Andrew B.
About me
| Andrew B. | |
| Mathematics | |
| Mathematics | |
| Taught Postgraduate | |
| Vanbrugh | |
| 1992 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Web Development Manager | |
| TLF Research | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Digital and IT services / Finance and consultancy | |
| Medium-size business (50-249 employees) | |
| 2011 |
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A day in the life of a Web Development Manager in the United Kingdom
Writing web applications and enjoying the challenge of transforming ideas into working applications
My career goals when I graduated
To get a job where I could use my mathematics and not be an accountant
My career history
Worked in transport planning for 11 years - doing mathematical modelling of transportation systems and cost-benefit analysis.
What has helped my career to progress
Working hard, learning new skills and not being afraid to use the time outside of work to expand my knowledge
Courses taken since graduation
Open University course in Web Applications
How my studies have helped my career
I have had to be highly numerate in all my jobs, so studying mathematics obviously helped. More importantly, however, the mathematics degree taught me to think logically and to construct rational arguments.
Where I hope to be in 5 years
Not sure at the moment
My advice to students considering work
Whilst big companies have clearly defined graduate entry routes, there are thousands of smaller companies who are willing to take a punt on hiring a graduate. These companies won't have massive training budgets, so be prepared to devote your own time to your personal development.
My advice about working in my industry
A common mantra in programming is that we need people who are smart and can get things done. You need to be able to think logically and almost get an instinct for doing things in the best way!
The book "The Clean Coder" by Robert Martin gives excellent advice on how to act as a professional programmer - and it goes way beyond writing code.
Contacting me
I'm happy to answer questions on web development and related subjects. If there is a maths student looking for a mentor, I'd be interested in helping.
What I do
Write web applications that assist the company to undertake market research, and to allow our clients to access and analyse the data we have gathered for them.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Most days, I write and test object-orientated PHP code. I learnt PHP from books and on-line resources whilst in my previous job, and then did an Open University course in order to gain more knowledge and to obtain a qualification.
In this job, however, you learn new skills simply by turning ideas into working applications.
What I like most
The intellectual challenges of transforming ideas into working systems
What I like least
Imprecise requirements
What surprised me most
I found out that that there are lots of web application developers who do not understand how to write programs correctly.