Between cloud logins and code reviews: My day-to-day life as an IT Trainee at FirstAttribute
FirstAttribute is an IAM expert and a committed employer. We asked our IT Trainee, Elias, if he’d like to share some insights into his experiences with us. Here is his report:
Hello, my name is Elias, and I’m completing an apprenticeship as an IT specialist for application development at FirstAttribute. In today’s post, I want to talk about my day-to-day life and my experiences as a first-year apprentice. I’ll also discuss the work environment with my colleagues and how we get along.
Index
My day-to-day life
My daily routine at FirstAttribute consists of daily meetings, programming applications, and having lunch together. During work hours, I’m in an office shared with up to three of my colleagues. I have my own workstation with a company laptop, a second monitor, a height-adjustable desk and an ergonomic chair.
At first, I thought I’d never be able to sit in a chair all day and stare at a screen. But I have to admit that my workspace is so incredibly comfortable that I could really sink into the chair. The second monitor is a huge help when I want to work on multiple tasks at once, and thanks to the desk, I can even work standing up sometimes.
Tasks & projects
Our daily meetings are dailies or reviews, where we briefly discuss our progress on tasks or within the company. However, I also participate in meetings for various projects. These include in-house and client projects that I have the opportunity to work on.
I have to say that the meetings have always been super interesting and educational for me. This allowed me to integrate into the company very quickly and hit the ground running.
But by far, what I enjoy most is programming. Programming has always been super interesting to me, and I feel I’ve improved a lot since I’ve been here. In addition to individual programming tasks and my source code for client projects, I also have a little leeway. I personally find that important because it allows me to learn something new and improve at my own pace.
Since I started my apprenticeship, I’ve made significant progress in the programming languages Python, JavaScript/TS/TSX, HTML, CSS, and PowerShell. The company projects I’m working on include various web apps and PowerShell scripts. My own personal projects have often involved websites or AI programs.
Tools that I use
Given all these different programming languages and tasks, I use a variety of software. Of course, it’s all a matter of personal preference whether you use A or B, because in the end, the result is always C. However, I can only highly recommend the following programs.
Well, there are many different IDEs for programming. The choice really depends on what you want to do. But if you’re unsure where to start, or if you’re proficient in many different programming languages, there’s clearly only one solution. Visual Studio Code offers all the tools you could need, presented in a clean, organized way with a beautiful design. In VS Code, you can write in any programming language and customize everything thanks to the open-source IDE. So for every Python, website, PowerShell, or Java project, I use VS Code.
AI is also a super exciting topic. However, I’ve mostly focused on local AI and played around with it a bit. Personally, I use Ollama for my AI projects. Ollama comes with various models you can try out. When I want to experiment with customized models, I always go to HuggingFace, where I can easily get fine-tuned models from the community.
My responsibilities include not only AI and programming, but also other tasks involving important tools that are used across industries. At my company, we use Office programs by default for everything from simple documents to spreadsheets and presentations. For communication and calendar scheduling, we use MS Teams or Outlook.
Colleagues & company
Personally, I’m really happy with my apprenticeship here. It’s a lot of fun, there’s always something new to do, the tasks are varied, and it never gets boring. But what do I think of my mentors?
Here’s what my mentors are like
I have two mentors and therefore two direct points of contact. They’re real experts in Identity & Access Management and know the field inside and out, which helps me a lot with my tasks. The best part is that both are always on-site. This means that as soon as I need help or have questions, I can turn directly to one of them. If one of them isn’t on-site, I can always reach them via MS Teams.
For me personally, it’s very important not only to have a direct point of contact, but also someone who takes the time to help and support me without rushing. And that’s exactly the case here.
Colleagues & atmosphere
The work environment here is really great, because FirstAttribute emphasizes a flat hierarchy and true teamwork. Everyone knows everyone else, and you can talk to anyone about anything. That’s why I feel so at home here.
In addition, we always sit down together at the dining table at lunchtime and enjoy lunch together. Someone always leads a conversation that everyone can join in on. I love going outside after lunch and ending the rest of my lunch break with a nice walk.
We also often have workshops where we learn new things, but also spend a lot of time together and go out to eat. For example, last year and this year we visited Dresden, where we have another office. There, I was finally able to meet another part of the team in person.
Summary
I hope I’ve been able to give you a good insight into the IT Specialist for Application Development training program at FirstAttribute. For me, FirstAttribute is the ideal place because not only do I get to be at the cutting edge of technology here, but the team spirit is great, and a pleasant work environment is important to me.
If you’d like to learn more about our team or our projects, you can find all the details at our website.
Otherwise, I wish you all a wonderful day.
About FirstAttribute AG
FirstAttribute AG is an independent German cloud services and software company specializing in Identity & Access Management (IAM).
You can find out everything you need to know about our cloud services and software solutions here. Contact us if you want to bring your identity and access management up to date and are looking for a comprehensive IAM solution in a hybrid IT environment.
