from my learn direct assessor, however after I rolled doff the programme, I still had a few apprenticeship related queries which have gone unanswered.

My manager is great and will support me in wherever I want to go. I haven't had much experience dealing with the HR team but from the odd occasion where I have had to contact them, everything is done online and it is very difficult to actually speak to someone. Overall I can't fault my team for the support I've been given and everyone has been great.

I moved house for this job so my travel costs are limited, but in comparison to most other apprenticeships that I looked at, the salary here is excellent, we also get free BUPA healthcare which is an added bonus. Career progression is quite slow to begin with though.

We have a chistmas meal once a year and that' about all the activity that I've had with my team outside of work.

Yes

It is a really good place to work, there is a structured training plan in place and if, at the end of the apprenticeship, you feel you want to explore other areas, that's not a problem and people will always support you no matter what you want to do.

In the application process, there are 2 sections: a group activity and a singular activity. During the group activity try to think outside the box. During my application process, I applied for a role in Gloucester but was given a role in Wolverhampton so I had to explicitly ask to be moved. There were very accommodating though. There is also a long transition period between the interview and being told you've got the job, which I'd like to change.