We recently caught up with John Hutcheon, who has recently been employed as a Skipton Building Society as a Software Engineer after working as a Counter consultant.
What do you think helped you stand out to the client during your time as a Counter consultant?
I think my willingness to ask questions and generally be vocal within the team helped me stand out. Ensuring communication and availability is really important I think. Letting people know where you are with a piece of work, how long you think it’ll be until you finish it, and actively reaching out to other members of staff to assist with their work when you’re free.
Which achievements or contributions during the project do you feel were most influential in the client offering you a permanent position?
Quite early on during the contract, I volunteered to talk through our team’s demo of the areas of the app we had developed. This was in front of around 100 people and I was told it’d been quite brave of me to put myself forward for it!
How did working as a Counter consultant prepare you for joining the client directly?
The transition has been very smooth, as I’ve essentially been doing the job since we started. Although it was quite daunting at first, Skipton treated us as if we were permanent staff from the get go.
In what ways did Counter’s support, processes, or culture help you approach your project successfully?
A big shout out to our Counter Tech Lead, Xav, who had already been working at Skipton and was able to assist with any queries. He was on hand to help with tech issues, but also definitely helped me on a couple of occasions early on when imposter syndrome was starting to rear its ugly head!
We would also have fortnightly formal catch ups where he’d check in to just see where our head’s at, which was really helpful.
When you first joined the project, what did you prioritise to build trust and credibility with the client team?
I think speaking up and being vocal in stand ups, retros and any other meetings helped to show that I’m trustworthy and credible. Building relationships with different stakeholders in Skipton- such as Design/UX showed I’m capable of understanding the bigger picture outside of just the code I was working on.
What are you most looking forward to now that you’ll be working for the client directly?
Although I’ve learned a lot in the first 6 months, I feel like I’ve only touched the surface in regards to the technical side of things. I’m looking forward to my confidence growing even further and being able to affect decisions within the business that will ultimately benefit Skipton’s customers.
What advice would you give to other Counter consultants working with clients who hope to make a similar impact?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Nobody is expecting you to know everything when you’re starting out in a role. As a dev, things are constantly going to be changing, so it’s important to have the confidence to say “I don’t know” sometimes. Being enthusiastic and willing to help others definitely goes a long way too.
