My alarm goes off…

At 6.15am… then again at 6.20am 😉

‍

Commute to work

I travel by train from Worthing, a small town by the seaside in West Sussex. It takes about 1hr 40mins to London and then a bit more to get to the office or client site.

‍

What does your role entail?

Problem solving. I work with clients to understand their business needs and help them formalise that into a technical plan of action. From that I define those requirements as something that the developers can pick up and create something magical. The key is asking questions and challenging ideas in a constructive way that enables everyone to come to a pragmatic solution.

‍

How did you get the job?

Before I was employed by Amido, I was the client for 2 years – working at the time as a Product Manager (and occasional Product Owner). When the commercial relationship ended in 2014, Alan (our CEO) asked me if I would like to join as the first Amido Business Analyst. I sort of consider the time I was a client as a 2-year interview… that I didn’t even know I was in!

‍

What does a typical day in the office look like?

It’s an extremely varied role to be honest. Some days I’m running client workshops, (either for existing clients or as part of a pre-sales activity) and other days I’m visualising requirements and working to get joint consensus on an approach. There are also days where I get my head down and I’m writing user stories or drawing out some wireframes in line with our next sprint goal. I mostly get to manage my own time, so I’m able to maintain that variety which is really great.

‍

Best part of your job? What’s most challenging?

The part I really like is working with clients who are excited about the opportunity that is in front of the team. I like to sit down with them and facilitate some creative thinking about the problem and come up with viable options.

The most challenging part is keeping in touch with all my colleagues as much as I would like. Although many teams work on client site for some of the week, we all aim to be in the Amido office at least one day a week. This is great and means I can chat with them about their projects and generally socialise.

‍

What do you love most about working at Amido?

Within Amido, I love that everyone can have an input into how the company is run and the processes that we use. It’s a real community feel amongst my colleagues and means that I learn something new every day!

‍

What interests you about tech?

It’s amazing how it is always changing and evolving. This makes it tough to keep up sometimes, but on the flipside, it keeps it fresh. Technology is infused in almost everything we do as a society so it’s great to be involved in projects that have so much positive impact.

‍

Best Amido perk

There are so many, but I’d have to say the training budget is amazing. You have a personal allowance to use on courses or conferences… really anything that will help you to grow as an individual and you can use on a project. Other companies I have worked for always had such a minimal training budget and it was only for a limited number of courses. I have learnt so much through training whilst working here.

‍

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to do a similar role?

Be inquisitive, ask questions and present options. All of these things will help you to find out what you need and enable you to define what elements are needed in a project. On top of that, be personable and get to know people. This is a vital skill in any role, but particularly for a Business Analyst – you need a trusted relationship to really get to the heart of what the individual’s goals are and how they align with the overall project goals.

‍

Interested in joining the team at Amido? Take a look at our latest vacancies.