Meet Davinder, a Senior Software Engineer at BAE systems. 

Growing up in my culture, the expectation of me was to settle down after finishing school. My career choice story started when my uncle gave me a fantastic present when I was 14 years old: a computer. I was instantly intrigued about how it worked. This set alight my passion to pursue my now wonderful career in software engineering. I studied a BTEC National Diploma in Computing, after which I went to university and graduated with a BSC (Hons) in Computer Science. Part of my degree involved me researching and writing a PHD level paper on ‘Data Integration’, which was published in the British Library. This got me noticed and I landed two job offers after graduating. 

Since joining BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, I’ve been working on a new system to replace a legacy platform for consuming border control data from many sources.  This has now gone live at all the UK airports and I am very proud to have been part of the deployment process too. 

My day normally begins with a stand up team call where each person says what they did yesterday and what they plan to do today, as well as flagging any concerns and asking if they need the Scrum Master to help them unblock an issue. I do like to listen to others because a colleague may be dealing with something that I could help with.’

‘Solving logical problems seemed to come naturally to me. Having always worked on Government projects since the beginning of my career, they gave me a sense of pride knowing I’ve made a difference in the world. So BAE Systems was a very easy choice because they are a famous government software provider. Throughout the year, the company participates in women’s awards and competitions, as well as regularly presenting and hosting women’s forums, society events and discussions. I feel women are natural programmers, and combined with the natural communication skills, is a perfect ground for working in software projects. 

As developers, we each have chunks of functionality assigned to us in the form of Jira tickets that collectively act towards a sprint goal we’ve previously decided on as a team at the fortnightly sprint ceremonies. The concentrated world of coding is such a wonderful place to be, as you’re trying to solve logical problems. It can be quite intense and consuming and I love it! Every so often, it can be frustrating trying to solve an issue, but this is where I lean on the benefit of having nearly 30 years in the software industry! Because in the coding world, it's a well-known fact that when you've been struggling with something for a long time, it’s better to step away and then come back to it.  

While we're talking about 'tricks of the trade', the number of times I've decided to ask a question, either via email/chat, and then deleted it is too many to count! That's because I've formulated the problem in my head to write down, but half way through, the solution has come to me. This is also a well-known phenomenon in the coding world and is now known as 'rubber ducking'. It’s simply choosing an object e.g. a rubber duck, and talking to it. It’s common amongst coders to say 'thanks for being a rubber duck'!  

I have predominantly worked from home since 2008, and I’m very strict with myself that I get out at lunch time and do some sort of exercise. I’ll alternate between going to the gym and walking to the shops which is a 3 mile return journey. I find it keeps my mind healthy and allows me to compartmentalise ‘stuff’ in my head.