Embracing the creativity in tech

In this Insiders interview, Alex reveals her passion for creativity in tech, problem-solving and the strength found in teamwork. She tells us about her interests in cyber security, sharing anecdotes from the early days of phone hacking – with a surprising twist. Plus, she highlights the importance of mentorship and overcoming self-doubt. 

Q: How did you decide on a software engineering career?

I ended up working in software engineering because my parents used to say ‘ you’ll never get a job if you’re just sitting and looking at a computer screen all day’. Joking of course, but who didn’t hear that growing up?

My working life began at 16 with a temporary office job in my hometown as part of a government initiative tracking cows after the foot and mouth disease outbreak. After being made redundant from that role, I took a job at McDonald’s to save money for university.

During my studies, I continued to work in hospitality, which if nothing else, showed me that I wanted a different career path. I realised I preferred the quiet focus of an office environment, enjoying tasks that felt like mental puzzles – where I could use my creativity to find solutions. This realisation made studying computer science and pursuing a career in software engineering a natural fit. 

After a couple of years as an IT assistant I moved to Manchester and joined a coding apprenticeship scheme. While I found the IT work enjoyable enough, it involved a lot of physical labour.

It might sound like an odd life goal, but after working many stressful, physically demanding jobs – a quieter, more mentally engaging career became a priority. I’ve now been at Made Tech for nearly 4 years and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Q: You mentioned enjoying mental puzzles, is there another area in tech that fits that creativity?

I’ve always had an interest in cybersecurity. For years I’ve enjoyed listening to cybersecurity podcasts purely for fun. I also volunteer with a local charity, where I’ve recently been advising on potential cybersecurity mitigations – that’s something I also get a lot of joy out of, using my skills to benefit the public good. 

I’m excited about the idea of growing my skills in cyber security and teaching others on how we can all protect ourselves. You may have heard that as humans, we’re the weakest link in any security chain. 

For example, did you know that during the early days of phone hacking or “phreaking,” as it’s been called, people would pull off crazy stunts? Back in the 60s and 70s, people used creativity to mess with the structure of the new nationwide telephone network. Namely in the form of free toy whistles found in Cap’n Crunch cereal.

When blown they would hit 2,600 hertz frequency, which was the same frequency that the phones used to disconnect the line. So people would walk past a bank of phones, blow into a whistle and then watch everyone get annoyed when they got cut off.

Q: What is it about cyber security you enjoy so much?

What I find really interesting about cyber security is the creativity behind it. The idea that people make a system to do a thing and then someone else thinks about how to use that system for completely unintended purposes. While these hackers didn’t have the best intent, the innovation is what’s interesting. 

We build systems with specific intentions, and then others find creative ways to use those systems for unintended, sometimes malicious reasons. It’s that ingenuity and the constant interplay between creation and exploitation, that I find really interesting. 

Q: Let’s talk about workplace culture, alongside problem solving and creativity – what’s most important to you?

When it comes to work culture, I think collaboration in a team is important. We’re big on collaboration at Made Tech. That may sound like a bit of a non-answer from me, but having worked in teams where sometimes I was the only person maintaining a product and there’s no one else to rely on when things start to go wrong. That can be incredibly stressful.

One of the things I really like about Made Tech is that we do try to be as collaborative as possible by nature. We’re open and happy to share our experiences, knowledge and learnings with each other.

We’re really great at lifting each other up here too. In some of my previous roles it’s been a bit dog-eat-dog at times, with promotion windows causing competition instead of collaboration. What I do find working here is that every project I’ve worked on there’s been other members of the team to confide in. I’ve been able to rely on their experience and knowledge – everyone’s happy to give each other a hand. That shines through with our commitment to mentoring and upskilling more junior staff members.

Q: Speaking of mentoring, do you have any guidance for those breaking into the industry?

Don’t suffer in silence. While I was growing up and working in customer service, the mentality was always that if you’re not pulling your weight and adding value, then you’re not worth your place in the team. Everyone had their own work and you had to get on with it. The environment was competitive, everyone wanted to move up and getting a promotion was a zero-sum game. 

It took me a while in more healthy teams to acclimatise to being able to ask someone for help. Whether they have expertise or domain knowledge that I don’t, or just to have another pair of eyes on what I’m working on. In software engineering, we all need to be pulling in the same direction. We need to foster a supportive working environment, otherwise progress will slow.

Q: Something we hear about a lot is imposter syndrome, do you have any advice for that?

Considering my early experiences, my impostor syndrome was through the roof early in my career. I thought I’d ‘lucked in’ to my role, and would actively avoid more senior members of the team – because once they saw how useless I was, I’d be ‘found out’ and lose my job and career.

It wasn’t until I started mentoring that I realised just how ubiquitous this experience is – especially for women in tech. When I was first asked to line manage 2 of our associate engineers from the Made Tech Academy, I was terrified. What could I possibly know to help out these talented people? Would I end up accidentally tanking their career? 

But once I started talking to them, they both had the same problem – they felt their development was slow and they weren’t progressing as well as other team members. This was affecting their self perception more than anything else. I remember promising to help one of them through a problem. She realised she already knew what to do after i’d asked a few questions. I pointed this out, shared my experiences and asked her to not let the impostor syndrome overcome her like it used to for me. 

She asked how long it took in my career for the impostor syndrome to go away completely. I laughed, and told her I’ll let her know when it does.

Are you looking to join a collaborative team with a purpose? Take a look at our open roles. 

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