People profile : Software Engineer

Name: Bart Read

Education: MSc in Computing Science from Imperial College, MSc in Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry from University of Nottingham

Position at Red Gate: Software Engineer

Start date: August 2004

First job ever: Paperboy

Before you arrived at Red Gate what did you do?

I spent some time contracting, which was great apart from the paperwork and dealing with the finances. I've also had a couple of other software development jobs, one in a converted barn in Dorset (which sounds a lot cooler than it actually was) and another for a company in the centre of Cambridge. There I worked on a large Java/C++/C system for pre-clinical research.

What does your job involve on a day-to-day basis?

That seems to vary quite a lot actually, which is something I like, as I tend to get bored quite easily. Obviously, at the moment I'm having to keep an eye on the running of the SQL Prompt 3 project, but I'm also having to do a lot of development work, and this project has been great for implementing wacko data structures here, there, and everywhere. I also put together the first version of our current build server, but cunningly managed to offload that quite a while ago when it became apparent there was too much for me to do in addition to development work.

What do you need to be a developer?

I'd say one of the most important things is an eye for detail, although you do also need to be able to understand the big picture, in terms of the system you're working on and how it interacts with the user, other applications and the operating system. But like I say, an eye for detail is important: sloppiness won't cut it. You need to be able to understand the problem domain you're working in, and this often means understanding the issues users face, and the problems they're trying to solve. You then need to be able to take this body of information, which is likely to be large (which is good), and you need to be able to identify the major issues and then decompose them into their component parts and structure the system accordingly. The actual act of writing code is the easy bit. Most of the job is in your head, and the code is simply the end-product of an ongoing thought-process. You do need to be ready to deal with the fact that, on every single project you work on, you will encounter one or more problems you had not foreseen, and you'll need to deal with these. If you've designed and implemented your software well, which I think as much as anything else means designing it without making too many assumptions, dealing with this won't cause too many problems.

Why did you choose Red Gate?

In some ways it was a happy accident. I had a friend who was working here as a sales administrator at the time, and he mentioned that Red Gate were looking for software developers. I had originally been interviewed and offered a job here as a tester, but although I liked the company I turned it down because I was planning to move back to Nottingham to do a course. In the end I decided not to move away and Red Gate offered me a job at the right time. They offered me an opportunity to do something a little more interesting again. Another reason for choosing Red Gate was that I wanted to move to working part time, which is something the directors were very flexible about.

What are your favourite Red Gate perks?

• Trade shows (the one I went on last year was great fun)
• Thursday (and celebratory) lunches
• Christmas meal
• Feel Good Fund evenings out (wine tasting, punting etc.)

Generally, the atmosphere is very pleasant, and we're certainly treated very well: I've never known a company to regularly take people down to the pub for lunch. It's great to work for a company where people take pride in doing a good job and in releasing software that actually works, that helps people, and is widely used.

What's your most memorable Red Gate experience so far?

Tricky. I'd been here for about 3 or 4 weeks when we all went on a trip to Amsterdam for the Red Gate day out, just for the fun of it. But then I went to a trade show in the States last year which was very cool. Spent some time hanging out on Venice Beach with a few of the guys, which was fantastic.