Rachel Sellars

"I love solving puzzles and problems, using both logic and creativity. I enjoy working with small teams and building strong working relationships and trust with them. I believe that we create better solutions to things when we work together and when we can bounce ideas of each other. I like hearing feedback from others, and find that working with others helps me validate my own ideas. "

"I manage a team of software engineers - I work to make sure that they are supported and that team works well together. I encourage a culture where people feel safe to openly share their ideas and opinions, and alter team processes to make sure we all understand what we are trying to build and that we are able to continuously reflect and improve. I work with the Product Manager and Designer on my team along with others in the business to define our team strategy and roadmap. This tells the team what we want to achieve and what we are going to deliver to our users. I love working with a small team of people, coming together to all work on the same problem, and helping suggest ideas to come up with a solution that the team is all happy with. Being a part of turning an idea into a product that delights customers, and seeing how customers use the product is a really satisfying part of the role. Salary will depend on location, but I've found that the starting salary for a Software Engineer can be around £25,000. Being an Engineering Manager is usually a role that opens up as you start to progress towards the level of a Senior Engineer, and that will vary a lot depending on the company, and can be anywhere between around £35,000 to £50,000. Many companies will have the role of Software Team Lead, or Lead Engineer which may open up as you progress, and this can help you begin your journey into management. "

"I didn't know what career I wanted to do while I was at school but I was always good with Maths and Science, and had an interest in graphic design, animation, computers, games, and all things to do with space. I chose to study Physics and Astrophysics at university as I felt that it was a good combination of my skills and interests.It was in university that I learnt how to write code. There was a introductory module in my 2nd year, and a further module on Numerical Computation. I struggled at first but found it really satisfying when I was able to solve problems with code. While at university, I started going to careers fairs to look at the sorts of job I could work in. I considered staying on to study further, and also roles in Engineering and Software Engineering. Given I'd discovered that I enjoyed coding from my modules, I decided to give software a go and apply for a graduate role as a Software Engineer. In my first role, I found I enjoyed it even more than I expected. Not only was I solving problems, but unlike at university they were real world problems. We had people that would use the software, and people that would enjoy using it as it saved them from doing lots of manual admin. Here, I helped build software for the Maritime Industry. Some of the projects I worked on involved displaying maps for ships to plot routes on, or taking raw weather data and reformatting it so it could be displayed on a map. It involved some of the maths that I enjoyed, such as dealing with different projections of maps. It also involved lots of creativity to make the product usable and look great. In 2019 I moved to FreeAgent to work as a Software Engineer on their accounting software. We write code that sends helpful insights to our customers. We worked with our internal User Experience Researchers and Designers to help us create something that our users love. Some of our insights involve crunching through large sets of data, and solving technical problems to make sure this doesn't take too long.In 2020, I moved into the Engineering Management role. Initially the team had 3 Engineers, so I started managing them and leading the team. The team has grown to 6 engineers, so I've had to build the team and bring new people in, and help the team to work effectively together. I'm still very much involved with solving the problems too, and I work even more closely with other parts of the business now, often helping to define what the next problem to solve will be."

"I love playing video games. I usually play single player games that are about the story, and especially love anything to do with space.I also like listening to audiobooks about psychology."

"My day starts at about 9am. I spend time on my computer catching up with emails, messages, and commenting on documents and code to give feedback on people's ideas. We have a 10am meeting with the team, called stand up. This is a chance to chat and also update people with what we've been doing, and what we are planning to do, and check to see if anybody needs any help. As a manager, I'm quite often in calls and meetings throughout the day. This can involve one to one calls with people on the team to check that they are getting on okay and try and help them to develop in their career. It also might be chats with other teams about a project that is coming up. And sometimes, I'm involved in planning for a project that we are doing, making sure things are on track and there is enough information available for other engineers to work on the project.I do still get involved in writing code, fixing bugs, and reviewing other people's code. Every week, we have an Engineering forum where we all come together and share new things that we've learnt."

"AS Levels - Graphic Design- Biology- Critical Thinking- ICTA Levels- Maths- Physics2:1 Degree in Physics and Astrophysics"