Software Engineer Review

I worked as a backend engineer within a feature team working on a card feature in the banking app. Most days would involve scrum meetings, as well as more general meetings for the wider platform/bank. If I had work, I would do that for part of the day, as well as attend ‘knowledge transfer sessions’ and complete self learning.

I came into the placement having very few coding skills as I don’t study computer science. I’ve learnt Java, as well as a lot about Git, CI/CD with Jenkins, Bash scripting, Docker and GCP.

Not really no. There were options to take on additional responsibility that you could enquire about, but I didn’t. So that’s not really the fault of my team.

I met with my line manager twice a month and she was helpful, although there was often not many problems to raise. I had guidance from a senior engineer throughout but would have appreciated more guidance throughout.

Very relaxed, nice culture. It’s a very large company so things move slowly and it’s a lot of compliance. As agile as they wish to be, it’s un-achievable.

I certainly enjoyed parts. I should have seeked out more work; I think I felt very demotivated for periods and accepted a very light workload.

Yes

Be proactive and enthusiastic. Don’t settle for a small workload, go and do gigs for other teams and reach out about things you’re interested in. In terms of applying, your enthusiasm during the assessment centre is marked highly. Don’t be cocky and speak your mind during any exercises.