Graduate Software Engineer Review

My time here has been better than I expected, and thanks to the culture it really feels like the kind of place that you could stay at for decades or more - and people do. Despite that, most of what I'm doing is transferrable and the name is big on your CV, so, even if you hate it, you can leave after a couple years and work in an AI startup or something. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised, though.
Apply! See what happens!

Main responsibilities are like any other software engineering role: work on tasks (bugs, features), review code, understand complex systems, have fun, deliver value for shareholders etc. We use JIRA, Slack, and a bunch of code forges like GitLab and Gerrit. It depends on your 'group', though. Sometimes the code you write is open source - depends on the team. Arm uses lots of languages: lots of C and C++, some assembly, Rust is a growing force, and I hear the ML people write loads of Python.
You count as a graduate for 2 years but can get promoted sooner than that. My role in GPU Software didn't involve any rotations, but most (all?) other groups have a few rotations for their graduates. I think GPU is bringing in rotations for new grads in 2026.
My favourite part is how everyone at Arm is geeky, but nobody is super shy as one might expect. You'll find that you have something in common with pretty much everyone. Also, the history of the company and the people who work here are inspiring - just in the room next to me is the guy who wrote and maintains the PuTTY SSH client for Windows!

If I disappeared tomorrow it probably won't impact my team's output that significantly. But long term it certainly would. Despite doing it for a year now I'm still not that great, but I'm certainly better than I was. And that's what's expected - they /know/ the work is hard, and they know that my value is long-term as a new team member, not as someone who can do things off the bat (the work is niche enough that this person does not exist). Yet when I do finish tasks, it's very rewarding and it's nice to have people coming to me with questions about it. The team has been very clear that they have a high opinion of me, which is great.

My starting salary was an amount similar to what some of my friends might earn towards the ends of their careers. I wouldn't worry too much. Long term it goes up a lot. Cambridge is expensive, but nowhere near London: rent is maybe £800pm depending on your preferences. You can cycle everywhere, which is free, and there is a cycle to work scheme so you can pay for a bike through payroll (less tax). You can buy up to 5 days holiday totalling 35 days a year. The entire company has a free day off once a quarter. That's almost 40 days a year on leave!

Depends on what that future career is!
What you do is highly likely to be more niche than at most software companies. Most of Arm is not building a client-server application. In my role the transferrable hard skills are C++, C, debugging, Linux command line, setting up operating systems, Vulkan. Of course there are the organisational skills you will gain at any large-ish company e.g. how to be a good Scrum master, how to be okay with being stuck on a task for months at a time, etc.
That said, it's niche, which means not many people are good at this stuff, so if I did want to jump ship I imagine I could find something well-paid in the niche. Working in GPU has made me more seriously interested in doing game engine development or technical art and I think it's definitely preparing me well for that, if I made that decision. But I doubt I would be able to jump from this to web development. One can always move around within Arm, even to other countries, and the roles are quite varied.

I've had strong support from my manager. I have a mental illness / disability and during an episode of that he was very supportive and it helped me worry less and recover quicker. He has been very clear about how Arm views us as delivering long term value. I haven't interacted with the informal GPU mentor system yet but I keep meaning to. I've heard good things. My buddy was the newest person to join my team before me, and she gave me some great advice. We didn't become friends or talk that regularly after that though.

Good, I work 9-5 or sometimes 10-6 and it's not a problem. Lunch is an hour. I can show up to and leave work whenever. If I have an appointment for something during the day I don't need to tell anyone. When unwell my manager errs on the side of having me take time off, because it's better to have an extra day off to recover than to force you to work at 50% capacity and recover slower. One day I accidentally spent most of an afternoon playing Smash Bros with a colleague and it wasn't a problem!

The culture here is excellent (at least, compared to what my friends at other tech companies have said about theirs). Everyone is very friendly, and I haven't come across any interpersonal drama (yet??). The most drama we had was when IT were going to get rid of Zoom in favour of Teams and loads of people complained that Teams doesn't work well on Linux, so they stopped the change. That says a lot about the type of people here :)
The Cambridge office is great! It's a number of buildings on its own campus, and there are subsidised canteens. Since it's Cambridge lots of people cycle to work. There is an onsite gym with free(!) personal trainers and classes. We have lots of things to do when on a break such as games consoles, board games, shuffleboard, table football.
One thing I've been surprised by is how interesting it is to work with non-software people. A good proportion of Arm are hardware engineers, and it's been cool to learn from them, especially as someone who was terrible at the electronics in GCSE Physics. I can kind-of explain what a semiconductor is now..
There are informal social clubs such as board games, sports like basketball, and many others that people run.
It's hybrid - I'm required in the office 20% of the days in any given month. Generally I try to do 3 days a week, and people sync up so that they are in for important meetings (e.g. my team is all in on Thursdays).

I'm biased as both a White British straight cis man and a member of the Cambridge Graduate Committee, but it's very strong. Everyone seems comfortable with anyone LGBT+ and it seems very welcoming to me. There are many groups, such as Asians @ Arm, NeurodiversiTEA, that you can join. I have a severe mental illness and its been helpful being able to speak in confidence to others at work about it to work out what - if anything - I should do.

Yes

Cool city, cool company, cool office, cool people, and I'm learning a ton.