Alumni Success Profiles: Jess Dam

(5 min read)

Name: Jess Dam

Current Role: Software Engineer at Starling Bank

Multiverse Apprenticeship: Software Engineering 

What are the main responsibilities of your current role?

I write code in Java and JavaScript to maintain and improve the platforms that allow Starling customers to look after their bank accounts. 

What does a typical day in your role look like?

I often have a main project, which I either work on independently, or alongside others on my team and across the engineering department. The main projects can typically span over a couple of weeks or months, so I may also monitor the new system versions that are due to be released to production during the day, or work on fixing small bugs. Every morning, we have a team meeting to get updates on what everyone is currently working on, it's day-to-day progress, and any issues we may have identified. Even though the programming work often happens separately, these short catch ups help us to get a better understanding of what happens outside of our scope of work, and provides the opportunity to gather opinions on technical and business decisions on small scales. 

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I like that each change to the code requires some level of design thinking and creativity. I enjoy the dynamic and contextual nature of problems I build solutions for; it gives me many opportunities to learn new things. It's satisfying being able to take part in creating everyday things that others will find useful and seeing it through its initial designs to a fully fledged feature. I also love being able to find the cause of an issue and fixing it, and I appreciate being able to have both some creative and technical input to how a feature is implemented.

What are the most challenging aspects of your role?

I think it can occasionally feel frustrating when it seems like there is no obvious reason why an issue is occurring, but in these cases it can be even more satisfying when you're finally able to find a root cause and being able to resolve it. In those situations, I sometimes find it difficult to step back and think about how to minimise the damage. 
Another thing I find challenging is good management of the projects I work on - less essential projects can easily end up neglected for too long, this makes it more difficult to apply the code changes due to the speed that the codebase evolves at Starling. 

Why did this role/industry appeal to you?

I think coding can be incredibly versatile, since it allows you to branch out into such a variety of specialities, even beyond the technology sector. I really enjoy the creative aspects of programming and the reasoning that goes behind design decisions, and experiencing the innovative speed of the tech industry - it's interesting to see the new techology from the private sector starting to have such large implications on everyday experiences. 

What skills do you use and develop as part of your role?

Other than programming, I've been able to improve the way I assess problems as well as my reasoning skills when deciding what a most appropriate fix would be. I also think communication skills have become an important asset, especially in keeping the rest of my team updated on my work, explaining why I've decided on a certain implementation of code and making sure I can work efficiently. 

What are your future career plans?

I don't have solid career plans, but I'd currently like to continue in the role of a software engineer for a while, although I think the sector I work in will probably change over time, unless I find a topic that I'm very keen on specialising in. 
For the moment, I'm enjoying the variety of things I get to work on, while expanding my knowledge of areas of interest through work and online courses. 

How did doing a Multiverse apprenticeship support your career journey?

I was able to recieve training with a curriculum of programming languages and concepts that I was able to apply to my work, as well as a community of apprentices and coaches to support my development throughout. 

What achievement are you most proud of since completing your apprenticeship?

In honesty, I'm just pleased with my progression at Starling and being able to continue improving in something I enjoy doing. During the apprenticeship, I've also been able to live independently, spend time on other hobbies and explore London, which is not something I'd imagined I'd be doing at my current age. 

Can you provide a brief history of your career journey since completing your apprenticeship?

After I completed my apprenticeship with Starling Bank, I was offered a software engineering role with them, I have now been working at Starling for 7 months post-apprenticeship.

What advice would you give to current apprentices who want to progress in a similar role?

I've found it really useful monitoring logs or exception channels for bugs that I could fix, to try and expand my knowledge of areas of code I'm interested in. This can also provide a variety of problems to solve which has been helping me to improve my analysis skills while allowing me to be proactive in finding new work.