Technology Graduate/Software Engineer Review
at TUI UK & Ireland
Degree Apprenticeship
Software Engineering
Luton, Bedfordshire
Review Submitted: April 2024
Overall Rating
4.1 /5
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Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
The main concern with point 1 is that whether or not this lines up with your professional work (in the short term) is a lottery. I was lucky enough that the first term of university aligned very well with the area of the business I was placed, and I believe this worked great to my benefit, however many graduates did not get lucky in this way, and I have experienced what they did during the second term of university.
Especially during that first term (as the grad scheme requires no formal coding training prior to its start) I think aligning the two work loads is extremely important.
Furthermore, the structure supplied by line managers varies greatly, which while it does give flexibility to the graduates, some (including myself) can end up starting on a structure that is not beneficial to them.
All the line managers are (in my understanding) great managers of people and experienced developers, however I am unsure the extent to which they have received training regarding taking on graduates.
This, in turn, created friction for myself and some other graduates as often team member's (and sometimes managers) have a lack of understanding regarding the role of a graduate, and the learning required.
While I really enjoy TUI and this particular graduate scheme, the structure is the largest issue I have had with it. TUI has been receptive and I have managed to create some more structure following these issues that have greatly helped me, but I assign this improvement more to the amazing support at TUI as apposed to the structure of the programme.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
In addition, though my day to day work I have come in contact with an incredible leader and developer that is OUTSIDE of my team, who has acted like a mentor to me, externally from my team. This has been incredibly helpful and helped to shape my experience and enjoyment here. Not to take away from the incredible individual who offered me this support, however it is clear that this is the culture within TUI, that many would take time out of their day to help others, as reflected by other graduates also finding great mentors within the company (external to their team).
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
However, this course provides a very good foundation for future works also. The balance of deep enough knowledge to gain a fundamental understanding vs literally trying to understand every minute detail (like machine code) is very well done at the university.
It is hard, in the time frame I have been here, to fairly evaluate this question based on its direct impact on my current work. As the course is designed to underpin the fundamentals of designing software engineering solutions, which is a much broader scope on the topic than I could possible cover in 6 months of work. Therefore, some of this is a prediction, however I think they do a great job at providing the base to become a effective engineer, and thus will help in my role greatly over the long term.
Additionally, due to time frame, I have only covered 2 of 5 modules (only one to completion) at my course and will be extrapolating based of that information
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend TUI UK & Ireland to a friend?
Why?
I like to always talk about my assessment centre/interview day in regards to this. Compared to many other assessment days, I had the best time during the TUI one due to the positive and optimistic atmosphere. During a "meet and greet" casual session, the way TUI employees(/graduates) spoke about the company was amazing.
I left this day a bit sceptical, as so much praise towards the company seemed like a PR situation where the employees were hand-picked or given specific instruction to sugar coat their experience. I have now realised this was just an honest reflection on the atmosphere at the company, with a large focus on employee experience and work life balance.
Whenever a friend/loved one (who I know to be good at what they do) discusses work-based sadness or work "horror stories" I always have a look at the TUI careers to see if there is anything right for them. I do not remember the exact figure, however there is a reason the average employee length here is over 10 years.