Air Software Engineer Review

Day-to-day generally varies dependant on the placement you are currently with. Can vary from visiting RAF bases to web development. In 8 months I've worked in two placements, one was almost exclusively web development, and the other is proper, full on software engineering making sure every line of code is perfect and fits the requirements and design.

Learned several new languages, purely due to the array of tasks we can complete. My current team uses a lot of legacy languages, whereas my last team was mostly web-dev so I had to learn lots of HTML, css, js and SQL. I had never worked practically with SQL before.

College / university feels comfortable as I have just come out of sixth form so its familiar to me. The time in the business is really interesting and teaches me a lot of practical skills. I enjoy the variety of teams and flexibility around T&A. The site facilities are also incredible including a costa.

College course / university could be slightly better but only due to the numbers in our class being quite small this year. Early careers team generally alright, able to help with everything, however there is generally a lot of deadlines being changes. For instance we complete a diploma, originally told it would be throughout the whole time, then it moved to end of third year (university year), and now its moved to end of second year so that they can mark it while we're at university.

Generally a lot - very useful, understanding, flexible. If I ever need help with anything theres a full network of people outside of early careers to talk to if necessary. Early careers are also able to help with any relevant work-related issues in any way they can. My only problem with early careers is related to training. Our college course requires us to travel around 150 miles a week, every week we're in college. - not communicated to us the distance of travel before we started despite asking. (2 days a week). This has therefore had a major impact on how much of my salary actually gets taken home, and all of the apprentices are struggling financially despite our reasonable salary. The moment you mention anything about it to early careers you get immediately shut down and no conversation is ever opened.

Training provider definitely helpful. We have 5 tutors, who can help at any time. Some are better than others with regards to turnaround on marking and replying to messages. Tutors also understand past experience, for instance maths teacher will allow me to complete assignment in lesson, and homeworks and leave early, as I have 2 maths A levels and we're doing a gcse recap course. Very flexible, however deadlines are generally not well planned.

Our course is mostly c# in terms of software engineering which is the languages used mostly at work which is helpful. It also helps us to understand the life-cycle of a project and product. Some modules (software engineering) are more helpful than others (hardware) but this could be solely dependent on what teams I find myself in as I have yet to use any hardware in work.

Encouraged to join royal aeronautical society but other than that not really. It isnt made clear to apprentices on join either but the training provider is willing to include you in extra curricular activities if you ask. I am a member of the university hockey team as our course is provided by them.

Yes

Solid pay, solid job security, exciting work. Not a 10/10 due to the fact that the early careers team can be questionable at times but its understandable (especially due to a high turnover of staff in a specific role). Definitely helpful experience for a future employee within the business or not.

Be prepared to work hard, and challenge everything that doesn't feel right, even if it's just to fully understand the reasoning behind it. Don't be afraid to ask, and definitely be willing to help others out. Expect to have an enjoyable experience with a range of teams and people.