“The team, both development and wider, are lovely people and so friendly. There’s always a laugh to be had in the office. Here at Calnex we are working on projects developing cutting edge solutions. That can be pretty challenging at times and keeps things interesting.”
Q: What did you study and where?
Applied Computing, University of Dundee.
Q: How long have you worked at Calnex and how has your role developed?
I’ve worked here for 10 years. My role has developed into a more senior role, evolving from “just” implementing features to helping define, design, and implement them.
Q: What motivates or energizes you about your role and working life at Calnex?
The people, the challenge, the technology. The team, both development and wider, are lovely people and so friendly. There’s always a laugh to be had in the office. Here at Calnex we are working on projects developing cutting edge solutions. That can be pretty challenging at times and keeps things interesting – I am a problem solver and like the challenge.
Q: Talk us through a typical day at Calnex.
There’s not really a “typical” day – they can be pretty varied. I usually start by checking emails and instant messages to see if anything important has come in overnight that needs dealt with. Assuming not then I check the JIRA board to see what’s up next on my list. We have a daily stand up to allow us to talk about any issues we’re having etc. Quite often I’ll spend some of my day working with the test or support teams looking into issues or talking through ideas and designs with the development team.
Q: Most challenging aspect for your job?
A lot of what I work in is UI design. When designing new UI features everyone has an opinion on how it should look so it can be sometimes be a job in diplomacy trying to keep everyone happy.
Q: What skills do you need to succeed in the role?
Good problem-solving skills to help chase down bugs, good listening skills to help figure out what is needing to be done, people skills and good team working, but also the ability to work independently.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a Software Engineer/Developer?
Do it! There are a lot of different areas within software development – front end (web and apps), back end (server and embedded). I’d say to check out all areas and figure out where your interest lies because they can be really quite different. Then go for it.
Q: What do you do for downtime?
I like to go running, walking, knit, hang out with friends. I have 2 children though so there’s not always a lot of downtime at the minute.
