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Meet Luke Preston, one of Trail’s brilliant Software Engineers.
I have been a Software Engineer since 2011 after graduating with my maths degree from Keele University. My humble beginnings started with Java working for UBS, and afterwards, I moved on to web development, working for the BBC on their iPlayer product.
Most of my skills came from working at the BBC, where I fell head over heels working with the product team and designing incredible features, like introducing live playback in time for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
When I was ready to move on to a new role, I had never worked for a startup before and was sceptical of the whole process. But the moment I met the Trail team, everything clicked, and I was so happy to join this fantastic team.
I am a Software Engineer and work in the product team to write and maintain code for the application. I also helped design the app to enable Trail users to get the most out of their experience.
They are all important to me, but the value that makes working at Trail amazing is “Make the tea”.
Make the tea — Be thoughtful, generous and kind. No politics, no games. Put yourself in the shoes of others, act with compassion and cover each other when life happens.
I feel confident knowing that the team is there to help and support me, as I am for them. It can be hard to put a problem or project aside to take time off. But at Trail, I feel confident that if I go on holiday or I’m ill, the codebase will be in safe hands.
Working at home can be distracting. I have found taking time to enjoy the distractions helps me refocus when I get back to work. Stopping to have a coffee with my family or sitting next to my kids whilst they are playing helps me relax, especially when I have been struggling with a complex problem in the codebase. Taking this time helps me solve problems better and faster than if I chained myself to my desk.
My best moment was when I released my first user-facing feature. I worked closely with the designers on the team, and together we created something simple and elegant. It was incredible because I got to work with designers who wanted to sit with an engineer and solve a problem instead of just chucking solutions over the fence or yielding to “impossible” situations. It was a small feature but everyone at Trail was so positive about it and it was a feeling I wanted to share with everyone.
If you want to join our brilliant team, check out our job openings.
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