Graduate Software Engineer Review

The BBC's software engineering graduate scheme offers a series of six month long "rotations" across 4 teams delivering software products. This has allowed me to work on a variety of internal- & external-facing products, & in my experience you have a huge amount of influence of which products you work on. Day-to-day, this does mean your ways of working can vary quite a lot depending on the team, but I've found this great for experience -- I've deliberately rotated into teams with drastically different processes & technical stacks.

Day-to-day, there's lots of potential for learning, & a lot of it is up to you to direct -- by choosing teams, & working with the manager's within teams to ensure you're working on the most interesting products they have to offer. I've learnt a huge amount, in both technical & methodology skills -- different programming languages, frameworks & patterns, but also gained a huge amount of experience with very different "kinds" of teams, from those with very clearly defined processes to those with very flexible ones. Formal training is available, with a list of both internal & external courses. Generally these are limited to those relevant to your current team, but teams seem encouraging. Not many result in qualifications or certificates (though common ones such as AWS may well be possible), so I'd recommend keeping track of them yourself, so you can list them for any future employment reasons.

I enjoy the programme a lot -- I get to work on real products, with significant numbers of end users, while also having the flexibility to explore different technical details. The ability to try something for "just six months" has helped me try things I otherwise wouldn't have. Culture-wise, it can vary a lot by team, but in my experience it has always been very positive. Organisation-wide I really think the priorities are in the right place, & if I had an issue with the culture around me I think I would be able to find people who would help me communicate that to the right people in order to start getting change.

Generally the structure is very simply -- the six month long rotations, with a long list of teams to choose from for each. The programme is less good about communicating its processes -- simply letting people know what's coming up when. Feels like there can be less clarity over when or how exactly certain things will happen, but generally this doesn't result in negative things happening, just lack of clarity beforehand.

There's lots of support channels -- both for the programme as a whole, but also within teams -- you will likely have multiple people you can discuss something with within a few weeks, & can easily access them in between if needed. There are separate channels for mental or physical health issues, which are publicised fairly often.

The programme doesn't result in a formal qualification (it's generally a scheme for following on from your bachelor's degree), but there is a lot of support for managing your own learning, both in hands-on ways & through lots of encouragement to attend events or training courses for them.

I feel confident that what I've learnt throughout the scheme will prove useful throughout further jobs, & it has been really well received throughout the different teams I've been in here. Often I can bring a different perspective or draw parallels to different projects or technologies, & everyone has been very receptive to that.

There are some extra-curricular activities advertised, though I've attended few of them. There are commonly meetups & conferences being hosted which your teams will be more than happy for you to attend, & department-wide people will often arrange games evenings or similar, which are great for switching off & getting to know colleagues from the wider organisation.

Yes

I've learnt a huge amount, which is the number one aspect for me. I've been able to direct that learning myself, ensuring it's in areas I'm interested in & convinced will prove me useful. Secondly, the ability to rotate between very different teams & areas has made me much more aware of exactly the kind of product, method and culture I want to end up working in.

I'd recommend deliberately trying to mix up your experiences on the programme -- moving between extremes has been really informative, & I'm not sure I'd have learnt as much, feel I have as much to offer, or be as positive to the scheme, if I'd chosen 4 very similar rotations.