Life as a Senior Software Engineer at EDF: Jeremy's story
What do surfing and software engineering have in common? They’re both passions of our Senior Software Engineer, Jeremy Brooks. And with our flexible working policies, he gets to enjoy both in his role at EDF.
What do you do at EDF?
I’m a Senior Software Engineer in the Central Engineering Services team for EDF’s Customers business.
What kind of work do you do?
I provide technical leadership in a cross-functional team. I tend to be parachuted into different project teams and I enjoy that; change of context is important for me. I like to take on a new challenge every 6 to 12 months or so.
At the moment, I’m working with a team on the migration of an old system that deals with legacy prepayment meters into the cloud. The objective is to modernise the solution using a more efficient and distributed cloud native technology. This will make it more adaptable, so it can be easily updated and improved in the future.
What motivated you to come and work at EDF?
In all honesty, it was my interview with Steve Bowerman, the Principal Software Engineer. The job looked interesting and I could work flexibly too, which is why I applied. But it was when I was chatting with Steve, that I realised we were very similar of mind and I identified with everything he said.
What’s the culture like at EDF?
It’s really positive. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why I joined. I feel like I’ve moved through my life trying to improve the culture of everywhere I’ve worked. But EDF has given me the best experience in my career so far. Everyone’s really collaborative and open. It’s not just the engineers either, but people from elsewhere in the business too. We work together really well and I enjoy this aspect of my job enormously.
What does collaboration look like on a day-to-day basis at EDF?
There’s a lot of pair and group programming. If we’ve got a particular problem to solve, for instance, we’ll get together in a group and someone will drive the keyboard, while the other two input ideas. And what happens is we often come to a solution quicker like that in a group, than we would individually. Usually it’s a stronger solution too, because you’ve had a group of minds looking at the problem, rather than just one individual.
It can be hard to convince people of the benefits of group programming if they don’t do it regularly. But often time tells the story that working in a group gives you far cleaner code and a quicker solution.
How do you structure your week?
I work a compressed four-day week. So Monday to Thursday I’m at work, and then Friday is my day off. I’ve been renovating my house so this has taken up a lot of my Fridays, but I might also spend time with my wife, see friends or do some gardening.
Where are you based?
I live in Cornwall, which really suits me because as well as being a software engineer, I’m a surfer.
If I’m stressed at work and can get away for two hours in the sea, everything else falls out my brain, and I just see the sea. I’m in rhythm with the waves and if I get some good rides, it’s just the best. I come back reset. It’s amazing.
I’m lucky because the team I work with understand that if there’s a weather window when there’s some surf, I might be away in the middle of the day or at odd times. We’ll coordinate so we can still get the work done together, and I might work a little late that day or start earlier to make up the time.
How does EDF help you fit work and life together?
I’m 43 now, and it’s super important to me that I have flexibility in my life so I can do the work I enjoy, but still do the things I like doing outside work too.
My manager knows that flexibility and hybrid working is important to some people, but not to others. Some people want to be in the office, which is fine. And if you want to work from home, great, it doesn’t matter either way at EDF.
Want a career where work and life fit together? We’re recruiting for senior software engineers. Find out what vacancies we have available.
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