Back in 1990-something, Yusuf’s dad said ‘son, computers are the future!’ and he bought him his first computer, minus a mouse because they couldn’t afford it. He also got him his first programming book, a custom that continued over the course of the years. Soon, Yusuf realised he could use these skills to start writing scripts that could do things for him and that’s how his interest in coding started. Fast forward to some A levels at school, a computer science degree at the University of Leicester and Yusuf finally had a long successful career of software development ahead of him. Thanks Dad!
So, what drew you to the Guardian?
I’ve always wanted to work at the Guardian. Then in 2016 I saw a talk at a Scala Exchange conference about ‘Automated Moderation of Comments’ and was absolutely fascinated. I also found out that the Guardian were doing some really interesting, cutting edge stuff in that arena. I had no idea that a media organisation could be involved in this level of technical work so after that it just made sense that I should go ahead and apply.
I started a contract role for three months as a software developer and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to find a way to stay, so I asked my manager what vacancies I could apply for. I was informed of the engineering manager position, a potential role I’d actually been looking at as a next step in my career progression.
What’s been the best part about being a manager?
It’s very rewarding and challenging. It’s a completely different role to what I was doing previously and I had to start practicing and utilising a whole other set of skills. For example I kept losing my voice in the first month because I wasn’t used to doing so much talking! Initially I found it really hard to feel successful in my role and found the length of the feedback loop to be quite hard to tackle. As a developer I would write code, observe the results and get immediate feedback. As a manager it can be much longer but after adjusting and building up some momentum seeing the impact of your work in the end makes it all worthwhile.
Managing and supporting someone else is some of the most fulfilled I’ve ever felt in a role. In my career history I’ve been in positions without entirely supportive managers and my progression had felt hampered. It sounds cheesy but there was always a part of me that had wanted to progress to a level where I could finally provide the support and development for someone that I missed out on myself. Encouraging people in their career growth and seeing them achieve their goals is the best part of my job.
What do you enjoy the most outside your main role?
I got involved in the Fellowship as a volunteer when someone left last year. I love it for two main reasons. First, I know it can be difficult to find these kinds of supported entry level positions as they’re few and far between. Second, we just love getting new people in and helping them learn. The benefit to us is also immense. The fellows give us a lot of insight into anything we’re not doing very well by coming in with fresh eyes and lots of questions to keep us on our toes.
We also have something called 10% time. This is where developers get one day each fortnight to work on something they are interested in, to learn something or upskill and basically invest in their own self development. It’s amazing and worthwhile because when you invest in people, even in this small way, you get it back 100% in new skills, new ideas and forward thinking innovation.
What makes the department unique to any other?
For one thing, there are so many internal opportunities you can’t be bored. There’s the digital subscriptions business, big data work, identity management, app development, developer experience teams, journalism teams; I could go on. There are so many different things to do here and we encourage rotations so that you get to experience as much as possible. Take me for example; since I’ve been here I’ve worked on customer relationship management software, self service software and I’ve worked on an apps team as well as a team that does big data processing.
I’ve been really lucky to work with so many smart and amazing people on a daily basis, I get to work on complex things with my team and see everyone work together to overcome these challenges. The highly collaborative environment we work in is so much fun and you always know there is someone there who is just waiting for a chance to support you and help you succeed.
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 team, please visit the Guardian News & Media careers page.