Application Developer Review

Item: Application Developer at IBM
Rating: 4
Author: Anonymous

at IBM

Degree Apprenticeship

Computer Science

London

Review Submitted: March 2025

Overall Rating

4 /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!

4.5/5 - Overview of Role

4/5 - Skills Development

3.6/5 - Structure and Support

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:

4/5

My day-to-day role as an application developer involves morning standups to double check what people have been up to the day before and how different tickets are progressing. which then keeps everyone aligned moving forward. Then I work on development of some tickets be that different pages or sections of the app I am working on or creating the api's to connect the system to the database. I often have meetings with other developers and people on the team to check things over, confirm and peer review. Once a week, sometimes biweekly, there is a demo to show the client the progress so far and check if they are happy with how certain elements look.

To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

5/5

I am really enjoying my program; I have been able to diversify and have various different things to do within my work. Outside of normal day to day.

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

4/5

I have learnt various new skills, some regarding how these software projects work in the real-world outside of the theory and initial concept of how they should, my development skills of debugging and tracing through problems has majorly improved to allow me to track down bugs or things that are not quite right.
I have also developed my people skills for interacting with clients and other senior employees while helping organise socials and get to meet new people.

Structure and Support

How well organised/structured is your programme?

3/5

My programme is pretty well structured, with the course being fully outlined from the beginning and modules progressing and linking together. The day-to-day work was well structured once I was placed in a role, but when I first joined, it was a little messy for the initial placement into a role. And for some, when a certain project / role has ended it has been again a bit messy to get onto another one.

How much support do you receive from your employer?

5/5

There is lots of support from my employer for all aspects; my manager and other colleagues I work with are very accommodating and happy to help. If I ask any of them for help with a certain thing, they will be generous enough to set aside time to help me through the task or problem.

How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?

3/5

I feel like there is an okay level of support from my training provider when working towards my qualification, but it could be better. Some of it is just about asking for help. But it's just a bit harder,r I think because of the nature of its setup, with the training provider course being primarily online.

How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?

3/5

I feel like my qualification does help me to a certain level to perform better, some of that being where the module content has been overlapping with things in my day-to-day work, and I have been able to then understand my day job better from that. Such as database work or project management. But for some aspects, it has been a bit more blurred as to how it will help me, with some of the work-related tasks feeling somewhat unrealistic.

Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)

4/5

There is quite a large mixture of extracurricular activities to get involved in at IBM. Recently, I organised for people from my team to go to a nearby pub quiz night, and we won. :)
Various societies and groups have events most weeks in some shape or form. All about getting involved and meeting some new people, while some help practise/develop new skills.

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend IBM to a friend?

Yes

Why?

It has been a great way for me to get involved and get stuck into the industry and see how lots of aspects of society work behind the scenes. With IBM having lots of clients for goods or services that people use in the UK on a day to day basis. It has also been a great way for me to get industry experience while earning a salary and qualification.