Software Engineering Apprentice Review

i work as a developer in the big data devops team. i am officially in the analyseIT team where we take peoples data transform it and display it in a useful way using technologies such as the elk stack and then deploying it via puppet. currently i am working with the core team to develop a user and role based authentication progrma using saml and ldap authentication. during this i have improved upon my java programming skills and learnt a bit about other languages such as javascript whilst looking into vue and springboot at the same time.

Yes. I have learnt about: the elk stack docker kibana puppet cloudera manager linux os and all the cmd bits and bobs some of the products developed by our team I have developed on: Java problem solving giving presentations to the team communication skills reviewing my work research skills designing solutions my team always seems to be finding new technologies to elp us work more efficiently and provide a better product to the customers

I really enjoy working at BT and learning about the new technologies, sometimes it feels like my team is ahead of other areas in terms of what we are using which is cool. I also enjoy researching new technologies and reporting back to the team about how they work, what I used them for, what I think they could be used for and why we should use them. The social side to the apprenticeship is also really good, within my team I have started to play and sometimes organise football once a week as well as joining in at the gym and bouldering with some of the apprentices which is pretty good for my health and wellbeing I guess. Sometimes the uni course is a bit bland, in some modules it feels like we are being talked at for 3 hours which doesn't really help me all that much. I prefer it when the lecturers try to split the lecture in two so we get some time to use the skills practically and see how we could use them in the workplace instead of thinking why are we doing this, how is it going to be useful to us. The lecturers are all nice guys though

the program as a whole is really well organised and we get lots of help and a point in the right direction as to what we need to do next in order to get the most of it. i think i was the first apprentice in my team atleast, maybe in the wider one too? which meant there was a lot for us to figure out which has probably helped us to be honest as we all know what i need to do. I also seem to be the only apprentice who doesnt rotate which i quite like, theres lots going on in my area and we use a lot of things to get stuff done, in a three month preiod or what ever the rotation time is you wouldnt be able to pick up even half the things.

loads, my line manager and apprentice coach are always pushing me to get the work done that i need to do to pass the apprenticeship with a good grade. within my team when working day to day there is always someone i can go to for help when stuck or if i want to learn a bit more about something

My contact is always online and answers any questions I have as soon as she can. If its not something she knows off the top of her head and needs to chase it up she always cc's me into the email chain so I understand what is going on and get a good idea as to what it is I need to do

i sometimes struggle to undestand how what we are doing at uni relates to what i am doing at work. from what some of the lecturers have said its hard to keep the module content up to date with current technologies which is pretty annoying. somethings are usful though, the java and os modules for example have been pretty helpful

within my team we play football once a week which is pretty fun. we also occaisonally go out for a meal or a pint. with the apprentices we play ping pong a couple of times a week and go bouldering 2-3 times a week too. my team is also pushing for me to do some extra vendor qualifications that are not part of the apprenticeship sceme to boost my knowledge

Yes

i feel like apprenticeships are better than uni at the moment and the one BT offers is really good. pay is good, course seems to be similar to other unis, lots of extra benefits like pension, discounts on bmws and minis as well as cheap cinema tickets which is always nice

make sure to speak clearly and confidently, dont lie on your application, pay attention all the time and take lots of notes as to what you are doing at both uni and in the workplace. Make sure to get involved with things instead of turtling and going with the flow