IT Graduate Review

I am an IT graduate at Bupa specialising in cybersecurity. For the first six months I moved around six different teams in Bupa's information security area. I am currently spending 9 months with the vulnerability management team then I will spend my final 9 months with CSIRT. Currently my day consists of looking about vulnerability scans and analysing them. I also look at vulnerabilities and their remediations.

I have learnt a lot of soft skills such as presentation skills, how to talk to others and how to present myself professionally. I have learnt how to use a lot of new software such as power BI and vulnerability management tools. Mostly I have learnt a lot about professional development.

I enjoy working at Bupa a lot, everyone is kind and supportive. Although the intent of moving around different teams was good, I found it hard to settle into the teams when I was so quickly moving on so this made my first 6 months very up and down. Now i feel more settled and I am enjoying my team.

The cybersecurity programme has been well organised and well thought out. It is very regimented with the time spent in each team that is has a solid structure. On the programme we have access to a lot of career development days which are organised to help us develop as employees.

There is so much support at Bupa on the grad scheme you have the leader of the IT grad scheme who checks in regularly and organises these career development days. You also have your manager and team who help you in your day to day role and are supportive of the apprenticeship. There are additional mentoring schemes you can apply for if need be and other people are always offering support and advise.

For uni we have a skills coach who we have 1 to 1 meetings with every three months. He is helpful and supportive as well as very knowledgeable about the course and easy to talk to. For the units themselves the lecturers quickly reply to questions outside of lectures and offer a lot of resources to help you out.

The course itself is based a lot around IT strategy and leadership with some specialised technical units. The more businessy units help me understand Bupa's strategy and how it works as a business. The technical units haven't been relevant to my current role but are useful to understand cybersecurity as a whole.

At work there are social events where teams meet up as your small team or as the whole cybersecurity department. As the majority of people work from home most of the time, they do organise these events to meet up in person which make a huge difference to your work relationships.

Yes

They are a good company who care about their employees. There are opportunities to move around Bupa into other jobs (this is not allowed on the grad scheme).

Know Bupa's strategy