Technology Apprentice - Data Analyst Review

Although I did an apprenticeship in data analysis, my current role now that I have finished my apprenticeship and have been onboarded as permanent staff is business analyst, working with finance data. This involves obtaining requirements from stakeholders (the finance team) and then building a model using Alteryx Designer to fulfil these requirements. Once I've got sign-off on my model output from the finance team, I'll hand over and explain my model to developers so that they can build the process in the data warehouse.

During my apprenticeship I first learnt how to use Oracle SQL and then how to use Alteryx Designer to manipulate the data that I had queried using the SQL. Then with Firebrand I learnt more about data analysis and what how to use Alteryx Designer to derive patterns and trends from the data. I have also leant a lot about communicating with stakeholders and presenting my work, and recently I have began learning Python and some stuff about cloud based databases like Snowflake.

I very much enjoyed my apprenticeship, I had a great mentor within Fidelity who helped me get up to speed with the corporate environment very quickly, despite having to work from home for the first year and a half due to COVID restrictions and not being allowed to come into the office.

Within Fidelity the apprenticeship was very well organised with lots of support networks with the Early Careers team and a great mentor. The Firebrand side was still well organised, but a little confusing and counter-productive at times with the training sessions sometimes coming too late to the point where I taught myself the necessary content before the training session came around.

Fidelity has an excellent support network with the Early Careers team being on hand and very involved in my progress and support. I also had a great mentor who did a really great job of introducing me into my first corporate environment while I had very little experience at the time.

Firebrand did provide good training, however the timing of this training didn't make sense to me. The first training session occurred several months after we were supposed to start our first project, were we were taught the basics of SQL, which was required in order to even start our first project so at this point I had already taught myself SQL. However my Firebrand learning mentor did give me the support I needed to pass my qualifications.

My qualification is in data analysis and although I am now a business analyst, having the ability to understand the data I am working on is absolutely necessary in order to satisfy my stakeholders requirements. I also learnt a lot of SQL which I still use to do the majority of my work.

Fidelity is always holding social events such as sports days, fundraisers, networking events and more which I have attended many of. They also have a gym for employees to use, and are part of the Investment Association which have held a few networking events in London which I have also attended.

Yes

Fidelity works very hard on employee satisfaction, providing a lot of support where it's needed, a friendly environment and giving employees very nice benefits for working here. They also have very nice facilities which nice offices with good equipment and grounds, and also having a free to use gym on site.

Relax, all the staff are very friendly and are there to support you in your application, come and attend one of Fidelity's annual open days where potential apprentices can come and see the grounds at Kingwood and meet some of the apprentices who have now moved onto permanent roles, and work hard on what you are aiming for.