Software Developer New Associate Review

Currently I am in an Application Support Engineer role, this entails completing daily jobs such as morning checks and daily reports. As well as this I am responsible for providing support for specific applications, meaning on a daily basis I am in communication with the users of the application as well as maintaining the systems ensuring that they remain functional as well as assisting in improving these services. As well as this I have been involved in a couple of extraction projects, in which I have taken on the main implementer role and the point of contact for my team.

Most of the applications in which I support are running on Solaris systems, this has meant that I have built upon my Unix/Bash shell scripting skills to assist these systems. But as well as that I have built skills in learning EMC Documentum and the skills required to support such a service. Other than that from the education side I have also learnt some skills in other areas such as HTML, Java, ASP.NET and Laravel.

When it comes to the working side of the apprenticeship I enjoy my role a great deal, I have managed to learn a lot from the role I have been assigned to and to this day I still continue to learn new things. I am surrounded by great people in the office who are more that happy to provide support where needed as well as teach areas of other systems to have a better understanding of the organisation of the project. Accenture as a whole is a great organisation with a lot of incentives, such as the Mental Health Allies community, meaning it has provides a great environment for all employees to work in.

Within the project I feel as if I hold value to the company, I hear from my line manager that he seems me as a valuable asset who could be beneficial to the company in the future, as well as that the project also has a monthly internal recognition forum which allows myself and others to be praised for any exceptional work we have accomplished. For the apprentices there is also an Apprentice of the year award, this is a good incentive to all apprentices, however it can feel as if it is more of a situation of who you know and not what you know, as on my project there is not a lot of senior members in which can nominate you towards to the award and seems that those who win have been in larger projects with a lot more face time with the more senior management, this has proved to be an area of controversy to some of the apprentices within my start group.

At the start of the apprenticeship we had an 8 week 'boot camp' training in place, in which we covered a variety of skills in which they deemed to be most valuable to Accenture, these have proved to be useful and have been used during my time in the apprenticeship so far. As well as this there is always regular training classes that are held within the company buildings covering a wide range of different areas of skills and new technologies, as well as this we have been given free licences to online training resource Pluralsight which has allowed me to go an learn skills which I would like to specialise in or would be beneficial to my career here in Accenture. However, when it has come to the organisation of the educations side the story changes. Each Monday we attend Newcastle College to complete the education side of the apprenticeship of the curriculum there has been constant issues with this area, the lecturing available to us has always seemed to be sub-par with what we would have expected, the resources that we are shown have sometimes been incomplete and that the lecturer has only ever been one step ahead of where we currently are, they do not show that they know the subject well or are ready to teach this to us, meaning that a lot of the time spent in there has been receiving support from other apprentices or using the online resources we have to learn what we need.

When it comes the college, as mentioned in the previous question we have seemed to have received little support from the tutor as they have repeatedly stated that they are being overworked and having to cover a lot of classes, this has then meant that we are left to rely on the other apprentices for support in this area.

Within the company there is a wide range of support options available to use, I have the usual management options available as well as the ability to speak with HR there are also the other initiatives available such as the Mental Health allies community meaning you can speak to these members about areas you may feel uncomfortable about talking to management with. The company also provides support to external services such as Bupa which are completely anonymous if that feels to be the best option available to me as an employee.

The wage that is offered for the apprenticeship is one of the best I have seen on the market, as an apprenticeship it offers a wage that is more competitive to a lot of other part time and even full time jobs. As well as this some of the projects offer extra income from extra work such as on-call which allows the wage becomes even more competitive, as a result I have had no issues when it has come to meeting living costs.

There are a lot of company paid events that are available to employees, such as comms events as well as account social events, which are a great experience to socialise with those on the project. As well as this there are always raffles available to win tickets to go and see local sports teams to play as well as chances to get tickets to go see other events like the theater and concerts. Then as well as this the are 3 charity days that are available to use to go out and do voluntary work as well as there been gym subsidies available. Overall the company provides great out of work experiences and there is always something available to cater to all employees.

Yes

As a company there are not many that could be better to work for, there is something there for everyone and will provide all the support that you will need.

Show that they have a clear interest in the company, always be confident in what you can achieve as they will give you all the opportunities you will need to grow and show that you will be a valuable asset for the company.