Dylan Wall is a newbie to the tech industry in Northern Ireland beginning his career within the team at Anaeko. With a large amount of experience under his belt already and an enthusiasm to develop and innovate in the future, we want to look at Dylan's journey from graduate to Software Engineer at Anaeko.

What is a Graduate Software Engineer

As a Graduate Software Engineer at Anaeko, you will work on projects where you can make a real difference to people’s lives and help develop solutions on a global scale. A graduate position allows you to implement your academic study in real time, and develop your skills as an Engineer in multiple disciplines and work on many projects.

You receive great support and mentoring, balanced with the experience of being given real, meaningful work to do, to help you truly develop both technically and professionally. You will learn from our experienced developers, project managers and customer-facing staff.

You will be responsible for:

• Developing high quality solutions which impact the lives of users worldwide.
  
  
• Working as part of a team to solve problems and produce innovative software solutions.
  
  
• Learning about new technologies and approaches, with talented colleagues who will help you learn, develop and grow.
  
  
• Developing excellent technical, team-working and Agile project experience.
  
  
• Contributing to peer reviews of designs, code and test specifications
  
  
• Continuous innovation and improvement

Graduate Software Engineer Skills

Communication Skills

It’s extremely rare that Software Engineers work in isolation. In fact, what separates Software Engineers from similar roles like Software Developers tends to be the amount of high-level collaboration, leadership, and team building required of a Software Engineer – and communication skills are key to all of that. Software Engineers should be able to clearly communicate – in writing and orally – with virtually any type of team or company stakeholder, regardless of that person’s technical background.

Team Player

Software Engineers typically work as part of a team – or leading one – and creating or maintaining great software programs requires the input and expertise of a great number of people. Success or failure will be shared by that team. Successful Software Engineers must understand how to compromise, how to motivate others to deliver the best work they’re capable of, and how to take and learn from criticism.

Problem Solving

Successfully steering software development projects to completion requires quickly identifying and solving a lot of issues along the way. Software Engineers must be curious and creative problem-solvers, able to sift through code to pinpoint a programming error while also anticipating other issues before they arise and adapting quickly to solve them.

Attention to Detail

Software Engineers are expected to be precise and meticulous, with a high level of attention to detail applied to everything from coding to testing to documenting projects. Some software engineering industry best practices – like using version control systems to keep track of old work – fall into this category of soft skills.

DYLAN WALL ON WORKING AT ANAEKO

TIM : Hi Dylan, do you want to introduce yourself, and your position within Anaeko?

 EMMA: My name is Dylan Wall, and I am a graduate software engineer at Anaeko

TIM: Perfect, so how would you summarise what you do on a daily basis, what does a graduate software engineers day look like?

DYLAN: My average day involves going to my current projects JIRA board and seeing what work needs to be done for that day. I will then work through it independently and attend any team meetings that I need to. At the end of each day we have a scrum meeting to ensure we are on track and to catch up with the US team due to the time difference. I also keep up with the Slack channels on the IBM platforms, and try to answer as many questions as I can. And then ask as many questions as I can also.

So currently, I'm subcontracted to IBM, which involves working in a team with Anaeko colleagues, and also IBM employees including many from the US. I love to be involved in large scale projects such as this one with IBM as they are incredibly interesting, because it's so vast and dense. And being new to the industry I have already gained so much experience and being able to pick the minds of my Anaeko colleagues has been fantastic.

TIM: And how long have you worked for Anaeko and what made you want to work for the company?

DYLAN: So I’ve worked at Anaeko from January of this year, and I basically started straight off the back of my master’s degree. I completed my master’s in IOT or the ‘internet of things’.

I've learned so much since starting here. And that's a credit to management, as in the relatively short time I’ve been here I’ve been exposed to a lot of different technologies that were new to me and since then I’ve learned a lot. Since starting everyone has made me feel very welcome, and i've yet to meet someone who refuses help or has refused  to give me help and support when I need it. And the learning opportunities are fantastic here at Anaeko.

You get the chance to work on many different projects, that utilise various technologies which as a graduate software engineer is brilliant as you are constantly developing your skillset. And as a new age software engineer, you have to be adaptable, as trends and methods are changing everyday. Also the hybrid working model is great, and offers amazing flexibility.

TIM:  What do you look forward to most at work? 

 DYLAN: I love to learn and I definitely would say that I learn something new everyday in my current role. I enjoy working with my team and we have formed a great working relationship with one another and I think when your working on such large projects, this is super important. I couldn’t pin point just one aspect of my job that I enjoy the most because I think it takes each piece together to really make it a great team and company to work with and for. 

If a career at Anaeko sounds like the perfect fit for you, or someone you know! View our current vacancies HERE.