After choosing the wrong course at university and dropping out half way through my 1st year, I decided to go straight into employment. I thought applying for Apprenticeships would be easier than applying for regular jobs which required previous experience. Additionally, I chose IT because I have an interest in computing and technology. Also, I am more tech savvy than my family and friends, so it’d be nice to learn how to troubleshoot IT issues to help them out.
I applied for an IT Support Technician role, because I felt I already knew how to troubleshoot basic IT issues. I wanted to learn how to troubleshoot more advanced issues because sometimes it feels like puzzle solving and I get real satisfaction when I manage to resolve a user’s IT problem.
I first applied via a www.thebigchoice.com Firebrand Training mailer (signed up to thebigchoice.com’s mailing list via Skill London 2014 exhibit at the Excel center). I sent them my CV, to which they responded extremely fast and booked me in for an interview in no time. This has got to be the fastest recruitment process I have experienced for apprenticeships (or any job for that matter). I landed the job with Firebrand first because I applied for an apprenticeship with them and was lucky enough to have become their very own apprentice. I have been working for Firebrand for nearly 3 years now.
I have many interests in IT (including ethical hacking, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc.), though topics that stand out from the rest to me would be the development of mobile apps and the Internet of Things. I would like to explore these fields later in the future. However, I feel I still need to build on my IT foundation knowledge (the building bricks of IT if you’d like).
Knowing that with apprenticeships, I can get the best of both worlds – experience and knowledge, learning has taught me to use my own initiative to figure things out on my own, because I’ve learnt that it’s okay to embarrass yourself, fail and make mistakes. This is a good thing because it teaches me to think for myself rather than being spoon-fed by my mentor.
My mentor and team are really supportive and have provided tech sessions to boost my knowledge and understanding of our systems. Firebrand would then send me off to training courses where I gain knowledge as well as reassure what I’ve already learnt at Firebrand.