Duty Technician Review

I am responsible for overseeing mission-critical projects on a 24x7 shift pattern. I perform health checks on various servers and escalate problems outside of my knowledge to more senior colleagues. I also perform service desk tasks outside of hours such as password resets etc.

I have learned many new technical skills such as AIX/Linux commands as well as developed existing skills such as problem solving and managing my workload on a daily business. I have also developed other soft skills such as communicating effectively with team members.

I am really enjoying my apprenticeship as I am completing courses I wanted to do outside of the apprenticeship anyway such as the ITIL v4 and CompTIA A+ courses, however it is difficult attending some workshops (GKA Way e.g) due to my shift pattern.

The programme has been well organised for the most part, however the dates were changed for our ITIL course the week before which caused issues with the project. It is well structured though.

My employer has been very helpful and supportive and have gone above what I was expecting in terms of making time for the apprenticeship and offering to cover fees for accreditation after completing the CompTIA A+ course.

I receive decent support from my provider, however a few emails have been missed by my tutor when asking for clarification on things/confusion on the website's layout. My tutor is pushing me to achieve a distinction though and I do appreciate that.

At this moment in time I don't feel that the qualification helps me significantly in my current role, however I can definitely see how it will help me in the near future and in future projects/roles.

There are many opportunities to work on different skills such as hackathons and listening in on calls after a pen test for example. These have really helped me get some exposure to different areas and understand how projects are tested and built.

Yes

IBM have an excellent reputation for inclusion and employee satisfaction which became very clear as I started my employment. The way they have handled the pandemic and the support they have offered whilst working from home/working in the office has been hugely positive.

Just be yourself and demonstrate you work well in a team. You honestly don't need to have a technical background as the training provided is excellent and they are very patient with new starters. Persevere with the application process - it's lengthy but definitely worth it!