Junior DevOps Engineer Review

As a Junior DevOps Engineer, I get hands on in with the world of Cloud technologies and services from across multiple different vendors on the market, helping our clients to drive innovation and best practices within their platform infrastructure. I am able to get hands on with some of the latest industry tech and able to experience really interesting, challenging client projects.

Absolutely, every day I learn something new and able to challenge myself to further advance my understanding of a particular topic or technology. I have freedom to decide what direction to steer my personal development, i.e., what technologies to look at, what soft skills and certifications to aim for, and in a way which helps meet client demands so I can shape myself into the T-shaped engineer that I want to be.

I enjoy the hands-on, practical aspects of the programme the most. I like working as part of a team in work and developing my skills in this setting, whilst also gaining some practical experience from the training provider of my programme. Like many others, I do struggle with managing my time and balancing work with the deliverables of my degree. I think improvement can be made on the quality of the teaching and learning content given from the training provider and could be more related to what we each do individually in our day jobs, as I feel there is a big context Swit h to make with our work sometimes.

The programme is structured well, straight forward to understand what the expectations and routines are. I mostly like how the most assessments are coursework orientated rather than exam-based, feel like I gain a lot more knowledge, understanding, and value in this way. I think more on-campus/in-person sessions could be considered for some aspects of teaching and assessments to make the learning experience more authentic and engaging, as well as dedicating some more time to providing additional guided online learning from lecturers.

The programme team is increasingly engaging with the apprentice and graduate community. I support their initiatives for driving regular feedback and review of our experiences as apprentices and looking at specific areas to help improve the programme. Although I think more connection could be made with the training provider to better tailor targeted areas of the programme, the programme team is increasing it's communication and connection with the community to drive improvements.

The training modules are somewhat interesting and seem relevant to our individual career paths to benefit us in the future, but I believe the overall teaching and content quality can be improved greatly. The slidedecks used to deliver the content appear outdated and look like they have not been reviewed in some time, and I feel there is increasing diversion from what the lecturer teaches us in our webinars to these. I think a review of the content and the way in which it is delivered needs to be performed, as some of the slidedecks are also quite bulky, making it troublesome to work through and engage with them.

I have definitely gained additional knowledge and experience from the degree which I believe will benefit me, to some extent, with my future career path. However, as I've come to learn and experience, most employers and job roles within the industry seem to be more interested with hands-on experience and certification-based proof of working with different types of technology. I think the degree will help me to perform better and provide me with skills to apply in my role, but slowly over time, I think this will become outdated compared to the certification which I aim to take and which the market is increasingly demanding for.

Yes, there are plenty of networks and communities to engage with, and the company is always open for welcoming brand new initiatives and ideas to drive within these groups (or even if you wish to start a community of your own). The apprentice and graduate community in particular are very rewarding and fun to be involved with, with various social events being organised by the company and giving back opportunities for you to get involved with and to network with new people from across the business.

Yes

Overall, I think it is a great place to work, especially to kick start or career and gain experience of working within such a big tech consultancy. The networking and engagement with everyone in the business is very unique and something which I have never experienced before. It's great being able to approach and speak with anyone, even if that person is a senior manager or director, everyone is extremely welcoming and helpful to work with and help support with your own career development.

Be proactive. There's a lot of freedom and opportunity available in the company, so if you see or think of something which you want to do, be proactive and don't be afraid to voice that, cease the opportunity and talk with your manager, reviewer or who ever to at least try and "have a go".