Here we are, employed and ready to train. Writing a blog so that if everything goes as well as hoped, two more trainees will get to read these ramblings either as inspiration or maybe I will look back in a few months and end up deciding I was hopeless and wonder how I got anywhere.
This will be my introductory blog post describing my experiences of the first week of training. I’m Joe, one of the new trainees at Antelle. I have just finished sixth form where I studied Maths, Geography and Business Studies, and I am now beginning on the journey of becoming a Software Developer.
Like most plans - very few survive being put into action. Whilst the beginning and end points hopefully remain intact the bits in the middle are usually up for grabs the moment a project starts. The plan with our trainees is I'm pretty sure going to be the same, a moving feast of figuring out what works and what doesn't but we do have a couple of goals we are aiming for.
We've just attained our Microsoft Silver Partner competency for Application Development. Have we magically become better at what we do - not at all. It is nice though to have the formal recognition and the benefits are awesome. We also get some shiny new logos to use.
The short answer is: necessity. The longer answer though needs some explanation of the local job market on the Isle of Man.
The Isle of Man has a very, very low level of unemployment. Honestly look at the graphic below. We have a mere left arm of people actively looking for work!
So every blog starts with a first post, the programming equivalent of "Hello World" I guess. We’re going to use this blog to post occasional thoughts and musings on software, trending web tech, CRM and general techie stuff. The key focus though is on something else entirely.