Software Engineering Graduate Review

Software engineering across various roles, technologies, and products. Work usually in an agile environment with appropriate processes as sprints, sprint planning, retrospectives, breakdowns, pair programming, swarm testing, and so on. Work was typically on predefined tickets with approximate proposed solutions, but opportunities for more self-guided tasks and spikes to explore potential solutions to predefined tasks also occurred.

Strong understanding of web development, across the full stack. Especially comfortable with the front end and technologies such as React, Redux, Node.js, and Sass. Experience working with cloud infrastructure particularly with AWS and EC2, Lambda, and DynamoDB. Developed strong experience with test driven development and tools such as Jest, Enzyme, and e2e testing via Nightwatch. Developed softer skills around the team working processes, both those specific to the agile methodology, and more generally, especially when leading knowledge shares and meetings.

The work, for the most part, has been extremely worthwhile and impactful, with the highest profile project I worked on impacting tens of millions of people in the UK. Across the teams I've worked in I've always felt suitably supported and given suitable autonomy to ensure my contributions are the best they can be. Company working culture is for the most part very good, however I feel we do miss good opportunities more often than we seize them.

The opportunity to rotate around 4 teams across the 2 year scheme is very good, however the process by which these teams are determined isn't always the most transparent and some graduates are left unable to get experience in key areas they might have a particular interest in. Training for the most part is of reasonable quality, but too often there is pushback on requests for training when there is no reason to provide friction against a graduate furthering their personal development. Most teams are well set up to foster graduates, offering appropriate support while ensuring they produce meaningful work.

Support is somewhat lacking at times. My manager seems under-resourced for the most part for the number of people they manage, HR are frequently hopeless, and certain problems don't appear to be well dealt with. Management are very willing to listen, but getting issues resolved can take time, which I think is a symptom of the scale of the organisation.

BBC Academy does provide a range of really useful courses across a range of topics. Training occurs in classroom environments with expert trainers, as well as there bing a range of online resources available for training across an even greater range of subjects. Within departments and teams as well there are regular knowledge sharing sessions across more specific topics/subjects/technologies which are also very useful.

The formal training offered is very good at providing introductions and foundations to subjects encountered, however the most useful resource is the support of colleagues in teams, whether through pair programming, collaborative breakdowns, peer-reviewing code, or generally just being on hand to offer guidance. A lot of colleagues have gone through the same scheme so are especially sympathetic, but even those who have not are extremely supportive and helpful.

There are a range of activities. Each department will organise its own social events (e.g., football, Friday drinks/meal, Nando's lunches), amongst the grads we try to stay in touch with lunches and monthly drinks (which is especially good as we work across teams so it's useful networking as well as catching up with friends). The company at a higher level also organises a young talent network for younger colleagues to network and in an attempt to greater tap into our collective experience at a time where we must focus on younger audiences for our prolonged sustainability.

Yes

Really impactful work, great opportunities for professional and personal development, wonderful working environment. It's a bit of a challenging time for The BBC in terms of how it sits in the broader media landscape, but as a result of that there are many really intriguing challenges to face and massive opportunities to do new innovative and impactful things.

Assessment centre was really well organised. The coding task set in advance is intended to show how you arrive at whatever (attempted) solution rather than just what the end product is, so ensure that changes are regularly committed to show the steps in the process. Interview was fairly pleasant, with the assessor definitely trying to help rather than catch you out. Group assessment is a difficult one to judge, important not just to try and showcase how competent you might be in the particular task, but how you collaborate with the other candidates to complete the task.