The technology sector is growing 3 times faster than the rest of the UK economy so we want to give you an insight into the people and companies which make up this thriving industry through a series of case study interviews.
This week we meet Joseph Musgrave, a Software Engineer at Capgemini, a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing services
Hi Joseph, how long have you been working as a Software Engineer and what were you doing beforehand?
I have been with the company for over 3 years now although it doesn’t feel that long! I joined straight after I had sat my exams in Durham Sixth Form. This is my first full time job but while at sixth form I had a part time job at Adidas for 2 years and also did a lot of work for my dad’s finance company Dealer Net Finance Ltd. These two jobs really gave my confidence a boost as I was talking and dealing with customers all of the time from the age of 16, although my granddad would like to think it came before that when helping him sell fresh eggs and Veg from his farm to the local villages for £20 a day.
What made you choose a career at Capgemini?
I took IT as a subject not only because I enjoyed it but I knew how much the industry was growing and when looking for jobs/careers there were tons of different roles to get into. Capgemini really stood out for me as they are a huge substantial company and the pay, benefits and most importantly the opportunities I would be offered was almost too good to believe. Now in the job I am paid a competitive salary, completed my level 4 diploma and I have now been doing my degree in Business Systems Information Management for over 1 year now, this was all promised and paid for by the company as well as working full time on different projects!
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Every young lads dream is to be a footballer but sadly for 99.9% of us reality kicks in at around age 14 and you realise you’re not going to be bagging Hat-ricks for England but instead hoping to score a last minute tap in for a free pint token on a Sunday. I still play for fun on a weekend and I absolutely love it!
What do you like about working at Capgemini?
I could honestly name a book full as I am so delighted with the position I find myself in but I’ll keep this down to my top 2. Community and networking, I started with 95 other apprentices we had 12 weeks training in Telford and I have made many friends for life we all split off into different roles after that and we now help each other through any work problems and also our tasks at Uni. You meet new people through new projects and find the majority are exactly the same positive, helpful and enthusiastic. The second would be there are so many different roles and opportunities. As a degree apprentice I tend to change roles every 9-12 months to have a feel for different roles and find out what I like and what I’m best at. There are hundreds of roles to choose from its almost impossible not to find something you like, the company are very understanding when it comes to assigning people to new roles they want to know peoples interests, location preferences and career aspirations before sending them into new roles. Personally I find this keeps my mind fresh and motivation high, it’s like having that new job feeling every year.
What’s your typical day like in Capgemini?
At the minute I am an application analyst I get in at around 7:30 as I like to work the early shift I check all the servers we manage are up and running put statistics into a dashboard and send it to the client to show them how our work is looking. We have a daily team meeting at 9:45 to find out what everyone is doing for the day and if anyone needs any help with their task. Then we all get cracking for the day and shout if we need any further help. At the minute I use Unix and SQL to try and make service improvements to ensure things are running as quickly and efficiently as possible. In my lunch times I tend to go to the gym on site which is provided by the company for a small membership fee, they also do boot camp classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays I feel this is good to take my mind off work for a little bit and come back refreshed.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of following in your footsteps?
IT is a huge and rapidly growing industry if you’re interested in IT but not sure exactly what part you want to work in or maybe you like to try different things and pick up so many great transferrable skills like myself then a career in Capgemini would certainly be the one for you.
Want to join Capgemini?
Keep an eye on our current openings here – https://www.uk.capgemini.com/careers. Feel free to ask a question on Twitter including the #CapgeminiNE hashtag.
To see more real-life tech industry job profiles and the skills needed to do them, plus current vacancies and training opportunities, sign up for a free Career Hacker profile at https://careerhacker.uk
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