Sam Beard

Technology has evolved at the speed of a bullet, but we’ve only just started to scratch the surface. I grew up when personal computers were just starting to become a thing and the internet was brand new. That sounds longer than it actually is, as we’re in a very different world now. I just wanted to learn about these modern technologies and start building things like that for myself, which is what ignited my interest.

As a senior web developer at Gravit8, I get to build things from virtually nothing – this could be interactive websites or apps – and there’s a LOT of coding involved! What drives me is the opportunity to learn about innovative technologies.

“I thrive on creating something that at the beginning of the journey, you thought wouldn’t have been possible.”

One of the most challenging things about my job is a client asking me to build something that no one has ever seen before. You don’t know where to start but you slowly figure out solutions to each problem and work your way through. A good analogy for life! Knowing you’ve achieved an outcome which the client is happy with and that initially, you felt might fall beyond the realm of your capabilities is immensely satisfying.

The important advice I’d give to any successor would be simple: document everything. For yourself and for your team. There is an age-old fact that reading someone else’s code is far slower than writing it from scratch, unless it has been well documented and well written.

“The culture here is open and proactive, with constant discussions for best approaches to problems.”

We try to do our work in a collaborative and organic way at Gravit8 as opposed to just completing job tickets. We try to allow anyone who wants to have a go at something to do so, rather than sticking to the same type of job over and over.

“Internet technology is moving at an incredible rate, even compared to the general tech world.”

We are going to see more seamless integration of technology in our lives in the next few years, be it VR and AR, voice assistants and home automation or many other things – the possibilities are endless. I find myself building projects that rely less on a single, large screen in front of me and more on the many other means we are interacting with technology these days.

In terms of the way we work, us programmers have taken this work-from-home shift in our stride as we tend to work better in a quiet, less interrupted space. Then my kids come home from school and that goes out the window!