Application Maintenance Support Analyst Review

I am aligned to the NTC Cloud First capability and have been involved in 3 projects 2 involving salesforce including my current role. My current role is Application Maintenance Support Analyst which involves providing support to the client on their salesforce application which typically includes: Application bug fixes, app enhancements, Improving the consumer experience, improving the agent experience and implementing new features to the application. Alongside full testing against the development. This is apart of a monthly development cycle delivering regular updates to the clients application. As a part of this I am regularly involved with the team updates across Accenture and client work on the project and will work alongside someone on the client side for any work request I am assigned. I have gained a lot of knowledge, skills and experience from my role in the Cloud First team on a both business and technical level. I am also attending Newcastle college as a apart of a FdSc degree in Software engineering covering Java, ASP.NET, Laravel, Web Development before finishing my top up year BSc at Sunderland University.

Technical skills learnt: Salesforce Administration, Apex programming, Salesforce Visualforce, HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, JQuery, SQL, Salesforce SOQL, Java, C#, trouble shooting, testing . I have also developed my softer skills such as communication, team work, prioritization and organisation within the project and team I work with daily. I have also attended a Salesforce 402 App Builders training course and gained my 402 App Builders certification in Salesforce.

In regards to my day to day work I thoroughly enjoy the programme. Coming in to work at Accenture and on client site being involved in a Development Project using Salesforce surrounded by colleagues who are very friendly and supportive of my work and development as a person here is great. However the academic side of the apprenticeship I do not enjoy. Since the start of the apprenticeship attending Newcastle College every Monday the quality of teaching has been very poor to the point where most of us attending including myself have had to solely do self study or rely on other apprentices to teach what we should be learning from the college. It has came apparent the lecturers at Newcastle college don't seem to actually have the full knowledge to teach some of the modules were being taught there and that they are only 1 step ahead of myself and the other apprentices in terms of what they know about the subject they are teaching. Session materials provided by lecturers there have been in some cases broken, missing licenses for software access preventing apprentices to be able to work on their assignments and lecturers turning up late or not at all. Overall on the academic side of the Apprenticeship I feel like I have not learnt much from Newcastle College compared to my actual job role within the company where I feel I have learnt loads of technical and non technical business skills.

On a capability level being a part of the Cloud First tea in Accenture NTC I feel very valued as an apprentice with the work I do for the projects I have been on and currently on. I have received praise from my manager, project team lead, other colleagues and the clients themselves. However on any level higher then my capability for my value I feel is none. Accenture NTC has an apprentice of the year award which on initially joining I thought would be great until I realized the award carries values outside of work ethic. I noticed this when in my first year in the apprenticeship the apprentice who won the award was someone who wouldn't attend college regularly or on time most of the time and when at the college would focus on other things outside of the assignments we were to be working on such as shopping online. This I also realized was reflecting in their work life too. Which has gave me the impression to gain the apprentice of the year award its more about who you know and not what you know or do in your job. As there were other apprentices I was aware of who had a much higher work ethic and commitment to their job and studies. On a salary level I feel I am valued as an apprentice as we do get a generous apprentice salary compared to what we could be on at other companies.

Overall I think the programme itself is well structured as an apprentice we do get a lot of opportunities to try different things and move to different roles within the company. There are also loads of training sessions in a variety of things going on weekly. If an apprentice is on the bench or can find time on their project to attend these sessions then it is possible. We did also get a 8 week bootcamp learning a bit of everything that the company does within its many capabilities. The team I am on also are very supportive of my work and learning on the project I am on. I regulatory have 1-to-1 sessions with my career Councillor on how I am doing in my role and what I can do to improve myself further for the next session. I am also given independent work where I am now trusted to work on my own on client tasks which I find rewarding that I have proved myself to both the company and client that I am capable of working on my own as well as a team.

The support I have received from my training provider within my team has been great and very helpful towards the development of my technical and business skills. They have been able to provide meaningful training resources for the product I use on a day to day basis and have paid for myself to attend training and get certified in my role. They offer constant support and are easily approachable everyday for any issues or concerns I may have. However for the training provider on the degree side being Newcastle College I think the support is very poor. This being again down to a lack of skilled resources being able to teach in some of the modules were learning. As well as the college organisation being off where learning materials provided are outdated or not complete/broken. We are pretty much left to get on with all the assignments ourselves. I don't feel like this is down to the individual lecturers themselves soley though as one of them is overworked I believe it is the resources towards the top of Newcastle college who have badly organised the college in terms of their own resources and commitments to their students attending their institution which has let me down greatly.

I have received brilliant support from my employer in regards to my capability team. They have helped me learn a lot of new business and technical skills and even got me certified in the product I use daily at work. They are always willing to help me with and concerns I have and are easy to approach.

As an apprentice I have no issues with the salary provided by the company as it is a lot higher then what it could be at other companies. However it still isn't enough to live independently in terms of living costs. This I will have to wait and see if I get kept on as a full time resource where I will receive the full graduate salary. The company does also offer a lot of benefits such as weekly raffles on sporting events, cinema discounts, product discounts and freebies.

The company usually have a community event across the business once a year as well as many other events for smaller sections of the company. We are provided with 3 charity days a year to go out and get involved in charitable events or apprenticeship promotion events.

Yes

Overall I enjoy working for Accenture as an apprentice and do believe it has already helped improve many skills I have and have learnt many more new ones too. I feel like I have a future with the career path I am currently on within Salesforce platform.

The company isn't looking for people applying for the apprenticeship to have technical qualifications and know everything about IT and programming as they can provide that to you as you progress through the apprenticeship over the 3 years. But rather the will to learn what the company does and be committed to be involved with the work they provide to clients. So as long as you have those 2 core features when applying you will stand a good chance of succeeding in the apprenticeship here.