#GradStories Brónagh Deane, Associate Software Engineer, Fidelity Investments

What is your name, job title and employer?

My name is Brónagh Deane, I'm an Associate Software Engineer, in Fidelity Investments

What are the main tasks you do in your job in a normal week?

A large part of my day would be developing code to implement software solutions. I work as part of a team with other engineers, so I spend time reviewing their code and writing automated test scripts to test the code they’ve written. I work as part of a global team, so part of my day always consists of meeting up with team members in Ireland and also across the U.S. in either in meetings through instant messaging or video calls.

What skills do you need to be successful in your role?

The kind of skills you really need would be problem-solving. I'll use my problem-solving skills every day whether it's just trying to figure out the best way to develop a feature for our application or if there's a bug in your code you need to use your problem-solving skills to go in and determine the root cause, the bug and deciding on the solution. Teamwork and communication skills are definitely two of the key skills you need. I work every day with other members of my team whether it's just determining the best way to implement the solution or actively working together developing code together by pair programming. You need to be able to explain complex problems and solutions to other members of the team and the easiest way possible and also being able to contribute as a valuable member of the team is very important.

What do you love about your job?

I'm working with new technologies, different applications and with people across the globe so every day is different every day has a new challenge. I really loved the problem-solving aspect of my job, working out how to implement a new feature for our client or trying to find the root cause or a solution for a bug and as well we have a really great sense of camaraderie in our workplace so everyone's really approachable and always eager to help and answer questions. We have learning days, so once every two weeks we have a full day dedicated to our own learning where we can go off and learn whatever we want so recently I did my AWS certificate, so Amazon Cloud Certificate.

What did you do as a student that has helped you most in your career?

When I was in Leaving Cert, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I went through the usual routes teacher, doctor, all the normal kind of stuff and I ended up coming on to engineering and I did the undenominated engineering course in NUIG. I thought I was going to go into the biomedical engineering route but in my first year in university we got the opportunity to learn the C programming language and that's what drove me to electronic and computer engineering which is how I ended up in tech.

What was your career break?

I did an internship with Fidelity Investments in Galway. It's an 8-month long internship and I did it in my third year in University. Then at the end of that internship I heard about the graduate program and we got the opportunity to interview for that. That's one of the key things I think that has contributed to my career. As part of that I obviously improved my programming skills but the workplace experience I gained was invaluable and on top of that I got to build relationships with people in the company who were able to give me advice for the rest of my time at University and my career.