Assistant Software Developer Review

Being a software developer covers a number of disciplines these days. During my course I've worked on a number of both internal and external projects covering both backend, frontend, and infrastructure development and support. This means getting real-world experience with tools and frameworks such as React, Express, AWS, and MySQL all while gaining academic credentials through the attached degree.

I've learnt a huge amount and have been empowered to research and implement patterns and tools of my own choosing. While at Fujitsu I've further enhanced my knowledge on 'proper' software architecture (patterns such as dependency injection) and learnt TypeScript and Java in a professional setting. You have to be adept at self-learning but a convincing argument will enable you to have the time to learn. The company fund LinkedIn Learning for all employees and can provide licences for services such as Cloud Academy on request. There's a number of exams the company can sponsor as well - I've taken the Scrum.org's Professional Scrum Developer as well as a wealth of official AWS certifications.

Counter-intuitively I enjoy the real-world work much more than the programme of study. As my University is remote I don't feel as if I've developed any relationships with my peers, but on the flip-side it being remote provides flexibility in terms of study-time. I choose Fridays as my 20% study providing a nice transition into the weekend.

Things can be hard to find in terms of concrete writing. While you are a full employee in terms of available learning and development courses and company interaction, you are separate in terms of pay structure. In practical terms this is a good thing - there's guaranteed pay rises during the duration of the course. However how this works (and ends) has never been made clear in terms of expected figures or dates.

My line manager is friendly, flexible, and easy going. The company strive to enable a good work-life balancer by not enforcing set working patterns (agreeable with your line manager) around times and workplace. You're expected to be contactable during the course of the day but otherwise you're free to start at 10am one day and 8 the next. Long lunch? No biggie - as long as you complete your contracted hours it's fine. I feel supported but on the whole I tend not to ask for many things so this is hard to quantify. The department have a mentoring scheme but it's hard to find someone matching my skillset.

BPP have been a bit of a mixed bag. The flexibility of a remote degree has been great (2x 2 hour webinars in the evenings per week compared to a drive and a long day of teaching) but has meant there isn't a rapport with the tutors nor my peers. The quality of the course content and assessments can be lacklustre. Assignments are often very vague on what's wanted and word limits can be a challenge. Calls are run once every quarter with the line manager and a coach from the Uni to discuss recent modules. Tutors appear to be happy to receive emails but the online forum can sometimes be forgotten about. The company no longer use this provider for newer cohorts, instead preferring a dedicated Uni such as Winchester or Manchester Met.

Sadly the qualification, Digital Technology Solutions, feels too high-level to prove useful day-to-day. Certain modules have huge relevance and practical application to my role - such as database management and network operations. Others seem relevant but don't provide enough in-depth to be practical, such software testing not indicating at how to perform, design, or document tests outside of a high-level slide on ISO 29119 and test plans. And then there's some random ones like marketing principles - I'm still not sure what that one was for as a developer! Perhaps it's more my learning style suits application over reading and writing.

I think it depends on the team and where you end up. I'm a relative distance from my workplace and joining the clubhouse there wasn't something I saw as doable due to commuting and webinar times. COVID ultimately hasn't helped with encouraging social events. Junior Talent had a few events per year before but my cohort wasn't included. My current team is small, distributed, and aren't that social... The company normally sponsor a Christmas meal for teams to self-organise and it was a nice experience to see others within the Junior Talent umbrella, but otherwise I'm somewhat disconnected from the rest of my peer group.

Yes

I would recommend Fujitsu for apprenticeships and upskilling. The company seem flexible and forgiving if you have additional time-related needs (e.g. having an additional study day before an assignment deadline). For a first job in-industry the salary is fairly good. £20k base (was £17k when I started) and then ~£2k per year after. 25 days leave + bank holidays on top of study days.

You'll need to be proficient in teaching yourself things and managing time but otherwise the culture is welcoming. Don't be afraid of searching within the internal forums and resourcing tool if you feel like a change of project, but by all means talk to your line manager about what you'd like to work on/with.