We recently held our 2025 Graduate Assessment Centre, to support us in the hunt for our Class of 2025 Graduates. So now seems a good as time as any to provide an insight into our Graduate Academy, what to expect as a new Graduate at Microlise, and words from the team!

Recruiting the Class of 2025

Our Graduate Academy doesn’t start when our new recruits walk through the door on their first day. It actually starts a year earlier with visits to Colleges and Universities during their career fairs, to spread the core values and work ethic that we pride ourselves on at Microlise!

Once we have advertised the Graduate vacancies, the team then have the hard task of shortlisting over 750 applications – a 650% increase in applications since we first launched the Academy back in 2019! With such high-quality applications, shortlisting down to just 20 is no easy feat.

Successful candidates are invited to our Head Office for a two-part Assessment Centre split over a two-week period. The Assessment Centres are fun yet challenging, whilst breaking the ice to allow the Graduates to perform naturally amongst a group of their peers. We are also able to give back to the attendees, by teaching professional coding practices, and providing them a peek into life within Software Engineering at Microlise.

The Microlise Academy

We typically bring in two cohorts of Graduates each year, starting in July and October. When our Graduates join the Graduate Academy, they also join our Bootcamp and a 12-month programme, also known as “rotations”. Together, these provide the opportunity to gain experience of what it means to be a competent Software Engineer, including;

  • 30+ languages and frameworks
  • How to learn new things faster
  • Soft skills
  • Project Management
  • Design skills and design patterns
  • SOLID principles
  • Extreme Ownership

We call ourselves Engineers, not Developers. We are expected to design, develop, test and deploy our products and understand and support the whole technology stack.

The bootcamp is not easy, each graduate is expected to read a series of books which instil the principles and practices that we expect each graduate to follow and maintain, attend foundational workshops, complete non customer facing projects and make significant progress towards evidencing their competency to prove that they are able to learn new skills

During these rotations, Graduates experience the various fields in Software Engineering – Site Reliability Engineering, Platform Engineering, Data Science, Data Engineering, User Interface and Front-end Development, CI/CD pipelines and a whole lot more! This exposure to the world of work, ensures they are making an informed decision on which discipline within Software Engineering they want to focus their career on.

Careers at Microlise are taken very seriously, with personal development plans and ladder competencies to support our Graduates. They are provided with appropriate training needed to advance. In fact, this isn’t just part of the Graduate Academy, every Software Engineer at Microlise is encouraged to invest at least half a day a week focussing purely on their career, and how to develop the key knowledge, skills and behaviours required to progress our career ladders.

The Future’s Bright

With nearly 40% of our current Software Engineering Team born from the Academy, this year is the first time that we no longer need to recruit between the levels of Graduate Engineer and Technical Lead; for no other reason than we have been growing our own since the Graduate Academy started in 2019!

We now have enough talented people ready for promotion, that any attrition at any level lower than Technical Lead doesn’t need to be recruited for; this is a truly healthy way to demonstrate how our Core Values are a crucial part of life at Microlise, by investing in our employee’s development and rewarding growth of capabilities by promotion.

As Richard Branson once said, “Train people well enough so that they can leave, treat them well enough so that they don’t want to”.

Words from the Team

  • Benjamin, Graduate Software Engineer

“An Assessment Centre is typically something that you associate with being quite negative, intimidating and dry. That said, I do genuinely believe that Assessment Centre was an enjoyable experience for both staff and potential graduates, and that is credit to both of those groups. All staff involved were trying their best to make the candidates feel as comfortable as possible. Because of that, the candidates were able to express themselves and really put their all into the day. It was truly a pleasure to see, and I look forward to seeing some of them again in the coming year!”

  • James, Internal Recruiter

“It was a fantastic day from start to finish! From opening the doors and welcoming the graduates, to seeing them off at the end of the day, it was a real pleasure to be involved. On the face of it, Assessment Centres can be daunting and intimidating for the graduates, and because of this we make every effort to ensure that all graduates feel relaxed and comfortable, but also enthusiastic and engaged for the day; it was fantastic to see that all come together and the energy from all was exceptional. Seeing them work together to understand, and effectively resolve the problems was incredibly fulfilling and to be able to support them throughout the day was even more rewarding. For any future graduates out there, if you want to work for an organisation that genuinely is invested in your own learning and development, that actively seeks to get to know you as an individual, and how you operate best, then you need look no further!”

  • Josh, Graduate Software Engineer

“Having gone through the Assessment Centre myself last year, it would be rude not to admit it felt enjoyable being on the other side this time around. It was a fun, an engaging day and the quality of the candidates was nothing short of exceptional.

Watching the teams tackle each problem with such high energy, from building (mostly stable) bridges, to solving complex problems, was genuinely great to see. The teamwork, enthusiasm and communication on display quickly made it clear; when a group clicks, they can achieve so much more.

Welcoming a new cohort of Graduates each year is always exciting, and it really highlights Microlise’s commitment to growing the organisation from within. For any future Graduates, I assure you the future is bright, and you will be joining a team that genuinely cares about your personal and professional development. I wish you all the best of luck, and I am sure I will see you around!”

  • Chloe, Recruitment Assistant

“It was such a fun and memorable day! From start to finish, the energy of the candidates and the staff was incredible. It was a real pleasure to meet so many talented potential graduates. Getting involved in all the tasks and activities made the experience even more rewarding. It was inspiring to see everyone’s enthusiasm and passion throughout the day. I’m excited to see what the future holds for the Class of 2025!”

  • Jacob, Graduate Software Engineer

“The Assessment Centre was a great day for both the candidates and current Microlise staff. For us Graduates who started just over half a year ago, it was an interesting experience being on the other side of the interview and was a valuable learning experience for us. We got to see how much effort Microlise puts in to make sure their recruitment process is perfect for both sides. Unlike other companies, Microlise provides quick decisions and feedback on the results of their Assessment Centres, which shows how much they care. We are really looking forward to working with the candidates we met on the day, as they all showed qualities that would make them a great fit at Microlise.”

  • Ismail, Graduate Software Engineer

“It was great to be part of the Day 1 Assessment Centre and experience being on the other side of the table, having been through the same experience myself last year. The atmosphere throughout the day was great, full of energy and positivity. It was awesome to see how engaged, collaborative, and driven all the potential grads were across all the various activities presented. Being there and providing support to them during the day has given me an appreciation of how much I have grown since then. Good luck to each and every grad, I am really excited to see what class of 2025 will achieve.”

  • Theo, Graduate Software Engineer

“For me, the highlight of the assessment day was seeing the candidates calm down and settle in over the course of the day. It’s nerve-wracking turning up somewhere new, worrying about how best to prove yourself and sweating over whether you’ve prepared enough. In my opinion, one of Microlise’s greatest strengths as an employer is its friendliness, which the experience on the day only further proved.

At the start of the day, the way in which the senior staff spoke about working at Microlise set the tone – that we’re a healthy and impactful company full of good people. The tasks were intense, but during the breaks everybody from Microlise stuck around and the graduates were encouraged to chat with anybody they liked, senior staff and newer hires alike. In each gap between tasks that we had as well as the lunch break, it was amazing seeing them relax and open up more and more! Some of the candidates went from being hidden amongst the pack to shining through as great options, which wouldn’t have been possible in a less friendly setting (like some other assessment centres tend to be…)”