A Day in the Life of Valtech’s Georgina Partington

In this week’s ‘A Day in the Life of…’ interview, Valtech’s Georgina Partington provides an insight into her role as a Software Developer.

Hi Georgina, can you tell us a bit about your role and how you got here?

I’m a full-stack web developer. I work in a variety of languages and frameworks as part of a team to create bespoke solutions for clients. I did Maths at University, with an emphasis on computer science. I was hired by Valtech a little over three years ago as a graduate developer. I had no experience in web development when I joined, and I spent about three months on a training project before I began work with the rest of the team on the client’s project. Since then, I’ve been exposed to all kinds of technology that I’ve never used before and picked up how to use them through working with the team as well as online courses.

What does a typical day look like for you?

First thing of the day, I check all my messages and emails and respond to anything important so that I have a clean slate to start from for the day.

Then, we have a morning team meeting where we all go through what we’ve been doing yesterday and what we will be doing today. We delegate tasks and offer help to each other if some tasks are proving more difficult than expected.

Now begins the biggest chunk of my day, where I take a look at the ticket I’m on and work on it. Usually this is a new feature of some kind. Recently I’ve been completely reworking the header for a website, and I have to make sure that all the buttons, anchor links and logos are shown correctly and consider accessibility while doing so.

After an hour’s lunch break, I have our second team meeting of the day, this time involving the clients themselves, to discuss the broader picture of the work we’re on and planning for the next release.

In the afternoon I tend to have a few calls with the other developers on the team to discuss their or my own tickets. Sometimes I will have calls with some of the client’s internal teams as well to further the progress of tickets. If I have recently finished a task, there will often be discussion with developers for code review, or the QA and their testing that I enjoy taking part in.

I like to spend some time towards the end of the day doing things not related to the client project. It’s in this time that I like to do online training to further my dev skills or prepare for upcoming events that I will be taking part in for diversity and inclusion.

What part of your role do you enjoy the most?

I love the whole concept of problem-solving in coding. Especially when I get another dev with me, and we bounce ideas off each other to make something work how we want it to. Even when I’m coding alone, I love it, safe in the knowledge that should I get completely stumped by something, I have my team to help out at a moment’s notice.

Which top three skills are vital for this role and why?

1. Team working – Even if you are the world’s best developer, you won’t get anything accomplished if you can’t talk with the team about the work you’re doing. It’s absolutely essential to be able to communicate ideas to colleagues and clients.

2. Quick learning – New technologies and concepts are constantly cropping up and sometimes, nobody on the team will have experience with it. In that case, it’s up to you to find out how it works and tell everyone else. It’s also important to be able to pick up things that other developers have done that you’ve perhaps not seen before.

3. Logical reasoning – It’s important to be able to think logically about how parts of the project work, both infrastructure-wise and people-wise. It’s not hugely important to know a bunch of coding languages, because you should be able to pick them up as needed reasonably quickly with this skill anyway.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your role?

The hardest part of my role is exploring new concepts that no-one on the team has tackled before. We call these “Spikes”. It will usually involve delving into external documentation, practicing on a test solution, making a mock-up to demonstrate a solution and demoing to other developers what I’ve found. I still have the team to rely on if I get stumped though, so it’s not daunting. It’s more of an opportunity to learn and teach others.

How do you help others feel like they belong in your team/promote inclusion?

I run the weekly team social catchups, where we take a bit of time to talk about anything that’s not work-related. It really helps to build the team morale and motivation and I always feel good after it.

I always like to make sure I’m readily available if anything urgent comes up, and that includes non-technical things too. If somebody has something personal to tell me, I make sure I’m there to listen, and not judge.

I also keep track of who is speaking in a meeting, and who isn’t, and I encourage those that are not as participatory to join in and give their thoughts on whatever it is we are discussing.

Which podcast/YouTube series would you recommend to someone interested in pursuing a career in this area to help develop their skills/prepare them for the role?

The most important aspect of working in tech, is wanting to learn more and being excited about new concepts, not necessarily just being skilled. A classic computer science YouTube channel I watch regularly is Computerphile. I’s presented at an understandable level and teaches new concepts about tech that you might not have even thought to think of before.

One podcast I’ve listened to in the past that has helped with learning some more technical concepts and jargon is the Stack Overflow podcast. Stack Overflow is the number one place that software developers go to find solutions to technical questions, and the podcast is hosted by a few people that run the website that are extremely technically minded.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In terms of my role as a developer, I see myself attaining a high skill level in a few specialized areas of technology and hopefully being able to lead on a project. However, I am also interested in getting involved in other areas, specifically diversity and inclusion, and I see myself in a position to be able to amplify the voices of those least heard; both in the company itself and on a wider industry level.

Georgina will also be taking part in myGwork's Trans Day of Remembrance Panel this week with Alexandra Austin (Diversity Inclusion and Wellbeing Partner at Brewin Dolphin), Brae DeRocher (Senior Project Manager at FIS), Megan Steven (Human Rights Defender at None), Kevin Lyons (Senior Humans Resources Manager at Pearson) and Liam Paschall (Associate Director at Parexel International). The panelists will give their thoughts on how to lift the voices of the trans community, and what constitutes being a good ally.