Apprentice Software Engineer Review
at Arm
Degree Apprenticeship
Software Engineering
Sheffield
Review Submitted: April 2025
Overall Rating
5 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
5/5
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Overview of Role
5/5
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Skills Development
5/5
-
Structure and Support
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
5/5
I am an apprentice software engineer currently placed in the Verification IP team at Arm, based in the Sheffield office. My team maintain a shared library used by chip architects and designers at Arm which makes it easier for them to perform functional verification on their SoC designs (more specifically, verifying that the components in their SoC are able to communicate with each other using various AMBA protocols).
At the start of the year I was placed on the Infrastructure subteam and I have been working on internal web apps and utilities that my team use to do their work, using technologies such as JavaScript, Next.js, Python, and Jenkins. More recently I have been pivoting towards working on tasks which require the use of SystemVerilog, as my team write lots of pluggable interfaces and testbenches used by hardware engineers within Arm. As my team mainly work on internally used libraries, the pressure to deliver is there, but not as intense as some other System IP teams within Arm who have to constantly perform rolling releases of new designs to be used in SoCs.
At the start of the year I was placed on the Infrastructure subteam and I have been working on internal web apps and utilities that my team use to do their work, using technologies such as JavaScript, Next.js, Python, and Jenkins. More recently I have been pivoting towards working on tasks which require the use of SystemVerilog, as my team write lots of pluggable interfaces and testbenches used by hardware engineers within Arm. As my team mainly work on internally used libraries, the pressure to deliver is there, but not as intense as some other System IP teams within Arm who have to constantly perform rolling releases of new designs to be used in SoCs.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
5/5
I have enjoyed the programme a lot so far. Work-wise, I feel like I have settled into my team really nicely, and the tasks have been varying in challenge and difficulty. The Sheffield office is also quite a small Arm office (~200 employees) compared with Manchester (~400-500) and Cambridge (in the thousands), which I like as you get to know everyone and regularly see familiar faces in and around the office. Even at our open-plan desks, I find myself regularly engaging in conversation with colleagues in different teams and having a good laugh. I find the vibes to be very chill, open, and engineers who have otherwise quite high pay grades do not take themselves too seriously - they are honestly happy to answer any of your questions even if you think they are stupid questions. A lot of engineers came into ARM as interns and then as grads, so they know what it is like to be in your shoes as someone who is completely new to the world of working. I have also come to appreciate the diversity of different backgrounds that all the engineers at Arm have. For example, one of the apprentices I was hired alongside with originally worked in kitchens as a chef for several years before doing a bootcamp and reskilling into tech. Another apprentice did a graphic design degree before reskilling into tech and applying for this degree apprenticeship thanks to the encouragement of a friend and now colleague. There are quite a few people who studied physics and who are now engineers, so not everyone did your bog standard CS/EEE degree at uni either.
I would also say that Arm is very active and actually fulfills its objectives with the DEI side of things. Some companies pretend to care about DEI and brag about it in the press but do not actually do anything concrete. Arm is the complete opposite - I am on good terms with colleagues from the Employee Community Engagement team, and they work very hard to encourage their employees as much as possible to do DEI activities and/or volunteering in their local communities.
When I first started, our team did a few DEI sessions where a few engineers brought in snacks/foods related to their culture and talked about their background, where they came from and how they got into Arm - those sessions really helped me get to know some of the engineers on my team and it just made for a really cohesive team atmosphere too. Every now and then we also have team building weeks, since not everyone on our team is based in Sheffield, just to make sure that we have at least some in-person interaction even though some people on our team are based in e.g. Austin or San Jose for example.
Furthermore: Arm actively encourages their employees to take half a day off every month to do volunteering in their local community or for other projects/initiatives they are passionate about. They recently launched a “One Million Minutes” volunteering initiative in September, where their aim is to record one million minutes of collective volunteering time across the globe by the end of September 2025. So far we have already got 3 quarters of the way there to that target, which just goes to show how much volunteering is done at Arm. It can be anything from volunteering at foodbanks, planting trees, taking care of local parks.
Since I started at Arm, I have been able to volunteer to deliver Uptree work experience days (where a few dozen sixth form students come in to learn more about companies like ours and do workshops to learn more about careers in tech/other industries), which has been a full-circle moment as doing Uptree work experience days at Arm was what originally interested me and actually helped me get into this degree apprenticeship in the first place!
Furthermore, thanks to Arms support with helping fund travel for volunteers from other offices, I have also been able to volunteer with charities like Jangala in London to help build low-end SIM card router prototypes to be shipped to NGOs worldwide to aid with providing robust internet connectivity and traffic shaping. And more recently, I have volunteered at a series of FIRST UK regional robotics tournaments in Cambridge, Liverpool and London, which was very full-circle, as I actually partook in this robotics competition when I was a student. (I even got to volunteer for a tournament which took place in my local school, and watched my old robotics team win the tournament as well..!).
I would also say that Arm is very active and actually fulfills its objectives with the DEI side of things. Some companies pretend to care about DEI and brag about it in the press but do not actually do anything concrete. Arm is the complete opposite - I am on good terms with colleagues from the Employee Community Engagement team, and they work very hard to encourage their employees as much as possible to do DEI activities and/or volunteering in their local communities.
When I first started, our team did a few DEI sessions where a few engineers brought in snacks/foods related to their culture and talked about their background, where they came from and how they got into Arm - those sessions really helped me get to know some of the engineers on my team and it just made for a really cohesive team atmosphere too. Every now and then we also have team building weeks, since not everyone on our team is based in Sheffield, just to make sure that we have at least some in-person interaction even though some people on our team are based in e.g. Austin or San Jose for example.
Furthermore: Arm actively encourages their employees to take half a day off every month to do volunteering in their local community or for other projects/initiatives they are passionate about. They recently launched a “One Million Minutes” volunteering initiative in September, where their aim is to record one million minutes of collective volunteering time across the globe by the end of September 2025. So far we have already got 3 quarters of the way there to that target, which just goes to show how much volunteering is done at Arm. It can be anything from volunteering at foodbanks, planting trees, taking care of local parks.
Since I started at Arm, I have been able to volunteer to deliver Uptree work experience days (where a few dozen sixth form students come in to learn more about companies like ours and do workshops to learn more about careers in tech/other industries), which has been a full-circle moment as doing Uptree work experience days at Arm was what originally interested me and actually helped me get into this degree apprenticeship in the first place!
Furthermore, thanks to Arms support with helping fund travel for volunteers from other offices, I have also been able to volunteer with charities like Jangala in London to help build low-end SIM card router prototypes to be shipped to NGOs worldwide to aid with providing robust internet connectivity and traffic shaping. And more recently, I have volunteered at a series of FIRST UK regional robotics tournaments in Cambridge, Liverpool and London, which was very full-circle, as I actually partook in this robotics competition when I was a student. (I even got to volunteer for a tournament which took place in my local school, and watched my old robotics team win the tournament as well..!).
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
5/5
Before I started I had extensive JavaScript, web development experience and Linux experience, and this gave me a major headstart in my first few weeks, as I had already finished a Jira ticket assigned to me by day 2. However as the months went by, I ended up gaining more experience in specifically developing with Next.js, FastAPI (Python), and I had also learnt how to create and setup Jenkins pipelines (a CI/CD technology that used to be the de-facto standard but in recent years is not as popular as e.g. Github Actions/GitLab CI/CD).
My team mainly work on a shared library used in hardware design, and thus the programming languages used (e.g. Verilog/VHDL/SystemVerilog) require you to think with a totally different paradigm to most standard programming languages. I have been enjoying learning this completely new style of programming, and feeling more of a part of my team as a result.
Through Arm I have also been able to do live interactive instructor-led courses on topics such as Practical Deep Learning (using Python and Jupyter notebook to learn more about the inner workings of machine learning and neural networks) and Developing with Embedded Linux (a deep-dive into the Linux kernel and specific debugging techniques that are helpful when working with embedded systems that use Linux). I have also been able to do various LinkedIn Learning/OReilly/Udemy courses in my own time through Arm.
My team mainly work on a shared library used in hardware design, and thus the programming languages used (e.g. Verilog/VHDL/SystemVerilog) require you to think with a totally different paradigm to most standard programming languages. I have been enjoying learning this completely new style of programming, and feeling more of a part of my team as a result.
Through Arm I have also been able to do live interactive instructor-led courses on topics such as Practical Deep Learning (using Python and Jupyter notebook to learn more about the inner workings of machine learning and neural networks) and Developing with Embedded Linux (a deep-dive into the Linux kernel and specific debugging techniques that are helpful when working with embedded systems that use Linux). I have also been able to do various LinkedIn Learning/OReilly/Udemy courses in my own time through Arm.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
5/5
I would say it is quite well organised/structured from my experience as a software engineering degree apprentice.
From the start, the Early Careers team at Arm go all the way to ensure you start off your apprenticeship on a good footing. Before you start your role, you are offered the choice of either a Windows ThinkPad laptop, an Ubuntu ThinkPad laptop or a MacBook for your work laptop (if you are not offered the choice then ask, if you really want one or the other!!). Then on day 1 you are given your work laptop, you are on boarded onto the IT systems and you are introduced to your fellow apprentices/grads/other new starters, your line manager, your team, who you will be working with etc. The uni course does not start until late September so up until this point, depending on your skill level you are encouraged to do LinkedIn Learning/OReilly courses to learn skills that you need to work on tasks for your team. Most teams and managers are very supportive, if you need to spend the first few weeks or months doing courses before you start working on tasks, they are happy to do that. Once you are ready you will start receiving Jira tickets to work on and at that point you are basically a fully-fledged engineer.
As per uni: you will typically start in late September. For software engineering apprentices, at the moment you will be doing the BSc Digital and Technology Solutions course with BPP. Your first week will basically consist of 3 online Teams calls going over the rough structure of the programme, how to access resources like the library, and whats available from the students association. You will then start your first two modules and have to complete assignments. Thankfully its all coursework-based and since all of your lectures are online it is quite chill. Every semester I have two modules and typically around 4 assignments to complete for each module, with a break halfway through the semester to complete your first 2, and then you complete your second 2 assignments towards the end of the semester.
From the start, the Early Careers team at Arm go all the way to ensure you start off your apprenticeship on a good footing. Before you start your role, you are offered the choice of either a Windows ThinkPad laptop, an Ubuntu ThinkPad laptop or a MacBook for your work laptop (if you are not offered the choice then ask, if you really want one or the other!!). Then on day 1 you are given your work laptop, you are on boarded onto the IT systems and you are introduced to your fellow apprentices/grads/other new starters, your line manager, your team, who you will be working with etc. The uni course does not start until late September so up until this point, depending on your skill level you are encouraged to do LinkedIn Learning/OReilly courses to learn skills that you need to work on tasks for your team. Most teams and managers are very supportive, if you need to spend the first few weeks or months doing courses before you start working on tasks, they are happy to do that. Once you are ready you will start receiving Jira tickets to work on and at that point you are basically a fully-fledged engineer.
As per uni: you will typically start in late September. For software engineering apprentices, at the moment you will be doing the BSc Digital and Technology Solutions course with BPP. Your first week will basically consist of 3 online Teams calls going over the rough structure of the programme, how to access resources like the library, and whats available from the students association. You will then start your first two modules and have to complete assignments. Thankfully its all coursework-based and since all of your lectures are online it is quite chill. Every semester I have two modules and typically around 4 assignments to complete for each module, with a break halfway through the semester to complete your first 2, and then you complete your second 2 assignments towards the end of the semester.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
5/5
Plenty of support. When I started as an apprentice I was assigned a “buddy” (who has been setting me most of my tasks recently), and Arm even sponsors “buddy lunches” to encourage you to get to know each other. Alongside your line manager and buddy you are also assigned a “industrial tutor” - someone who works in a different department and team in Arm to you who you can just have a general 1:1 call and chit-chat with. I have found calls with my industrial tutor to be really helpful, as it is great to get perspective on problems or challenges I am facing at work from someone outside of your team. Personally, I have also found my line manager to be really supportive with all things in and outside of work.
As long as you get your work done and are making visible progress, you are free to do your work in the way that works best for you. Currently Arm engineers are only asked to come into the office 2 days a week, which for those who have to commute in is great. My commute is only a short walk so I often come into the office on all days except my uni day.
At Arm all apprentices are treated like a regular full-time employee (you are not on a fixed-term contract like at some companies!). You are entitled to the same benefits as them, e.g. 25 days annual leave, pension scheme, private health/dental insurance.. you can also partake in the ESPP. (You do not receive RSUs though until you graduate). When you finish your apprentice you are guaranteed to be automatically moved onto the graduate programme and to become a fully-fledged engineer. You also get to take a “sabbatical” after working at Arm for 4 years, so by the end of your apprenticeship you can go on holiday for a month to somewhere of your choosing as a nice bonus!
Furthermore Arm has very comprehensive technical development and training offerings that I would say are far superior to the course I am doing with my university. You can access courses through LinkedIn Learning, OReilly, and even Udemy. There are also regular spots available on live instructor-led week-long courses hosted by Doulos - I did one on Practical Deep Learning and Developing with Embedded Linux, and I found both courses to be very in-depth and interactive, the instructors who run these courses clearly know what they are talking about and often have very good subject experience and knowledge!
As long as you get your work done and are making visible progress, you are free to do your work in the way that works best for you. Currently Arm engineers are only asked to come into the office 2 days a week, which for those who have to commute in is great. My commute is only a short walk so I often come into the office on all days except my uni day.
At Arm all apprentices are treated like a regular full-time employee (you are not on a fixed-term contract like at some companies!). You are entitled to the same benefits as them, e.g. 25 days annual leave, pension scheme, private health/dental insurance.. you can also partake in the ESPP. (You do not receive RSUs though until you graduate). When you finish your apprentice you are guaranteed to be automatically moved onto the graduate programme and to become a fully-fledged engineer. You also get to take a “sabbatical” after working at Arm for 4 years, so by the end of your apprenticeship you can go on holiday for a month to somewhere of your choosing as a nice bonus!
Furthermore Arm has very comprehensive technical development and training offerings that I would say are far superior to the course I am doing with my university. You can access courses through LinkedIn Learning, OReilly, and even Udemy. There are also regular spots available on live instructor-led week-long courses hosted by Doulos - I did one on Practical Deep Learning and Developing with Embedded Linux, and I found both courses to be very in-depth and interactive, the instructors who run these courses clearly know what they are talking about and often have very good subject experience and knowledge!
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
5/5
When I started my course with BPP I was assigned an academic “coach”, essentially your main point of contact for everything to do with receiving support from the university. You will have a “progress review” call scheduled with them every 6 weeks, and your manager is required to attend every other call. They will ask you how you have been finding your modules, and whether you have any feedback about them. Then they will ask you how you have demonstrated “business related skills”, they will then go over “British Values” and other things they are required to go over, and then they will ask you to set some targets between now and the next call. They actively ask if you are facing any barriers in the next few weeks which will prevent you from completing your assignments, and if you ask they are happy to offer you extra time or extensions to assignment deadlines in advance. I have not needed much of their extra support, but it is nice to know it is there if needed. Also, if you have any upcoming absences, there is a specific email at BPP that you can send an email about them to, and they will make note of your absence to lectures so that you are not needlessly chased up about it!
As for lectures: currently I have two lectures every Wednesday, as we currently have two modules per semester that we have to complete assignments for. My experience with the lectures and lecturers have been mixed - some have been great and really do try and break down the module content, but some others have not been as great and have left the whole cohort confused at times. The feedback you get after marking is also not super descriptive and varies depending on what lecturer you have and what module you are doing.
As is the case at most universities, your first year assignment marks do not count towards your final grade, you are just mainly required to pass all of your modules (pass mark is 40% currently). They are quite strict with assignment deadlines and they use a platform called Turnitin to check for plagiarism. You have to also submit a cover sheet with every assignment and make sure you do not exceed the stated word count on the assignment brief, and if you are asked to reference things you have to include references (we have been asked to use a tool called Zotero for this).
As for lectures: currently I have two lectures every Wednesday, as we currently have two modules per semester that we have to complete assignments for. My experience with the lectures and lecturers have been mixed - some have been great and really do try and break down the module content, but some others have not been as great and have left the whole cohort confused at times. The feedback you get after marking is also not super descriptive and varies depending on what lecturer you have and what module you are doing.
As is the case at most universities, your first year assignment marks do not count towards your final grade, you are just mainly required to pass all of your modules (pass mark is 40% currently). They are quite strict with assignment deadlines and they use a platform called Turnitin to check for plagiarism. You have to also submit a cover sheet with every assignment and make sure you do not exceed the stated word count on the assignment brief, and if you are asked to reference things you have to include references (we have been asked to use a tool called Zotero for this).
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
5/5
I am afraid not very much. As another reviewer has alluded to, the course itself does not align very well with my job role, in that the content way be somewhat relevant but will be at a much too basic level. It can provide a very basic level of understanding to a topic, but these topics are often something that I will not interact with day to day. The modules generally are irrelevant to my day to day, and do not go into enough depth to make them potentially useful. Neither side is to blame though, I believe it is just a quirk of what apprenticeship standards were available and chosen to do at the time. For example, there is no data structures module in the DTS course, which I would argue is a key facet of many CS degrees. However at the start of the year we were doing an “IT infrastructure fundamentals” and “Data analytics fundamentals” module, with the ITIF module going over basic infrastructure concepts that I was already familiar with but that I could at least link to my job. However, with the data analytics module, since I work as a software engineer, I found this module completely irrelevant to my day-to-day job, as we were set tasks ranging from performing statistical tests on irrelevant data in Excel to having to create a Power BI dashboard on loosely related gobbledygook. Thankfully my A-level Psychology statistical test knowledge carried me through that module 🙏
Also more recently we have been doing a “software engineering fundamentals” module and a “Career Development” module. The SEF module is more aimed at beginners - and I will give BPP some slack (since the module leader told us they had recently just revamped the module) but there were no tasks that were designed to stretch/challenge those with a more proficient skill level. So on two of the assignments I was able to get 70% just from the assignment brief, even though I was absent from quite a few of the lectures (I had notified BPP of my absences in advance due to annual leave etc). Furthermore the Career Development module we have been doing has unfortunately been quite monotonous - I can understand why they structured the lectures the way they did, but I have not found them to be of much benefit to me. I am doing two new modules next semester so we will see how those pan out. However, after speaking to a few second-year apprentices, I have heard that the workload gets even more monotonous and boring, i.e. you are expected to write 4000 word essays on topics ranging from DevOps to Project Management, which at times requires you to take off lots of time from work to actually get these essays done.
So.. to summarise, I have found that I have learnt way more from working on the job than from my course with BPP at the moment.
Some last few comments about BPP: 1) for some reason our student email is @my.bpp.com (even though they own a .ac.uk domain), 2) we do not get eduroam access (unlike pretty much every other uni student in the UK), 3) we also weirdly do not have SCONUL access for some reason. I have recently raised these comments with higher ups in BPP, but it just goes to show that the BPP experience in some ways is kind of subpar to the experience at other universities.
Furthermore, since our course is fully online, and there is no campus in my city, the opportunity to interact with other apprentices on my course is limited. Thankfully, BPP did resolve this conundrum by organising an apprentice meetup at their main London campus in February this year, which I actually really enjoyed. But to get the “best of both worlds” (i.e. working as a degree apprentice while also getting involved in different activities/societies as a uni student) I have had to resort to joining my local universitys student union as an associate. But it has been a great experience so far, as I have been able to have a go at several activities, like Muay Thai, fencing, archery, and salsa/bachata dancing. (last weekend I went to a NEUAL archery competition in Huddersfield representing the uni).
If you end up doing your course with a fully-online uni but you have a large in-person uni close to where you live, I would highly recommend joining their student union before freshers or refreshers week and getting involved with all of the societies/activities. Sure, it is slightly awkward having to explain that you are not actually a student at the uni but at an online-only uni, but I have already made many good friends this way and hence I do not feel like I am missing out on uni life.
As a part-time uni student I have also been able to get involved in hackathons up and down the UK and worldwide (I have won two so far), and I was also fortunately able to move into private student accommodation, which a) was much cheaper than renting privately and b) has allowed me to get to know other uni students as well.
Also more recently we have been doing a “software engineering fundamentals” module and a “Career Development” module. The SEF module is more aimed at beginners - and I will give BPP some slack (since the module leader told us they had recently just revamped the module) but there were no tasks that were designed to stretch/challenge those with a more proficient skill level. So on two of the assignments I was able to get 70% just from the assignment brief, even though I was absent from quite a few of the lectures (I had notified BPP of my absences in advance due to annual leave etc). Furthermore the Career Development module we have been doing has unfortunately been quite monotonous - I can understand why they structured the lectures the way they did, but I have not found them to be of much benefit to me. I am doing two new modules next semester so we will see how those pan out. However, after speaking to a few second-year apprentices, I have heard that the workload gets even more monotonous and boring, i.e. you are expected to write 4000 word essays on topics ranging from DevOps to Project Management, which at times requires you to take off lots of time from work to actually get these essays done.
So.. to summarise, I have found that I have learnt way more from working on the job than from my course with BPP at the moment.
Some last few comments about BPP: 1) for some reason our student email is @my.bpp.com (even though they own a .ac.uk domain), 2) we do not get eduroam access (unlike pretty much every other uni student in the UK), 3) we also weirdly do not have SCONUL access for some reason. I have recently raised these comments with higher ups in BPP, but it just goes to show that the BPP experience in some ways is kind of subpar to the experience at other universities.
Furthermore, since our course is fully online, and there is no campus in my city, the opportunity to interact with other apprentices on my course is limited. Thankfully, BPP did resolve this conundrum by organising an apprentice meetup at their main London campus in February this year, which I actually really enjoyed. But to get the “best of both worlds” (i.e. working as a degree apprentice while also getting involved in different activities/societies as a uni student) I have had to resort to joining my local universitys student union as an associate. But it has been a great experience so far, as I have been able to have a go at several activities, like Muay Thai, fencing, archery, and salsa/bachata dancing. (last weekend I went to a NEUAL archery competition in Huddersfield representing the uni).
If you end up doing your course with a fully-online uni but you have a large in-person uni close to where you live, I would highly recommend joining their student union before freshers or refreshers week and getting involved with all of the societies/activities. Sure, it is slightly awkward having to explain that you are not actually a student at the uni but at an online-only uni, but I have already made many good friends this way and hence I do not feel like I am missing out on uni life.
As a part-time uni student I have also been able to get involved in hackathons up and down the UK and worldwide (I have won two so far), and I was also fortunately able to move into private student accommodation, which a) was much cheaper than renting privately and b) has allowed me to get to know other uni students as well.
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
5/5
I have recently taken on the responsibility of organising social activities for the early careers engineers based in Sheffield in conjunction with another grad. In the past few months we have done things such as bowling, outdoor go karting, and more to come. There are a lot more social opportunities in the Cambridge office for sure, but we try to make the most of it here up north. We have a couple of board games, a ping pong and pool table, a Nintendo Switch, a PS5, and on the last Thursday of every month we have a “Social Thursday” where quite a few colleagues unwind over a few drinks. There is also a small regular group of engineers who play badminton, and we have a yoga instructor come in once a week as well. Furthermore we also have a personal trainer who comes in every 2 weeks and is happy to help you setup a gym programme or work through any mobility issues you may have. We are also lucky in Sheffield to have an on-site gym just for Arm employees. (Manchester employees have exclusive access to one just down the road, and those in Cambridge of course have their own bespoke massive gym at their gigantic office). If you search hard enough you can definitely find many social opportunities.
(I have heard there is also an active Foosball league in Manchester.. They take it very seriously over there!)
Also, every November we often have a 1-day all-apprentice meetup where all apprentices from all offices across the UK get to go to Cambridge to meet all the other apprentices. Last time around we had a few “workshops” where we were given random programming challenges that we had to do, with free refreshments/snacks provided, and in the evening most of us went to Boom Battle Bar to have an evening meal and then had a go at playing darts (unfortunately none of us were as cracked as Luke Littler)!
(I have heard there is also an active Foosball league in Manchester.. They take it very seriously over there!)
Also, every November we often have a 1-day all-apprentice meetup where all apprentices from all offices across the UK get to go to Cambridge to meet all the other apprentices. Last time around we had a few “workshops” where we were given random programming challenges that we had to do, with free refreshments/snacks provided, and in the evening most of us went to Boom Battle Bar to have an evening meal and then had a go at playing darts (unfortunately none of us were as cracked as Luke Littler)!
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend Arm to a friend?
Yes
Why?
To summarise: 1) a very chill company compared to most other tech companies with great work-life balance. 2) the culture and the people are very friendly, everyone is down-to-earth. and I feel this is reflected very well in their interview process. 3) you are actively encouraged to volunteer outside of work for causes that you are passionate about. 4) there are always things going on, from social activities to MegaDoughnuts (internal Arm conferences about the work that some teams do or about the history of Arm). 5) you get to work on actual tangible real world projects, or at least, internal tools that are used to facilitate the delivery of specific IP. 6) the early careers team are one of the best out there (they recently won best grad employer of the year), they work really hard to make sure all apprentices/grads/interns have the best experience possible.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Arm?
Having been through the whole application processes and helping others navigate it, and from talking with the very colleagues who hired me, my general opinion is that Arm are mainly looking for the following attributes in aspiring apprentices:
1. You have a passion/interest for tech, you have the potential to succeed and you are highly self-motivated. You do not have to be a complete tech whizz who has been coding since you were born - I know apprentices who got in who simply worked on side projects they were passionate about while doing their A-levels and talked about those at the interview.
2. You can work in a team. Most companies will ask you about this in an interview, so make sure you have an example lined up (it might help to use the STAR structure here).
3. You are resilient, but also willing to ask for help if you get stuck and take hints. In the interview they ask you a few problem-solving questions, with the point of them not being to see if you can successfully solve the problem, but more so if you can actually take hints and constructive feedback/nudges even if you originally started with the wrong approach, and if you can even come up with new unconventional insights when solving the problem.
4. You are willing to learn and open to new ideas/technologies/experiences. You can be placed in any team within Arm, so if you can get up to speed then you will become a tremendously valuable engineer to them.
5. You know what Arm is doing and you are passionate about working for the company. Tell them your story of how you came to know about Arm, how you became interested in tech and applying to Arms degree apprenticeship. Like most companies, Arm wants to ideally hire apprentices who will stay for a while, so having an interest and passion for specifically working here is a bonus.
1. You have a passion/interest for tech, you have the potential to succeed and you are highly self-motivated. You do not have to be a complete tech whizz who has been coding since you were born - I know apprentices who got in who simply worked on side projects they were passionate about while doing their A-levels and talked about those at the interview.
2. You can work in a team. Most companies will ask you about this in an interview, so make sure you have an example lined up (it might help to use the STAR structure here).
3. You are resilient, but also willing to ask for help if you get stuck and take hints. In the interview they ask you a few problem-solving questions, with the point of them not being to see if you can successfully solve the problem, but more so if you can actually take hints and constructive feedback/nudges even if you originally started with the wrong approach, and if you can even come up with new unconventional insights when solving the problem.
4. You are willing to learn and open to new ideas/technologies/experiences. You can be placed in any team within Arm, so if you can get up to speed then you will become a tremendously valuable engineer to them.
5. You know what Arm is doing and you are passionate about working for the company. Tell them your story of how you came to know about Arm, how you became interested in tech and applying to Arms degree apprenticeship. Like most companies, Arm wants to ideally hire apprentices who will stay for a while, so having an interest and passion for specifically working here is a bonus.
