A huge congratulations are in order for Rumen, our first ever graduate to complete our Backend PHP Developer grad-scheme!
AYKO are proud to offer a full 6-month internal graduate scheme, which is designed purely to build up the necessary skills, experience and knowledge to get a budding graduate’s foot firmly on the career ladder, not to mention the amount of confidence they will gain. The programme enables all graduates to develop an excellent base of technical knowledge and professional experience needed through an enriching mix of theory, technical and presentation skills.
Rumen joined AYKO in August 2021 after completing his Computer Science degree at Cardiff University, including a year in industry. Read on to find out more about his experience on the programme.
Was the course structured in a way that helped you to learn what can be some pretty complicated subjects?
The course was structured in a really good way. It was built in a way that the deeper in the course I got, the more contextual information I had from previous parts of the course, so it was easier to gain new knowledge when I have old knowledge to back it up.
Some subjects that would’ve been challenging if I was picking them up in isolation, turned out to be fairly straightforward as I had already gained a foundation of contextual information.
Is learning Magento within an Agency setting something that you enjoyed?
I have definitely enjoyed the learning process, not only for Magento but for the whole company, all the moving parts. Learning Magento within an agency which has great, professional developers that are always open to supporting you to understand things or train you on aspects which are new to you is amazing.
Senior colleagues showing me solutions to actual issues that AYKO currently work on, in real time and the necessary approach to the Magento issues that AYKO have, was an integral part in my learning process
Do you feel better prepared for Magento development now?
I feel a lot better about my skills as a Magento developer, covering a large amount of different tasks. I’m confident that I will be able to solve a big proportion of the issues I meet in the future just from the course itself.
How did the course differ from your expectations before you started?
Initially, I was a little sceptical about the course and it’s content (for example, how it’ll be presented), but after starting it and working through it, I can without a doubt say that the course was 100% worth it. It covers a large amount of different topics which improved my coding skills, but also developed my soft skills which is an integral part of the development.
Did you feel supported throughout the course and how did people support you?
I felt greatly supported throughout the whole course, every time I needed clarification or to ask a simple question, I always had people on hand to help. My seniors were either jumping on calls with me to explain, or asking me specific questions around my issue so I can understand and find the solution by myself but with their guidance.
Do you feel like you can now achieve your ambitions with AYKO now that you will have your short, medium and long term goals within the team and company?
Initially, as a graduate, the only worry that I had was for the short term goals, if I’m going to be able to do the tasks they give me, but after completing the graduate course, I’m confident that I’ll be fine in short term and hopefully work towards medium and long term goals within the company while providing quality solutions and communication.