March Spartan of the Month: Jack Ingham

What and where did you study at university? Or did you not study at university at all?

I studied BSc (Hons) Computing at Solent University.

Where did you train with Sparta Global and which course did you study?

I joined Sparta in the midst of the pandemic meaning I trained remotely, studying the Java SDET course.

When did you join and graduate?

I started my training in March 2021 and graduated at the start of June.

How did you decide Sparta Global was the right career move for you?

I graduated from university in May 2020 and due to the pandemic, not many companies were hiring around this time! I sent off plenty of applications and never received a response. However, when applying for Sparta they were quick to respond, and I got the impression they valued me which was refreshing and created a good first impression to the business.

How did you find your training at the Academy, and how did your training prepare you for work?

Training at the academy was really good! I appreciated the pace having found university quite slow. There was plenty of support available as well as opportunities to go off and do extra work to demonstrate proficiency in topics. I appreciated the career advice alongside the technical teaching and being able to add projects from the academy to our portfolio on Github was very useful.

Can you tell us about the connections you have built through Sparta? How have you found the community to be?

Having completed my training online, it was strange to finally meet the people I trained with in person when we all joined our client 6 months later! We all get on great inside and outside of work and have met our other fellow Spartans who were placed elsewhere. There was also a social organised for other Spartans at our client which let us meet people outside our own team.

What is your current position and with what company?

I am a Performance Engineer at an online fashion retailer.

Tell us a little about your day-to-day role. What do you get stuck into?

We have a test environment that is an exact copy of production where our tests are ran. My job is to set the trigger to kick off the scaling for the resources in this environment, which supports the test we are running on that day. In the morning, I check the pipeline to make sure everything has scaled correctly to our guidelines, and manually scale other resources as needed using Azure portal or DevOps pipelines. I also raise our test rig which sends the traffic to the different services/APIs and configure the scale and traffic to modules depending on the specific test. I start and stop the test rig and monitor it whilst the test runs to make sure the rig and services are performing at the specified level for the test.

Are you enjoying working in the tech industry and if so – why?

I’m really enjoying it! I have loved finally being able to apply what I’ve learnt academically as well as picking up new skills whilst with my client.

Do you feel you now have the passion and skill to carve a long-serving career in technology?

Absolutely! I’m lucky that tech runs in my blood, and I’ve always known this is what I want to do. Everything up to now has laid the foundations for me to spend the rest of my life in this field.

How did it feel to be named Spartan of the Month?

Amazing! The initial feedback I received from my line manager was excellent and I was over the moon when I heard from my engagement rep that I was being put forward for Spartan of the Month. I’m very happy my achievements have been recognised.

Would you recommend Sparta to other graduates and if so – why?

Without Sparta I could not have dreamed of working with the client I am currently with or any of the clients I interviewed with. Sparta guided and helped me towards these interviews so I’d definitely recommend Sparta to those who can’t seem to get past the interview stage at jobs!

 

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