What I Learned from the Version 1 Digital Academy
Once I finished university, it was time to find a graduate job so that I could start my career and achieve progress in my life.
I had pursued a Computer Science degree, but I needed experience to put the knowledge & skills that I had accumulated during university to good use. I found the Version 1 Academy job advert on Indeed and decided to apply.
In this blog I will talk about my personal experience in Version 1 Academy and ask myself the question, was it worth it?
How the Curriculum Was Structured
The West Midland Version 1 Academy was run by Tech Talent. There was roughly 14 people in the West Midland academy cohort and it lasted 12 weeks (about 3 months). The academy covered a wide range of IT fields from security, cloud computing using Azure & Agile, software testing, and web development. At week 8, half of the cohort was placed in the Devops team, and the other half were placed in Java team. I was personally assigned to Java so I can only comment on that.
For our technical subjects we used the Percipio platform (Figure 1), which gave us a virtual box with Kali Linux installed. This enabled us to complete the technical tasks without affecting our own personal system. For our Azure tasks the Percipio platform had already set up Azure accounts so that we could use the platform to carry out the task.
Examples of tasks we did on the Percipio platform were
1) To use Metasploit to gain remote access to the Windows system and use Netcat to gain remote access to the Windows system. It was a fun task since it was challenging and fascinating to learn how easy it is for a hacker to use these tools to exploit a system.
2)To monitor on-premises Windows server computers by using Azure Monitor. I did it by first deploying the Microsoft Monitoring Agent to an on-premises Windows Server and then I deployed the agent to a Hyper-V virtual machine. Finally, I registered Windows Admin Center in Microsoft Azure, and then registered Windows Admin Center in Microsoft Azure, and then I set up the Azure Monitor tool in Windows Admin Center.
The Value the Program Provided
The academy provided me with a unique opportunity to learn, grow and to try different technologies in a short period of time. Also, it gave me the chance to revisit new technologies, such as Java, which I had used extensively during university. While the curriculum only scratched the surface of the technologies and frameworks listed above, I felt like I got a strong sense of what I liked, what I would like to see myself doing in the future, and finally what I didn’t like and why.
I completed all 4 certifications during the academy, and this was great because it gave me the extra motivation to learn the content and it proved that I actually learnt it during my time there. The 4 certification I completed were
- Cisco Cyber Security Essential Certification
- Azure 900
- ISTQB foundation Testing
- OCA Java 1Z0–808
I also learnt vital non-technical skills needed in the technology field such as the soft skills that are important in the workplace and learnt how to present ourselves in a professional manner. We covered different types of methodologies and Agile principles on how technology companies use this philosophy to implement their project framework and how it makes project management more efficient.
The academy made me realise how important teamwork is because in my cohort they were people struggling and having problems, but we all helped each other. I also learnt that when you are helping someone it also helps you to better understand the subject, so in fact you are helping yourself.
Difficulties and conclusion
There weren’t that many difficulties apart from the fact the content was sometimes challenging, although that is to be expected since I was learning new technologies and concepts.
I think the academy provided the perfect balance between technical content and non-technical. However, as this academy covered a lot of technologies, we got a surface level information about those technologies, so I think it would be best to use it as a starting point to find out what you like, what you don’t like.
For me it was definitely worth it because I could try out different technologies and find out what I liked and what I didn’t like. Also, I could learn vital skills that are needed in the workplace and use them, not only in Version 1, but throughout my career.
About the Author:
Muhammadimarn Khan is an Associate AWS DevOps Engineer at Version 1.
