Tabby Davies

"I am a Software Engineer living and working in London for a gaming company. I love to learn, both from formal/structured sessions and from individuals I surround myself with. I am organised, which is important when coding tools and setting targets and timescales for my job. I am a very social person, I like to interact and talk with others, whether it be about a work task or something related to our personal lives! I also like to impart my own learning and understanding to others, and my efficiency and organisation skills means that if I am confident in a task I love to manage and teach others."

"My day-to-day role involves interacting with various members of the games teams, learning about what they are currently doing and how I can create and develop tools that may assist them. My role in release operations is, metaphorically, the umbrella between the games teams game apps and the store fronts (for example Apple store or Google play). In my role I do a lot of automation of tasks to simplify and smooth the release processes. I also get to sit-in on a lot of exciting games development meetings for all our global games! My favourite part of my job is when I am just sitting in my 'coding zone' programming a new tool or feature. I love to see the outcomes of my work, saving other colleagues precious time as a result of something I've created is really satisfying! The starting salary for my role is £40,000."

"Towards the end of my MSc degree, I began a role at a online hardware company. The company sells bespoke computers, including specially designed cases and all related internal and external components, to large companies and individuals. I was in charge of keeping the databases updated, the website, SEO and social media. I also learned a lot about building PCs- particularly Jetway mini pcs- one of which was used in the latest Fast and Furious filming! My long term plan was to move to London, which I did- taking my role remote. However I didn't enjoy working in isolation, missed my colleagues and the practical building side of my job. So I started a new role at a startup company called Payfit as a 'Product Builder', a role similar to that of a software engineer and using PayFits proprietary language. Sadly, in my third month at the company, COVID hit and my role, along with many others, was made redundant. I had to very quickly upskill myself, using free codecademy courses python and javascript, and created a website to display the projects I created as a result, including a browser based covid-themed phaser game and a python chatbot. Despite tough application conditions (an upsurge in applicants who had suffered similar circumstances during COVID) I was offered a role as Software Engineer at NaturalMotion/Zynga, a gaming company. I am now in this role and I LOVE it. I look forward to each day, have a brilliant supportive team, and NaturalMotion/Zynga put heavy emphasis on the care and consideration of their staff. Including sending us weekly 'work from home' hampers and making sure we are all set up ergonomically- very important when you are coding all day!"

"I love to socialise with friends and family, and meet new people. I have danced since I was very young (starting ballet at the age of 3!) so if ever I have chance to do this- class or the dance floor of a club- I will be there! I enjoy swimming and cycling. I am also an avid reader and am part of a editor group that gets kindle access to new book releases before their official release dates in exchange for honest reviews. Since I am still very new to London I also enjoy being a tourist, and love going to all the museums in my spare time or finding hidden London gems. I love going to the theatre or live music events. One of my main hobbies is surfing, however this is nearly impossible to do living in the city! "

"A typical day at work for me is going for a swim before I start. Logging on at around 9am. I then spend the first hour catching up with emails, slack messages, and setting out my tasks for the day (I have to write these down- I use pen and paper a lot for someone who works with software!). The rest of my day is spent either in meetings related to my tasks, dropping in to games stand-ups (these are usually only 10 minutes long but give me a good insight into how the game releases are progressing) and coding. I usually have around 3-4 main coding projects on the go. Sometimes this is challenging as I have to weight my time correctly, and it's hard not to spend the whole day coding for one project and neglecting the others. I usually spend more time on a project that has an imminent demo or presentation coming up. I also spend a lot of my time interacting with the store fronts to create and release the builds or to mitigate and problems a games team or member may have. I get these in the form of tickets, and it is hard to judge how much time will be spent on these. Some days I may not have any, some days may be full of tickets and I don't have time to do any project code. I have a very supportive team (that work across timezones) so anything I cant get done in my day I am able to pass on, although I try not to do this. I take an hour for lunch, sometimes less sometimes more, and try and get out for a walk, on the bike or to a gym class. Otherwise I am inclined to just keep working and eat at my desk which is not good! My official core hours are 10-5, with an hour to be added somewhere either side. I am still quite new in my role, and wfh at the moment due to covid, so I am usually online 9-6... and frequently don't log off until after 7pm if I am enjoying my code/don't want to stop and have to pick up the next day. I try and finish my day by tidying up my written task notes and writing a new todo list for the next day. I find this really helps refresh my memory in the morning! "

"When I was 13, I self-taught myself HTML and sold website layouts (without my mother's knowledge..) to individuals using a virtual-pet based browser game (very simple, mostly text based) in exchange for virtual money! At A-Level I achieved grades in Maths, Biology, English Literature and Politics. I then went on to do a BA Hons Degree at the University of Reading in English Literature and Politics. During my undergraduate, I independently completed some free online coding courses and completed an extra module in markup for digital texts in English Literature. I also lived with a computer scientist undergraduate during my final year at the university, and loved what he got to do for his coursework and dissertation! Finally, I completed a Masters degree at the University of Bath in Computer Science where I achieved a distinction grade. My MSc research has been published and presented at a global HCI conference."