Allison Orton

"Software Engineers need to be logical problem solvers so the Developer, Investigator and Quality Controller personality types fit well and those were my three highest. I also scored quite highly in the Trainer and Coach types and these have the qualities that fit the mentoring side of my role. It is important for Software Engineers to have good communication skills as well as we need to work in teams as the job is not really the stereo typical geek sitting alone working on code anymore."

"My main focus is technically leading and supporting a scrum team. I also write code, come up with solutions, mentor graduates and apprentices and liaise with test, documentation and other scrum teams. I have always loved the problem solving and writing software but as my career has progressed I have become more involved in supporting junior team members and liaising with other teams, so I now spend less time doing the code myself and more time in discussion about solutions and advising others. I enjoy both of these aspects and am glad I can still spend time writing code, which is why I haven't gone down the line management route. Being involved in recruitment and mentoring of apprentices and graduates is one of my favourite things now. I get the pleasure of watching them lead and grow into their roles. Occasionally I get to travel to meet developers in our other offices which is fun and rewarding. It is always good to meet the people I work with in person so I appreciate any opportunity to do that. I would like to become one of the company's software architects so that is what I am working on. I also want to continue the mentoring and am working with others to develop our mentoring schemes."

"My main inspiration has been some of the more senior people in my company which are mainly men unfortunately. I have never minded being one of the only females which I think is partly down to the supportive teachers I had who never made me feel that a job was gender specific. I went to an all girls’ school where we were encouraged to pursue whatever career we liked which made studying a computer related degree a bit of a shock when I was in a group of 50 but was the only female. My lecturers were similar to my teachers and never made me feel like the odd one out which I think helped enormously when I entered the software engineering world, where I have always been in the minority and so I have looked up to the more senior men."

"I am a Guide leader and particularly enjoy our outdoor events and camps and I also help with our local church youth group. Recently I am studying a part time masters in Counselling and am seeing clients as a placement volenteer. When I am not doing those things I enjoy walking, swimming, knitting, crochet and reading."

"Checking for any urgent emails or issues, if there are, decide who can sort the problem out. Then I ensure the team are all progressing and don't need any help. I may attend some scheduled planning meetings or be meeting with a mentee or interviewing. I may be involved in some technical meetings. Then I try and get some C# code written."

"Secondary education (GCSE/O-Levels)A level Maths, Biology, ComputingBSc Business Information Systems 2:1Various C#, VB. Net, Semantic Web and Agile courses "