Landing the DREAM apprenticeship

Joining an actual workplace right after completing your A-levels seems like a huge jump, especially if you are like me and have never had a job before.

Getting settled in and finding the correct routine took a bit of practice, time, more practice, and a few late appearances at meetings. This apprenticeship has improved my time management skills – something I certainly wasn’t good at in the past! The first month was challenging, with a million new names, faces and passwords to remember.

Every day is a new day, and I always have something new to learn. I started by learning C# and programming best practices by watching videos on Pluralsight and following tutorials. I studied Computer Science at college, so the content felt easy when I first joined the company. Looking back now, after a few months, those first tutorials helped to build up my ground knowledge, and I still refer to my notes from those videos.

One thing I have relished over the last few months is all the progress I have made. Although progress can be difficult to track, I feel that I have picked up a gigantic amount of knowledge for both the front and the back end.

All the stress, worry and nervousness I had around meeting and collaborating with new people flew straight out of the window when I met my team. I felt welcomed, and when I learnt about the project I would be working on, it all started to feel real, and I was intrigued.

Juggling my university assignments and work projects can be difficult, constantly switching parts of my brain on and off. It does not help that we use C# at work and Java for our assignments, but learning both has given me a solid understanding of programming fundamentals. Sometimes, though, my work and studies overlap nicely. I applied knowledge of CSS from building Razor templates at work to creating a responsive dark-mode blog website for my Web Development course at university.

It is fair to say that during my time in college, there was a lack of gender diversity in the STEM subjects – there were only two other girls studying Computer Science alongside me in a class of around 25 students. Moving to university, I am stunned at the number of girls enrolled in the Digital and Technology degree: not only does this motivate me but also makes me feel proud. However, the ratio of girls who picked programming as their pathway is exceptionally low.

At AJ Bell, one thing I’ve noticed is that they tend to focus more on diversity. On my team alone there are several female developers and there is a lot of support available.

AJ Bell hires tons of apprentices, and one of the highlights of my job is attending events and open days to speak to college students about how I benefitted from my apprenticeship. When I am asked, 'What’s an average day like for you?', it makes me reflect on where I was not long ago and how far I have come since. There was a time when it was me asking these questions, hesitant about jumping straight into work with zero knowledge of the industry. Because of the fantastic team supporting me here, I can confidently say I now feel comfortable facing new challenges.

Looking back, I have met so many people with a wide range of skills and knowledge, something I would not have had exposure to if I were only attending university. It is just one of the million other benefits of getting this apprenticeship at AJ Bell.