Apprentice Software Engineer Review

I work within a team (who's name I can't currently disclose) building websites for the BBC. I work with people of various roles (UX designers, project managers, various leaders and managers) to aid in the development of the product(s). Most of my job is writing code, with meetings here and there.

When I joined the BBC, I had no experience whatsoever in web design or development. 3 years in, I am now a self-profecient and skilled front-end developer, with some back-end experience. My design skills have indirectly increased - I haven't done any work myself on designing, but I have learnt from the user experience designers on my team / other teams.

I have very, very few issues with the programme - and none of them are due to the content or delivery of the programme. I am happy at work, I enjoy the people and culture I work with/in. Everyone is supportive of the programme and respects me as they would any other member of staff, and most people are very interested in the course.

On the work side of things, everything is great. Less so on the university side. This year, there was a 2 week period where there were 2 assignments due on top of an exam. Instead of spreading it out, the course put a lot of avoidable stress on the students enrolled.

Managers are quite intolerant of sick leave, though this may be a staff issue rather than the employer. Most of the time, I recieve the support and guidance that I need when it doesn't involve sickness. We are not allowed to work from home, which, in my opinion, is an extremely invaluable help with our university work. It saves money, travel time and allows us to concentrate without the distractions of an open office. Alas, we aren't allowed to, because "apprentice".

This question is very dependant on the individual managers / leaders of the teams we are in. Some people have a poor experience, but personally mine has been excellent. My team leader has allowed me all the time I need to complete my work, never refusing a request and sometimes coming to a fair compromise that we both agree on when there is important BBC work to do in addition to my university work.

A lot of the course is quite irrelevant to my work role. Not that this is always a bad thing - a more general course is necessary when there are people working in all kinds of technologies. But some more specification of the course and more up to date technologies used for the course would be a great help. There is almost nothing on modern web design, only an extremely brief introduction in our first year and a very outdated assignment in the third year.

Social activities and sports teams etc. are organised by teams themselves, not the workplace. These do happen, though there are lot more of the former than the latter. Various re-occuring social activites do happen, such as team lunches every few weeks and a running club every Friday. As a more introverted person on an apprentice salary whilst living out, I don't tend to attend them all - but I get involved often enough that I'm happy.

Yes

The culture, the people and the job are all fantastic. You'll be working with extremely talented people in all kinds of roles, who are always happy to help and share information. Specifically for the culture, all teams are extremely open and will happily discuss anything with you. Teamwork and collaboration is commonplace and works very well, helping network and build connections across the company - even with people working in the London and Glasgow offices.

Honestly, the onboarding process, interviews and assessments etc. are all intuitive. There's no "gotchas", no wrong answers and no judgement. You will be assessed, at least for my role, purely on your mindset and problem solving skills which are necessary to the role. There's also some teamwork tasks to see how you perform in a group environment, so make sure you make an effort to listen to others and work together rather than alone.