Your Team Mates

David Tyler

I distinctly recall telling some of my friends a couple of years back that I would never be caught dead in an office job. The very thought of spending 5 days a week 9 to 5 behind a desk was pretty abhorrent and having worked in a couple of sales-related office jobs before, I was fairly familiar with a certain office atmosphere where lunch breaks were an excuse to complain about the company/management.

Data Connection is just simply not like that at all. I arrive at half 9 to start work and spend the day working on problems which have been aimed at my skill level specifically so that I'm not bored or overwhelmed. At lunchtime, I head off to play frisbee or football for a couple of hours with some of the other employees. I then stay until fairly late in the evening, not because I feel like I have to, but because I want to get the work done.

The people here are also completely different from what I was expecting. Before I arrived, I would have said that it was likely the people were all straight out of their mother's basements and the word 'sport' would result in shudders around the office. Fortunately it's nothing like that at all, whilst everyone here is very intelligent they are also interesting and fun to get on with!

When I arrived, I was given a couple of small tasks for the first couple of weeks so that I could get used to programming in C before being thrown straight in at the deep end. Since then, I have been working on code that will be in the next release of MetaSwitch. I am told that it is fairly rare for a company to let its interns loose on actual product code but it is a very good feeling knowing that at some point in the future a lot of people are going to be using the things that I have written.

For the 3 months that I have been here, I have been living in a company house literally 2 minutes walk from my desk. Living in one of the houses is an awesome way to make friends quickly and I'm expecting to keep up contact with the people I've been living with.

If you are interested in a career in software engineering, then I would definitely recommend giving Data Connection more than just a passing thought. The relaxed attitude and exceptional atmosphere in the office make Data Connection a genuinely enjoyable place to work. Obviously I would like to come back next year but perhaps the best recommendation I can give this place is that it's just like an extension of university, and, let's be honest, that's what we are all looking for!