A huge congratulations to Joe Thomas-Williams who recently celebrated his 5-year Long Service milestone.
We caught up with Joe to find out more about his time at OGL so far:
My first role at OGL was as a junior developer on Profit4, which I started straight after finishing computer science at university. The development team was much smaller when I joined, and I saw it grow and change a lot over the years. I found it very difficult at first, having to learn multiple frameworks and languages, and working on a large project as opposed to the personal projects I did at university. But over time I improved a lot, and I did get to grips with it in the end.
Summer of this year, I was asked to do some work on support to cover a period of reduced work force due to holidays etc. This came at the perfect time really, as I had been starting to feel that maybe I wanted to try something different to development, but wasn't sure what. I found that working on support was much better suited to me, due to the more social aspect and variety of tasks, and really enjoyed it. So I asked if I could stay on support and was offered the role of 2nd line technical consultant. I have now been working on support for 6 months, and even though it's been challenging, it's been really rewarding and engaging. Adam and Beckie especially, but everyone really has been so welcoming, and I already feel like a valued member of the team.
My favourite aspect of working at OGL is of course the people. Everyone is so friendly and there is a real team atmosphere, you really feel like everyone is in it together and it's just a really great place to work. The activities outside of work have been so fun too, whether that's Christmas parties, quiz nights, drinks at the three lions after work, theme park trips, or board games on lunch break!
Karen doesn't work here any more, but a particularly notable memory is when Karen's parrot chimed in on my Teams interview for the junior developer role! I got to meet Karen's parrot too, when we went on a ride on her canal boat with the development team…Good memories.
I also remember a particularly fun afternoon during my early days working here, where we took part in the Snyk CTF, which was a puzzle challenge with a security company to raise awareness about security. I remember working on one of the puzzles with Matt P. after the work day finished - Keith had to kick us out of the building as we stayed too late! I still have the t-shirt I received from Snyk for taking part.
Joe's manager, Rebecca Willitts, commented:
I first met Joe when he joined the Technical Support team on a secondment from Development back in June, only a few weeks after I began my own journey with OGL. Joe settled into support life really quickly, and he played a big part in helping me build my confidence during those early learning months.
Over the last six months, Joe has continued to grow from strength to strength. We were delighted when a permanent position opened for him in September, giving us the opportunity to permanently move him to the team.
Joe continues to develop in his role, and we’re really excited to see where his support journey will take him next.
Joe, congratulations on reaching five years with OGL. This is a fantastic milestone and a huge achievement. Well done!
