Software Developer Review

My role is to build software for internal operations in the business. I also work closely with the CAD team. We mainly use Outsystems to build software which is a low code environment, I also work with languages such as C# and JavaScript to build .NET and web applications. I also work with managing CAD technicians' accounts.

It is very well structured, we were give a clear timetable throughout as well as the objectives achieved, the training provider (Firebrand) was excellent in providing this. An area of concern, however, was again with the projects the business was giving me (a couple of other apprentices raised this concern as well), the curriculum was very code-based and focused on areas such as data structures, if-else, OOP, etc. but the primary software development platform used at Bentley is OutSystems, and it would have been almost impossible directly to achieve this criteria if I was using only OutSystems alone. Which was not ideal considering Bentley use it primarily.

I had two managers, a sort of (soft) manager and a direct manager. The former would handle things in relation to my apprenticeship and topics such as personal support and building networks etc. and the latter would simply be my direct manager that I would report to and update on status of work. I received a lot of support from my first manager; my direct manager, maybe not so much so (I can understand because he was extremely busy). With regard to the overall business, we built networks with other apprentices and arranged regular events and meetups (which was great as this was during the COVID-19 pandemic and many were beginning to feel isolated).

Received excellent support from the training provider, in my opinion we were almost "spoilt"! We received expensive education material that was given to us for free, the lecturers were very knowledgeable, friendly and accommodating. Some of the courses were a bit long, like 8:30am-9pm which perhaps could've been averted by splitting over multiple days, but nonetheless, Firebrand provided excellent support.

I think that it has given me a better understanding of software development methodologies, agile ways of working, better knowledge of languages such as Java and C#, OOP principles, data structures as well as testing. I also think the skills learnt from working with others give me more of an insight into the tasks I will face in this industry,

Yes

Was a very difficult question to answer! Bentley is undoubtedly a great company that will support you, is inclusive and listens to the opinions of its employees. I am just disappointed, however (from a software developer's perspective), with the lack of practical experience I got with using tools and languages that are widely used across the industry.
The entirety of Bentley I.T. builds its applications using OutSystems (or sometimes PowerApps), and this allows those who may not be as experienced in software development to build applications quickly -- which is great -- but as of currently (time of writing this review), OutSystems is not in high demand, and skills that are learnt from using it are not transferrable to other companies. The job description for when I applied for this apprenticeship, mentioned prior experience in programming (which I do have), but this experience really wasn't required as all software development is done in no-code. I was quite disappointed because myself and other apprentices came out of bootcamps and universities with the hope that they would be able to better their coding skills by gaining experience or working with senior developers, but that just hasn't been the case -- in fact, no one else in my team actively codes. A lot of the other apprentices raised concerns in their ability to achieve the apprenticeship criteria because of this.