Technology Graduate/Software Engineer Review

I am a graduate software engineer, throughout TUI this can mean a range of things depending on where in the business you are placed, and thus my experience is unique compared to the other 5 graduates. On a day to day basis I function as a normal software engineer in my team, however with the understanding that I will need support, and have a lower "Capacity" in a given time than other engineers, although (hopefully) this is slowly changing. In addition, 20% of my time is dedicated university studying/learning time. Therefore my day to day tasks involve solving JIRA TICKETS (software changes/features from internal customer/stakeholder). In addition, as part of the scheme I am working with my manager to develop business acumen and leadership skills by leading meetings/delivering knowledge transfer presentations to experienced developers, with some support.

Yes, I believe that I have learnt quite a few skills in the realm of software engineering, and consider myself an apt engineer. Although potentially not at the standard I expected after 6 months in the role, I believe part of that is due to unrealistic expectations, and partly due to a rough start I had with the scheme. However, TUI were in fact great and understanding my issues, and adapting to meet my needs.

I very much enjoy my programme, TUI makes me feel supported and part of the team. As previously mentioned I had a rough time in the first few months with the "hybrid" (almost totally remote) working conditions. This is relatively unique to my personal as they are almost entirely contractors from abroad. However, TUI gave me two options regarding this, one involved switching teams to remove myself from the problem situation, and the other was receiving support in order to better deal with the situation that I was in. I believed the second option to be more beneficial for my professional growth, and I received great support in doing that. Now, I have no issues with the enjoyment of the programme.

My main concern with my apprenticeship would be here. Due to the nature (and size) of TUI I understand why it is done this way, but as the graduates are spread around the bushiness, often doing vastly different roles (all still encompassed under "Software engineering", but this can be rather broad a term) the structure of the program comes from two sources. 1) The university course is well structured and shared amongst graduates. 2) Each individual's manager deals with their personal structure. The main concern with point 1 is that whether or not this lines up with your professional work (in the short term) is a lottery. I was lucky enough that the first term of university aligned very well with the area of the business I was placed, and I believe this worked great to my benefit, however many graduates did not get lucky in this way, and I have experienced what they did during the second term of university. Especially during that first term (as the grad scheme requires no formal coding training prior to its start) I think aligning the two work loads is extremely important. Furthermore, the structure supplied by line managers varies greatly, which while it does give flexibility to the graduates, some (including myself) can end up starting on a structure that is not beneficial to them. All the line managers are (in my understanding) great managers of people and experienced developers, however I am unsure the extent to which they have received training regarding taking on graduates. This, in turn, created friction for myself and some other graduates as often team member's (and sometimes managers) have a lack of understanding regarding the role of a graduate, and the learning required. While I really enjoy TUI and this particular graduate scheme, the structure is the largest issue I have had with it. TUI has been receptive and I have managed to create some more structure following these issues that have greatly helped me, but I assign this improvement more to the amazing support at TUI as apposed to the structure of the programme.

I have mentioned two main Issues I had with the scheme previously. Both of these have been dealt with in a professional, personable and effective manner. The support structure has been incredibly good. There are two main first points of contact, being your line manager and previous graduates through the programme. Both of which have great. In addition, the graduate scheme makes sure you have contacts all the way up the business throughout your domain (area of the business) all the way up to two of the Heads of Technology at TUI. I have personally contacted the Head's of technology on two occasions, both of which they dealt with amazingly, and never at the company have I felt dismissed. In addition, though my day to day work I have come in contact with an incredible leader and developer that is OUTSIDE of my team, who has acted like a mentor to me, externally from my team. This has been incredibly helpful and helped to shape my experience and enjoyment here. Not to take away from the incredible individual who offered me this support, however it is clear that this is the culture within TUI, that many would take time out of their day to help others, as reflected by other graduates also finding great mentors within the company (external to their team).

My training provider gives good support when working towards my qualification. I believe that Sheffield Hallam do a great job at providing this structure. As with all Universities, the support depends partly on the institution's ability to provide that structure (which they do) and partly on individual lectures to efficiently use that structure. There I have had experiences ranging from "Okay" to beyond excellent depending on the lecturer. However, I believe that the Uni's structure is good

As I detailed earlier, when the course aligns well with that which I am doing at work, it proved to be an amazing benefit and help me perform better. However, this course provides a very good foundation for future works also. The balance of deep enough knowledge to gain a fundamental understanding vs literally trying to understand every minute detail (like machine code) is very well done at the university. It is hard, in the time frame I have been here, to fairly evaluate this question based on its direct impact on my current work. As the course is designed to underpin the fundamentals of designing software engineering solutions, which is a much broader scope on the topic than I could possible cover in 6 months of work. Therefore, some of this is a prediction, however I think they do a great job at providing the base to become a effective engineer, and thus will help in my role greatly over the long term. Additionally, due to time frame, I have only covered 2 of 5 modules (only one to completion) at my course and will be extrapolating based of that information

There are a lot of extra curricular activities to get involved in at my work, the details of which I am not overly familiar with. This is due to myself being involved in a lot of external activities and thus having little free time. However, I have also experienced the social side of my work through casual meetups due to the overwhelming positive attitude at the company.

Yes

The values of the company are genuinely reflected by the employees, and it makes an incredible place to work. The support and love shared within this company seems unmatched in my experience. I like to always talk about my assessment centre/interview day in regards to this. Compared to many other assessment days, I had the best time during the TUI one due to the positive and optimistic atmosphere. During a "meet and greet" casual session, the way TUI employees(/graduates) spoke about the company was amazing. I left this day a bit sceptical, as so much praise towards the company seemed like a PR situation where the employees were hand-picked or given specific instruction to sugar coat their experience. I have now realised this was just an honest reflection on the atmosphere at the company, with a large focus on employee experience and work life balance. Whenever a friend/loved one (who I know to be good at what they do) discusses work-based sadness or work "horror stories" I always have a look at the TUI careers to see if there is anything right for them. I do not remember the exact figure, however there is a reason the average employee length here is over 10 years.

The most important thing for this company is that you are genuine and honest in your application, and that in doing so you align well with their values. Talking about what you have achieved is obviously great, and does show some of those values, however they are really looking for WHO you are as apposed to WHAT you have done. Read over those values, make sure that it is somewhere you align with, and if that is true, make it clear in your application. They are looking for employees with potential (especially with graduate/apprentice schemes) to grow and thrive within the company