Junior Software Developer Apprentice Review

I work in a software development team where I work on software projects using technologies such as C#, postman and git. I have a daily stand up meeting where I update the team on my progress. I have weekly 121s with my manager. I work with my principle developer who guides me and gives me technical support

Yes I have learned a lot of new software development skills, including mainframe (COBOL, JCL) skills, and modern technologies like C# and version control software. I also learnt about postman and writing automated testing scripts. I have learnt a lot about object oriented programming. I’ve developed my problem solving skills too.

I enjoy my programme a lot. I really like my day to day job. My actual university course is good, the lecturers are very knowledgeable, but the content is outdated and could do with being modernised to be more useful to what we actually need to learn for the workplace. Also the early careers programme is great but can be time consuming when we have loads of work already on our plate.

My programme is well structured, I like the fact the content is delivered in blocks and that we get a break in between modules. However the blocks are often very intense and stressful, but this is most likely just down to the nature of the apprenticeship. Other than that the structure is good.

My delivery manager is exceptional and very supportive. Leadership team is very open and honest and always looking how to improve our experience. General support from my team and the people I work day to day with is incredible. They create a safe learning environment where mistakes are not feared and instead seen as learning opportunities.

We receive a good amount of support. Support sessions are available to us outside of lessons and lecturers are very knowledgeable and happy to help. The support when on the teaching blocks is really good too. Support from course leader and tutors are available often too and they are good at helping you when you have an extenuating circumstance.

I think it’s been useful although some of the content could be made more modern. The basic skills in programming are transferable to other programming languages so these skills do help even though they are in a different language. It’s good to be able to work on big projects individually from scratch because I don’t always get that opportunity at work.

Yes I support my early careers cohort by putting on events for them. I also attend the social networking events and any other development events. I also am the course rep for my university course meaning I collect the feedback and report this to the course team so they can make improvements.

Yes

Experian is generally a fantastic place to work. Management is very well trained in supporting wellbeing (both emotional and physical), benefits are amazing, loads of time off and social events. Hybrid working just helps so much with life. The office itself is a great place to go every day, with games and free coffees it makes the day enjoyable.

Be yourself - in my experience people looking to hire are more interested in your personality and passions than your skill set. Of course it’s important to have the right skills but i think they value passion and curiosity much more. Go for it and be yourself and if it’s not mean to be then it’s not meant to be.