May Spartan of the Month: Oliver Tomkins

Congratulations for being named Spartan of the month!

It was a big surprise! It is a great honour, and it feels amazing to be noticed and appreciated for my hard work.

You joined Sparta Global in 2020 - at a time when the pandemic was impacting early career opportunities for so many young people. How did you come across Sparta Global?

I actually did not go to university – instead studying and graduating from two different colleges in both psychology and music technology. After this time, I spent a number of years in various retail and sales roles, but I had a newfound passion for tech. Tech hadn’t always been a conscious interest of mine until I felt I needed a career change. At this point, I looked into software development and the world of tech really caught me. Understanding the fundamental building blocks of so much in our world - I instantly wanted to dive in more! I found a job listing for Sparta Global on a career site and with no qualifications or experience; this was a great opportunity for me to kick start my career.

And then you were hired and in training! How did you find this?

The training was all entirely remote. I started on the C# Dev stream and then received an additional two weeks of the C# SDET stream, before finishing in January 2021. The training was fast-paced and engaging. It gave me the correct mindset and skillset to be able to problem-solve and was a great foundation to apply to my first role where I could continue to adapt and learn more.

You are now working on site with a Sparta Global client and big four consulting firm. Can you tell us a little bit about your day-to-day role?

With my team, I maintain automation frameworks and expand them as our platform grows. We write automated tests weekly to cover new features and regression test our existing platform. Where possible, we find time to refactor our UI and API frameworks to improve their scalability and efficiency and to increase our test coverage.

How have you found your first tech role?

Very exciting, different, challenging and fulfilling! I love my job and I'm proud to say that there isn't one aspect of it which I consider to be boring or a burden. I love to understand how things are put together and the logic behind them. I find myself constantly thinking some form of; “Oh, so that's how x does y!”. It is very fulfilling to work in tech and make a difference in our modern world. I am constantly finding ways to challenge myself and learn something new. Fortunately, I am always given an abundance of help and opportunities to do so. I am excited to continue this trend and see where it takes me!

Do you see yourself with a long career in technology?

I am very fulfilled and happy with my career path. I feel that I have been given the tools to grow in every way possible and do so every day.

Would you recommend Sparta to other graduates?

Absolutely. It is the perfect way to step into tech with all the skills you need to thrive. Sparta does a great job at bringing people from all walks of life together to work in an industry that they are passionate about. On top of all that, it is a brilliant company to work for. Sparta has a great atmosphere and is full of amazing people.