Andrew Misselbrook blogs about dropping out of uni for a QA Apprenticeship.
When you tell people you left university you receive the same kind of questions, like – ‘Are you crazy?’ and ‘What about your future?’ For me it was ultra-simple. University was a great place, I studied computer science for a year at the University of Liverpool but felt that there was no opportunity to really 'show what you’re made of’. Suddenly getting a piece of a paper with a grade on just wasn’t doing it for me.
I started getting involved with a couple of outside university projects, designing websites for the likes of Southampton RA and WFLMOA. This allowed me to play with some new technologies and get some real life experience. It made me realise that I wanted some real hands on experience, a chance to 'show what I was made of’.
This is when it all changed, when I received that email from QA back in April looking for some Java developers. To ensure that it’s what I wanted to do I pondered over this email for a good day, but it shortly became clear where my career was heading. Within a month I was on an introductory training course, mixing with like-minded individuals of the likes I still stay in contact with today! I was finally part of a global company ‘CGI’, I was welcomed with handshakes and as much tea/hot chocolate as I could drink. My life suddenly went from attending a lecture a day to wanting to spend as much time as I could writing some scripts that would really make a difference to the outside world. You certainly can’t get job satisfaction like that everywhere! Even as I’m writing this now I’m now part of one of CGI’s key development roles.
I think for me the main attraction of a QA Apprenticeship was the idea of being able to make a real difference within a company, rather than being treated like a number when I was a student. Being put into a job with CGI allowed me to start to put together some real links and gain some rather important contacts and also, to be honest, it was kind of nice to know that I would be paid each month, as opposed to trying to balance a life with a student loan.
The initial process of getting everything sorted isn’t too complicated either, after filling out a form to say that I wanted to apply for this role I was contacted within an hour. I felt the whole experience extremely warming and I would highly recommend considering it. Even if you’re not completely confident with your abilities, QA will give you the training to succeed within your work. I’ve certainly learnt a thing or two from some highly trained individuals that QA use to train you.
I would like to finish this blog by just thanking QA Apprenticeships for their efforts, as without them I wouldn’t be pushing my limits and reaching my potential.
