Sales Engineering Manager Review

Technical sales for BT's Radianz platform for finance exchange firms (e.g. HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Barclays) to connect to each other and provide/consume services. I liaise with the customers to understand their technical requirements, design a solution that meets them, and relay that info to our delivery and/or config teams. Work 3 days in-office, 2 days from home per week.

Already graduated from my degree apprenticeship and assimilated into BT as a regular employee. Transitioned from learning concepts and theory about telecoms in school/college to applying that knowledge in a real-world environment. Developed interpersonal skills, my ability to work autonomously, self-motivate and self-improve. Learned network fundamentals, software engineering projects, some projects coding in Python and Java

I enjoyed it very much, you see yourself improve over time in a lot of areas, you see the impact and significance of your work and the work culture at BT is really supportive. The supportive does help make the transition from functioning at school to functioning at work easier to adjust to.

The structure was okay overall, at the very beginning there wasn't much work given to us to do from BT side, but the workload picked up as time went on. Also the amount of communication/support from the university for some of the modules in the degree was hit-or-miss; there were some topics I was only comfortable with because I had prior knowledge about them, otherwise if I were learning them for the first time there I would have struggled. My cohort voiced these concerns and they were subsequently improved on though, and I've heard the younger years aren't having the same issues now.

The people at BT are really supportive and willing to help you grow and progress. Line managers recognise the importance of the university portion of the programme an make sure to give time to dedicate to studies/coursework. You're introduced to people from different teams/departments and line managers support you and point you to the right people if you want to change roles

As mentioned above the support from the training provider was hit-or-miss overall, but improved in the later part of the apprenticeship,

I think a good amount of the information you're taught comes up in your role. Can't say to what extent for any given apprentice because entire cohorts of apprentices from different departments of BT with different roles are put on the same course. But a lot of the fundamentals from the first year ended up coming up for me, and in the second and third years the assignments make you draw connections between the university content and systems used in your role at BT.

There are a lot of networking events both internal within BT and external set up by other companies that you can get involved in from the HQ in One Braham, the number of external ones you're made aware of depends on how customer-facing your role is. There are normally other social activities available but the majority of my apprenticeship was during COVID so they weren't available to me, so I can't say for sure how good they are or how it is in other BT buildings like Adastral Park etc.

Yes

Best way I can think of to get into the workforce. They ease your transition into the corporate environment, support you well the entire way, and, in all likelihood, you have a full-time job at the end with 4 years' experience already.

Their interview/selection process is lengthy with loads of steps but it's worthwhile in the grand scheme of things. Once you're in, be proactive in your work, you get access to things like linkedin learning and similar platforms for free so take advantage of those benefits where you can, don't be afraid to ask questions or raise concerns if they come up