Time with the company: 4 Years
What attracted you to Salt Communications?
Salt offered me the opportunity to move away from the financial exchange world of back-end server work that I had done for most of my career. Mobile development was something I enjoyed doing on a freelance basis and taking the job at Salt meant I could do it full-time.
After my first meeting with the team, it was very clear to me that the staff were friendly, highly capable and passionate about their chosen fields. This, together with flexible working arrangements and a lack of corporate rigidity made for a pretty good package that allows me to do my job more effectively.
The pool table may also have been a contributing factor.
What does your current role entail at Salt Communications?
My days are mainly spent developing new features as they’re added to the product, or fixing issues our customers have come across. I also spend a chunk of my time testing the product, working with the product and dev managers to plan out content for new releases, prioritising fixes and generally working on ways of improving our product and processes.
What has challenged you within the industry?
Software development is a rapidly changing field and Android development is no exception. The fragmentation of the Android platform means we have to deal with various OS releases, each with their own bugs and quirks, and numerous hardware configurations that we encounter on a multitude of devices.
New code architectures are always being promoted, new languages have been supported and new ways of protecting user data are always being developed so the real challenge is filtering out what you don’t need to learn and then learning what you do need to know to a level that you can effectively utilise it before it becomes redundant or outdated.
What is the best part of your job at Salt Communications?
The best part of my job is the autonomy I’m given. ‘Work-life balance’ has always been a misnomer in my previous roles but Salt Communications very much allows me to manage work and my personal life around one another to the benefit of both.
What Advice would you give to others starting their career in the Cybersecurity Industry?
If you are interested in a career in cyber security, plan your roadmap according to the skills required in the positions that interest you most. Learning the basic skills of cyber security will help to smooth the path to your dream role. This is a continually changing field and constant reading is important, as is actively developing and maintaining skills. No one knows everything at the beginning, so don’t be afraid to throw yourself in the deep end.
