Apprentice Software Engineer Review
at Arm
Degree Apprenticeship
Software Engineering
Cambridge
Review Submitted: April 2025
Overall Rating
3.4 /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
-
Overview of Role
4/5
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Skills Development
2.6/5
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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
Apprentice Software Engineer - I write code for testing pipelines that we use to test if workloads representative of real use-cases are functional and optimal on Arm based platforms. I create tooling for out team and other teams internally to develop the Arm ecosystem. I work mainly with Python, but there is work to be done in many languages, so there is scope to learn something new while also helping with the team's project.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
4/5
I enjoy working at Arm a lot. The work I do does feel as if it is appreciated, and so motivates me to keep improving my work. The only negative is the timing of my lectures, which happen on a Wednesday, meaning I have to take a day out of work in the middle of the week to study which I personally find quite disruptive.
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
4/5
I have improved my programming skills in most ways since I started at Arm, as a result of the practical nature of the Apprenticeship. There are so many things that you wouldn't be able to have a comprehensive understanding of by just consuming information in a lecture, which is why my skills have developed so much since starting at Arm. I feel I have a much more comprehensive understanding of best coding practices, efficient testing and effectively working in a team.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
2/5
The organisation of the training provider is quite chaotic at times. Especially with all of the "off-the-job tracking" (which are actually on-the-job trackers, confusingly) documents that they require us to fill out - they were not well explained at all and it took me a couple months of coach meetings to actually determine what we needed to track in these documents. Other than that the organisation is okay.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
4/5
I receive a lot of support from Arm. We have several different contacts when we need help/support with different aspects of the programme (Line manager for professional/development help, team members for technical assistance, apprentice manager for course feedback etc. ). Working hours are very flexible which is useful when you have summatives/deadlines coming up. Also, many course related things can be expensed through Arm, including training sessions, memberships, and travel/accomodation for networking events.
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
2/5
I think we receive a decent amount of support from the training provider but I don't think that a lot of my feedback has been considered by the company. I often give feedback in my coach reviews but I complain about the same problems multiple times, with seemingly no changes being made.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
1/5
The content covered in our lectures is easy A) not relevant to my role at work in any way or B) relevant but so basic that I am unable to take anything away from it. We did a "software engineering fundamentals" module but it didn't go past a Year 12 level of depth, and the summatives were not at all representative of our ability to code, as we received feedback that directly contradicted the best practices they taught us in the lectures.
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 are lots of extra-curricular activities to get involved in. I am not able to join them consistently as I am not very local to the office but I do often attend various social events. There is an early careers social team that arrange events specifically for apprentices, interns and graduates which is a great opportunity to meet other early career people that you wouldn't necessarily meet through normal work.
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend Arm to a friend?
Yes
Why?
I can't really fault Arm, they have a great early careers team that offer lots of support, and a great rotation system that will help to teach you a wide range of skills before becoming a graduate engineer. The only negative I can say is that the course provider's content does not align with the role in most cases, but this is not a major issue as it is only one day of your working week.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Arm?
Understand the company - Arm operate very differently to other tech/semiconductor companies so it will be very useful to understand the business/strategy before the apprenticeship, not only to impress the interviewer, but also to get a head start as a new joiner.
