Apprentice DevOps Engineer Review

My day to day role involves being surrounded by professionals, through which I can learn a ton in all sorts of DevOps tools like Docker, Grafana, Concourse and Octopus. We use the 'agile' methodology with it being a mix of Scrum and Kanban, using Kanban boards to sort out our workflow and Scrum to organise meetings like the daily scrum, sprint retrospectives, sprint reviews and sprint planning sessions.

I have learned a lot since my start date here, I've learnt a range of tools like concourse, octopus, docker, grafana, jenkins and I am becoming familiarised with a range of programming languages like Bash, JavaScript, Python, YAML. Not only on the technical side of things, but since i've joined I feel as if my soft skills and professionalism have been improved vastly.

I enjoy my program a lot since I'm getting a feel of a wide range of different tools and meeting lots of different people, every day feels like something new. There's always something more to learn and the more you learn the less you feel like you know.

My program is very well structured, we had a big 2/3 week knowledge dump at the beginning which really prepared us with the technical vocabulary and a bit of the 'know-how' of DevOps. On top of learning every day on the job within the company (picking up tickets and working on them), we also have classroom sessions that are ran by the apprenticeship provider every couple months which let me learn even more (these are then coupled with assignments for us to complete).

I receive a lot of support from my employer, it seems like there is a person for absolutely every query or question that I have whether it was related to the job, or the onboarding journey, or travel issues, or just any general question about things that i may never have known, the support is definitely always there and will continue to be there.

I receive a lot of support from my training provider whilst working towards my qualification. I have an allocated learning coordinator who answers any questions that I might have about the work. On top of that he also marks and gives feedback and pointers on where I can improve my work to meet the criteria.

It definitely helps me perform better in my role, sometimes there may be gaps in my knowledge about a certain topic that gets covered in the classroom sessions. When I get back to work I can tell that my efficiency and capabilities have definitely improved and all of a sudden my days feel much more productive when dealing with things that I may have struggled on.

There are many activities to be involved in, there are also many social networks that are dotted around the different parts of the company. There are networking events, especially between apprentices and graduates to help us all get to know each other and find out what work everyone is getting involved in. Individual teams also have little get togethers where they go out and do some sort of activity or go out for a meal.

Yes

I would recommend Sky to a friend as it has presented me with opportunities to get involved in so many different things that I would've never done before. Also, the people and the work environment is excellent for anyone who is looking to boost their knowledge and work on their career.

I would say to ensure to research the company, know about our missions and goals, know how we operate, visit our websites and learn as much as you can about us. Then, use that knowledge and impress your interviewers/assessors and show them that you're eager for the learning experience. Last of all, be yourself!!