Cryptography - Development and Support Review

Title: Cryptography - Development and Support Daily Tasks: Include building and testing crypto services on new and existing servers. Upgrading existing crypto type instances on servers. Reporting and responding to instances. Responsibilities include: Reporting and responding to daily incidents, running of several internal projects as I have been assigned the lead role.

I have learnt lots of new skills in my current role and have developed on skills I originally had. Using new systems such as the mainframe, unix and Linux, and new applications offered by crypto vendors has been a common skill I have learned.

The programme in terms of carrying out the job role was fantastic and gave me the chance to work in a real IT Team with a large organisation and get hands on with very important services that affect the whole of the UK. Some of the work for the actual apprenticeship could have been slightly altered as it was hard to cover some of the apprenticeship work because of the specialist team I was in.

I feel very valued by LBG as a whole as they have given me the opportunity and trusted me to get hands on with very crucial systems and services to the bank.

I think the programme is somewhat organised well. There have been a few times where it has not been clear on who to go to. Also there were a few problems with having different assessors come and visit but that has been sorted out and towards the end of the programme there have been improvements.

To start with there wasn't much communication and then there were several assessor changes which made it a bit hard to get everything done correctly. I was then given an assessor who saw out the last 6 months of the apprenticeship and was very good in communication and support on finishing the programme.

I have received a lot of support from my employer who have made sure I was given the time to contribute towards the apprenticeship and have helped me where necessary. My team have also been very supportive towards the programme too.

It covers all of the costs fine and I believe I started on the correct amount and have been able to start working my way up.

There are opportunities outside of work as Lloyds offer many activities to get involved with; personally I cannot comment as I have not been involved with any.

Yes

The company is great to work for and has given me great opportunities. I also like the way they have trusted me from the first few months of working to get involved in some serious projects and supporting crucial systems and services.

Be prepared and have the right attitude towards the job. In the interview stages there wasn't really an option where you could choose what team/department to work in. My advice is to use your application and interview to push towards the team you would like to work in. I brought up IT and security as talking points a lot in my interview and ended up landing a role within Cryptography in IT Security.