This week I’m introducing you to my colleague Rebecca Thompson, a software developer at the Guardian. She likes to use the term ‘career switcher’ because Rebecca previously had a career in adventure travel and marketing; working for tour operators in Africa and South America. It was during this time she managed a team of developers, which made her decide to pursue a career in product and engineering.
Rebecca, how did you make the switch from travel to coding?
I started learning a bit of PHP and SQL on the side and got a real taste for coding and programming. I took some night classes and decided it was something I wanted to pursue so I took the plunge and started a computing degree with the University of London’s International Programme.
What do you enjoy most about working at the Guardian?
Like a lot of people in the department, I feel passionate about what the Guardian stands for and I like that my work contributes to that. The Guardian provides a strong, challenging, independent voice in the media and I think that is more important than ever these days.
As for the work itself, I love to learn so I appreciate being able to collaborate with more experienced developers to improve my skills and knowledge. I would say though, one of the best parts of the role is that as a team we are responsible for shaping the work that we do. This includes research, cross team collaboration, planning and developing ideas. I appreciate not just being given work and told to go away and do it but, instead, being part of an evolving process.
What does a typical day look like for you?
The work itself will vary from day to day. Sometimes you’ll have your head down programming and then other days will involve a lot of communication, including pairing with another developer on a problem, or meetings to discuss upcoming work.
We have strong communication across our team, we start the day with a stand up meeting which involves the full cross-functional team of engineers, designers, product managers and UX. Then the engineers will stick around for an extra 10-15 minutes to have a more technical catch up. It’s a great opportunity to ask questions, gain feedback and advice.
What is it like starting a new job remotely?
When starting a new role there is always an element of nerves and anxiety. You want to do well but it’s also a steep learning curve. I started working for the Guardian during the first lockdown in March last year, so going through that in the context of a pandemic was pretty daunting. Even so, I now feel very comfortable in my understanding of the department and the wider context of the work my team does. I think it’s a real credit to the leadership in our department that remote onboarding during such a challenging time went so smoothly.
There has been a genuine commitment to communication and knowledge sharing with weekly department seminars called ‘Techtimes’, which often focused on software engineering, and architecture overviews to understand the Guardian’s digital systems and how they fit together. These initiatives have really helped me achieve that understanding.
I’m also doing some research at the moment on the impact of migrating data across multiple internal systems which means I’m having ongoing conversations with many different colleagues across product and engineering. It’s great because it’s sometimes difficult to visualise the department when you’re working remotely, so the more people I can interact with and talk to, the better my understanding of the whole department becomes.
What excites you the most about the work?
I enjoy solving problems, so I’m at my happiest when I’m given an opportunity to help fix an issue or make something work. The whole process is a thrill; from figuring out how something is going to look, how it’s going to get built, the technical limitations we might have, to communicating with the end users to figure out their pain points.
Have you learned anything new since you started?
A lot of our backend systems are written in Scala which was a new language for me. Having come from a Java background, it’s been really fun learning new language features and brushing up on my functional programming skills.
I’ve also started taking more of an interest in cybersecurity. Our internal information security team, Infosec, are great at giving guidance and ensuring we are adhering to the right standards on any new projects. They provide an interactive online learning platform where you learn about different security vulnerabilities and what to do to resolve them. It sort of gamifies the experience, making the learning interactive and fun.
What would you like someone who’s interested in applying to know?
In addition to the interesting work on offer, I would highlight some of the non work elements. Our department has a calendar of social activities which means we can regularly take a break from the day-to-day and have some fun. There are also lots of learning development opportunities, including in the area of health and wellbeing. The diversity team is great at organising events and finding ways to make sure our company culture is as diverse and inclusive as possible. In fact, we recently held a department-wide hack day where we worked on projects aimed at improving diversity and inclusivity.
Development of digital products is central to the Guardian. You could be building the products that showcase our progressive and independent journalism, crafting the tools that journalists use to write their stories, developing the services that allow those stories to be distributed across the globe, or safeguarding our financial future.
If you’re interested in joining our Product and Engineering department, please visit the Guardian News & Media careers page.