Software Engineer Review

One day per week I attend university to further my degree. For the other four working days I work in Accenture on an internal project. My daily tasks involve platform support which comprises of investigating issues on a cloud based platform, documenting these issues then resolving them. This can often lead to having to code bespoke fixes to a problem. I also deploy cloud based applications for new projects and teams. I have a daily stand up meeting with my team and have conversations with my colleagues about work throughout the day. I externally email clients when arranging to establish a new service or application for them in the cloud to get their opinions and the parameters they need for the application. My responsibility as part of the team is to help solve issues on the platform and help develop best practices. I also attend meetings on major platform issues and other meetings designed to gather the teams opinions on improvements to the platform moving forwards. I work with a range of DevOps tools, mostly Atlassian products and use Amazon Web Services to host serer instances remotely. I work on tickets raised by our team or by clients that detail issues, bugs or security vulnerabilities that I then solve.

I have learnt many new skills in my time on the apprenticeship so far. To begin with at university I have learnt about computer fundamentals, from transistors up to assembly languages which helps my low level understanding. We have also programmed applications in Java which teaches thinking in object oriented mindset. Finally we have learnt about networks, protocol layers and TCP/IP which has further fleshed out my general understanding of networking and how computers and servers communicate. At work I have learnt many different skills. First I have learnt about the principles of DevOps and how to host different environments in the cloud for production, user testing and more. I have learnt about project management tools such as Jira and Confluence. I have learned about functioning as part of a team, participating in stand up meetings and helping improve the platform we work on. I have learnt more about servers, linux commands and bash/shell scripting. I also slowly gained understanding of platform architecture, one click deployment and CI/CD through pipelines and automation. Internal training includes informal lectures like brownbags over skype but also many different courses on Accentures site and access to Pluralsight or being able to email subject matter experts. They will also let me try for AWS qualifications if I want. Overall I learn new skills every week ans to list the smaller ones would take a long time. But Accenture has tons of opportunities for learning in your own field or other areas of tech.

I enjoy the program a lot. My team at work are very helpful and accommodating. The work place has good principles and a focus on our mental and physical health. My managers are very friendly and often go out of their way to help find me tasks that specifically aid what I am learning at university or things I am interested in. So far Accenture has met and exceeded my expectations in aiding my growth as a software developer and giving me real experience in the workplace.

I feel very valued at work. My participation and ideas in the team are taken seriously just like anybody else. My managers in the workplace have time to meet with me and keep up to date on how I am doing, they also often ask as to how they can improve my experience. I am involved on the project to the same degree as other employees. Since being here I have felt very included and not under-valued at all.

Organisation is fairly good. We are given our university dates and work dates in advance. The concept is fairly straightforward. Studying and work time tend to mix fairly easily. Sometimes information is passed informally through apprentice message boards which can mean it is hard to stay up to date. In the work environment however it is very structured. I know what my team is working on and future projections. It is clear what is expected of me and what I can bring to the team. Tasks are delegated in a relation way where I look at them with a manager and agree to the ones I can manage or handle at the time. I also have several support staff members or points of contact I can chat to if I need further information on any part of the course.

Our tutors are very accessible at university. We are permitted to travel there if we need to and they are always easy to email and receive a reply to any questions we may have. The university has several mediums of support from English and Maths tuition and classes to events related to software and computer experience. I feel at ease knowing that if I have any queries or need to know more information related to the course or a module then I can easily contact the university or even visit and find more information easily.

My employer is very supportive of my career. As I mentioned in previous answers my Manager is very responsive and helpful in the day to day processes at work. I have a career counselor in the company who I can contact if I am interested in different types of roles or learning something new. I also have an apprentice ambassador I can easily meet with who will listen to any concerns or improvements about the course that I may have. Most support is only an email or scheduled meeting away. We also often get asked for feedback or ways for support to improve so it is good to see the culture focuses on quality of support.

The salary was increased to 17,000/yr. This personally feels too low for London living. I have to get a train in and this takes much of the money. It also costs a lot for rent in London, I know the salary increased each year but it does come at a steep jump, with the first two years being very difficult. I have some savings I am able to use but I don't think I could do the apprenticeship without these funds.

The company often holds social and networking events. On top of this local teams might host get together events or run clubs. My team at work has a running club and does other activities like climbing and dodgeball together. People often meet for drinks after work. Accenture allows you to take two or three days each year to do charity events to give back to communities. There is also work related events such as networking, hackathons and other software meet ups. I recently attended a talk hosted at our work location by the founder of Stack overflow.

Yes

There is a multitude of different projects which allow you to stay fresh at work. The teams are very accommodating and the company has phenomenal learning resources. You can quickly get up to speed on any area of technology and often get in touch with people using it in their day to day workplace. The opportunity for growth in the company is very large and most work placements have a good work/ life balance.

If you're applying then spend the time to really make a good impression on your initial answers to the online questions. In the HR interview and assessment days then really sell your passion for technology. Look to help others out in group assessments and play supportive roles to the group as a whole. They generally look for passion for technology over specific grades or experience so give lots of examples or current tech you're interested in, what you have read about in the news or any other sources that you use for information. Accenture also runs many open days where they show people around so try and get in touch through email with the recruiters and they will often be more than happy to put you in touch with current apprentices, or even allow you to come and tour the company. This can all help give you that extra touch when it comes to the interviews.