Meet our Academy Consultants – Ashis Budha Magar

One element of the Ten10 Academy we take great pride in is the support given to our new Academy Consultants. When starting a brand new career in an exciting field, having a wealth of training and guidance is essential to ensuring new consultants get off on the right foot and grow from strength to strength.

Ashis Budha Magar is just one of our consultants who has felt the benefits of our award-winning graduate support. He joined a client in the Legal sector at the same time as a handful of his Academy colleagues, and has reaped the rewards of working in an environment that encourages continuous learning, and leaned on the Academy Wellbeing team when needed. Hear first-hand from Ashis about starting his first client projects, working as an RPA Developer.

What were you doing before the Academy?

Before joining Ten10, I was studying Architecture at the University of Kent. Obviously, from that perspective, it’s quite a big jump to go into the tech industry, but I enjoyed the creative problem-solving aspect of the degree, and I think that lent itself to the training that Ten10 provided, so blending into the Ten10 Academy was quite easy.

How do you feel you’ve transitioned from the Ten10 Academy to your client work?

I completed my core training followed by additional Development training and Database training. Of course, this training was quite important for me, but my client and my team on my client also helped quite a lot. There was a lot of support and they knew the level of entry I was starting from, so they provided lots of courses and training. The team itself was very supportive because some of them are also from the Academy so they know what steps were necessary for me to progress in this field.

Take us through your placement – what client teams have you worked with and what specific projects have you been responsible for during your placement?

I work as an RPA Developer, which stands for Robotic Process Automation. RPA is the automation of any repetitive task that employees may have. That could range from the onboarding and off-boarding of employees to monthly payslips. I’m working with my senior developers, currently shadowing projects. They are essentially helping me to, one day, lead my own project. Some of the tools they’re currently teaching me range from UiPath to PowerShell, Git Commands, Azure DevOps and Orchestrator. So quite a varied toolset – they’re new but very interesting to me.

Currently, we work very closely with our clients: lawyers. We have to maintain the RPA processes as well, not just releasing them. So if any issues or bugs arise, we keep in close contact with them on Microsoft Teams. Through that, we tend to quickly solve problems before they reach us through support tickets. I think that streamlines the bug fixes a lot quicker.

What parts of the Ten10 Academy training have been most useful in your placement?

The core training itself was quite a general umbrella. It definitely showed quite varied topics from Agile to Java coding. The skills that I think I use on a daily basis mainly come from the Development training led by Peter, an incredibly knowledgeable man and very passionate about teaching coding. Some of the stuff he taught that I use on a daily basis has to be the Git Commands. Used essentially for GitHub, using the local repository, especially as a developer working from home. You have to be able to work in a way that you don’t put your other team in [danger] and jeopardise the progress. So you have to make sure the Git command that you using is aligned with what you are planning to do.

What is a normal working day or week for you?

The first thing I do is check both my emails and my Microsoft Teams for any UiPath support that may be necessary. If any bugs or bug fixes arise. We have a rota that the five developers that we have cycle through and act as a supporting member for any bug fix that arises. But obviously, if some team member is busy with a certain task, the other team members don’t hesitate to take up that role.

Afterwards, we have a morning meeting. We say what we did the day before, what we’re planning to do today, and if there are any blockers that we need to fix in the future. After the stand-up, I check through my DevOps tickets and go through my RPA tickets as necessary. If there are any problems that I have with certain tickets, I can just ask my teammates in Microsoft Teams. Again, my teammates have been very supportive. The whole team itself – they don’t hesitate to help or go on multiple calls because some tickets are quite problematic but it always feels amazing when you complete it.

Has your role and/or responsibilities changed during your time on placement?

The role not so much, but responsibility? Definitely. The first month or two was simply learning the client-specific tools and the standards that they want to use because some companies are based on some Windows-legacy systems so they tend to have specific ways of doing things, and methodologies and processes. So the first two months were simply learning those processes, it was initially just shadowing the other Senior Developers, and they showed me the standards of how to go about solving each ticket. Nowadays, I’m starting to be given a bit more free rein as opposed to just simply shadowing.

How has your client supported your development?

My client handed me plenty of resources on RPA-based courses. The first month itself was a handover process, so over that process, they kept daily contact with me to make sure that I was going through the handover not only swiftly, but they made sure that if I didn’t understand some processes, to tell them and they were very supportive on that aspect. Other than that, I think the team itself from the client side has also been very open to asking them for help if there’s any problem arose, ranging from just setting up the laptop to installation of apps through all tickets that I was initially given.

What support have you received from Ten10 during your placement?

The Wellbeing team – I don’t think they get praised enough, but they always keep in contact. Stewart, Sophie, Megan and Ish, the Operations Manager, have been super supportive. They go beyond just the Academy wellbeing. They set up regular events and provide links to any necessary mental health awareness problems that you may have, especially because it’s work from home and you may feel isolated in some roles. They also help me practice my interview so I think they don’t get praised enough. Well done to them.

What would you say to someone considering joining the Ten10 Tech Academy?

I think if you have even a slight bit of interest in tech as an industry that you want to pursue, Ten10’s a great opportunity that you can make use of simply by joining the Academy. I joined with an architecture degree, completely different to a tech degree. My friends in the Academy also didn’t join with the tech degree, but the training they cover provided so much that you simply had the understanding. They also provide you with so many resources such as the Knowledge Base. So definitely make use of those. I think the resources that Ten10 provides are second to none. I also know some people with a tech background who may struggle to land that first foot in the industry. It is quite a struggle, from hearing those experiences, but Ten10 obviously has quite the connection with various clients. So I think if you have even a slight bit of interest, consider looking up Ten10.