From Co-Founder to Software Engineer

I’ve been fortunate to experience a slightly mixed career; at the former stage starting up a retail company and then a property investment company with my close friend. In 2015 I decided to spread my wings, move to London and prove to myself that I could get a ‘proper’ job in the big corporate world. I studied project management and got a job in fintech consultancy, where I managed part of a large software integration project for Total Oil. It was during this role that the tech industry really captured my attention and I knew I’d discovered the industry I wanted to be a part of. A year later I finally found my opportunity to do the three things I love most and co-founded Spirit AI, a company which has built two products focusing on NL understanding and generation. Today (through blood, sweat, tears, the ups, the downs, and many, many coffees) we now provide services to some of the largest companies in the games industry and consist of a team of 25 amazing people.

I’d like to think of myself as very personable, passionate and have developed good soft skills over my ten-year career. I’m highly motivated, self-taught and despite not attending university, I absolutely love learning. In my opinion, there is rarely a better feeling than making progress by improving your knowledge, in whatever field it may be. I think my ultimate goal is to take the engineering skills I’ll acquire over the next few years to help tackle the environmental issues we are experiencing today, a subject that sits close to me.

Professional background:

• 3 years Business Management (Co-Founder)
• 1 year Finance Consultancy
• 5 years Logistics/IT Project Management

What I’m looking for:

• An employer that has both products and values which I believe in
• I’d like to work in a team that supports the learning and development of its members
• My ideal employer would facilitate team collaboration and cross-team knowledge sharing, follow an agile SDLC and support the XP values

Strengths:

• Interpersonal skills, having been client & investor facing nearly all my career
• Multi-disciplinary – adept business understanding (from startup to publicly traded companies) and good technical/software engineering knowledge
• I’d like to consider myself as having a high EQ, in my opinion both emotional and social intelligence is critical for most roles nowadays
• An eagerness to learn when my knowledge lacks and to teach others when it does not
• A positive attitude towards working hard and often long days to achieve objectives, having come from a startup this was the norm!