Today I am joined by Mark Walsh, who is Senior Engineer at Dstny Automate. Hi, Mark. Hello. Mark joined us in June and I wanted to ask Mark if you could tell us a bit about your role and how you find it here.
Q – So, first of all, tell us about the work that you’re doing for Dstny Automate.
A – Yeah. So I’m predominantly working on the Carrier Automate product and part of my role is to ensure the product is stable, contribute with new features and from a position of seniority guide the rest of the team, by leadership, coaching, as well as getting involved in the tactical, nitty-gritty as well.
Q – Okay, so you joined us in June, and what was the joining process like?
A – Smooth! So, yeah, I mean, in terms of the kind of onboarding, I did most of that before my start date, everything administrative. In terms of actually getting up to speed with the product and the environment and the ways of working there was documentation, which is nice and is actually quite rare in other workplaces. So I was up and contributing within probably less than a day I think I did do my first code commit on my first day which is actually incredibly rare in the industry.
Q – Is this the first time we’ve worked for 100% remote first business?
A – Interesting question, it is not the first time. I had been working in various stages of hybrid or fully remotes since the end of 2019, so before the pandemic, so I’ve seen both sides of the coin.
Q – how are you finding it, working with Destiny automate? Do you think we do it differently? What are your thoughts on that?
A – In terms of the one thing that is different is within the first four weeks we all met in person. Obviously, I’d never met anyone in person before from Dstny Automate. That’s quite rare for any of the remote businesses that I’ve worked for, we didn’t really meet in person and it wasn’t a regular thing. And it did kind of felt like I was thrust into the deep end but in a good way, to get that face-to-face. Almost like it was thrown in the deep end but getting that sort of exposure face-to-face has been beneficial for me working with colleagues, and having that as a periodical thing every three months or so, you know, is something to look forward to. In terms of the day-to-day working, because obviously day-to-day is remote, yeah, I mean, it’s collaborative. It’s a lot more collaborative than some other companies I’ve worked for. We bounce ideas off each other quite a lot. We have a lot of meetings, camera-on meetings, and I think there is a level of inclusion here that I’ve not experienced elsewhere. I’ve worked for big, huge, massive corporations with a $3 billion market cap, and you don’t get that sort of family feel with companies like that.
Q – That leads me nicely on to the next question, which is, what do you like about working for Dstny Automate? What’s the thing that kind of gets you out of bed in the morning, that makes you want to sit at your desk at home and get on with the job?
A – Yeah, so this is a great question because I love giving this answer.
So my title is Senior Engineer, however, I’m not just wearing that hat, and this is the thing that I really like. Working for Dstny Automate I’m involved with a lot of different parts of the organization. So I frequently talk to stakeholders, I’m frequently involved in support, product is a massive thing that I’ve gotten a lot of input in as a the point of technical reference. My job is isn’t just, you know, here’s a feature we need you to write some code. I am kind of floating around multiple teams and people at the same time, which doesn’t suit everyone but absolutely suits me because my background is in in the startup culture. I’ve worked for multiple startups, some smaller, some bigger than Dstny Automate in the part that I work in for Carrier Automate. So I’m doing a lot of things that I’ve never done before as well. So from a technical perspective, and I’m using a lot of products that I’ve never used before, and there’s a lot of concepts that I’ve never experienced before that are very specific to this industry. So I like that kind of thing. I think I’d get bored quite easily if I didn’t have that variation. I’ve certainly worked in other companies a lot more prescriptive about what you do within your role and you know, you mustn’t kind of leave the confines of your role, whereas in Dstny Automate, it’s not like that at all. As long as you’re capable and you can prove yourself and you give value, then you will be permitted the kind of blossom!