In the first of a new series, we speak to the people who enable White Oak UK to do what we do. This week we are speaking Steve Price, Software Engineering Team Leader, based in our Ewloe office.
Steve joined us in 2012 as a Junior Developer and over the last 8 years has achieved regular promotions before being named Team Leader in 2017.
We caught up with Steve to see what his typical day is like and what makes him tick in and out of work…
Q. How does a typical day start for you at White Oak?
A. I can’t function until I’ve had my morning brew and browsed Reddit, then it’s into our Daily Stand-up meeting with the Agile team.
Q. How do you structure your day?
A. After our stand up, I’ll help to resolve any problems, plan and design upcoming projects, and dish out the latest tasks to the Software Engineers. I then get stuck into exploring new tech and delivering new features to our user base.
Q. What’s It like to work for IT at White Oak UK?
A. Busy! There is always a new issue to resolve, new features to deliver and new tech to keep up with.
Q. What’s the current project you are working on, or on your pad?
A. Documentation automation, streamlining and enhancing our new back-office systems, Omi and Engine that we developed in-house to improve the sales and service experience for our customers.
Q. What do you do to improve your knowledge?
A. I go to meetups and tech conferences where I can, but a lot of it is online – the dev communities on Reddit (in particular communities such as r/softwaredevelopment, r/dotnet and r/agile) and sites such as Stack Overflow, Medium and The Register.
I like to work on some personal projects as well to try out new tech. I believe you have to be constantly learning or it’s easy to be left behind.
Q. What’s the most exciting/challenging project you have worked on?
A. Our new transaction systems Omi and Engine was a massive challenge, but great to be involved in delivering a whole new system to the business.
Q. Outside White Oak UK what makes you tick?
A. Festivals (like Kendal Calling), music (such as Frank Turner, Oasis and The Stone Roses), I enjoy BBQs and a nice cold beer, preferably all at the same time.
Q. What's your advice to an up and coming engineer?
A. Always have a pet project. You will always learn more going through the pain of building something than through any textbook or tutorial.
If you're an IT professional and are looking for a new opportunity, we are currently looking for a Salesforce Developer to join our team. We are always on the lookout for talent, so if the right role isn’t currently advertised, please send us your CV here.
