Graduate Software Engineer Review

I have been working alongside other software engineers, in day-to-day processes such as stand-ups, planning, retrospectives and development work. I have been put on training courses with the BBC academy. I regularly pair with other software engineers on my team. The scheme lasts two years and every six months, we rotate onto another team.

I have taken multiple training courses, ran internally by the BBC Academy, such as the following; Kotlin, Architecting on AWS, Gstreamer, Software Engineering. As well as attending the yearly internal developer conference. I have became more confident in communicating with others and taking part in agile software development processes. I have learnt a lot of different programming languages from being rotated around different teams with different technology stacks.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working on each on the 4 teams I have been on whilst on the scheme. The work culture is one of the best, it is friendly and supporting. It allows you to be yourself and excel at the work you do. I have enjoyed the work I have been doing a lot, and there is a great sense of achievement when your work reaches such a large audience.

The program is well-structured, there are four six-month rotations with different teams. When the next rotation is upcoming, you can submit your preferences to which teams you wish to work with next, and will find out which team you are going to, in advance. If you need training, there are a lot of opportunities to go on training courses, you can ask to be booked on them at any time. They can sometimes be hard to get on if they're not available, but if they are available, you will be able to go on it. You can be assigned a mentor which I have found very useful, and there are regular meetings with the scheme manager throughout the programme.

Whenever I have needed support from my manager, I have never been let down. If I have needed support from HR to sort something out, it has been easy for them to solve those problems for me. If I have spoke to my mentor about something, I have found it useful and they are someone I can trust.

When working towards my objectives, I have found it very useful to go on training courses which my training provider runs. Sometimes it can take a while to be able to go on a specific course, but otherwise it has been a very good experience which I have learnt a lot from.

I have learnt a lot from day-to-day activities such as pairing on ticketed work with other software engineers on my team. I feel like doing everyday work has improved my skills the most, and attending training courses has helped me to do everyday work. I feel like I have learnt a lot about my job role whilst being here.

There are many social activities that are on all the time, such as; evening nights out, team breakfasts and team lunches. There are also sport activities such as football at lunch breaks. There are even opportunities to become a bee keeper, to look after the bees on the top of one of our buildings!

Yes

I would recommend it to a friend because it is a great opportunity to advance your skills. The great working environment has given me lots of opportunities and has allowed me to thrive at what I enjoy doing. Working here is a great way to start and progress your career.

The BBC looks for people who wish to learn, help promote the great working culture here and stay here at the end of the scheme. There is a group activity as part of the assessment day, which is an opportunity to show how well you work in a team, that you listen to others and contribute.