As a Senior Developer at Saratoga, most of Donal Slemon’s days start the same way – with a good, strong cup of coffee. Following his caffeine fix Donal goes on to check his emails, before diving into implementing solutions or working on ideas for problems he’s tackling on the client project.
An important part of his work routine is the daily scrum ‘stand-up’, where each team member can discuss their work with their colleagues and the product owner. These stand-up sessions are invaluable to Donal and the team, and provides everyone with the opportunity to discuss their progress on the current project and to gain feedback from their colleagues regarding challenges they may be facing.
Programming has always interested Donal, and he found it to be a mentally stimulating field. This, combined with problem solving and creating software which is an enabler of efficiency and of growth for a client or organisation, is what ultimately attracted him to a career in Software Development. “I’m consistently intrigued by the possibilities of tech as a tool for our advancement as a species, and the idea that the intention behind its use is what drives us.” Seeing a feature or an application that he has worked on go live to Users for the first time, and hearing the feedback on how it made the client’s work easier, brings Donal fulfillment as a developer.
Donal enjoys being surrounded by Saratoga’s diverse group of knowledgeable people, and finds it incredibly stimulating to share ideas and to learn from his fellow Saratogans. “In software development there are so many different ways to skin a cat (no cats are harmed – promise!), so it often adds interest when a colleague says ‘I would have done it this way’.”
A large part of Saratoga’s culture centres on continuous learning. To support this, our staff host regular Spark sessions, where Saratogans have the opportunity to present talks to their colleagues on innovative tech trends and lessons from projects they’ve worked on. Saratoga also fosters continued improvement through mentorship programmes, with opportunities either to institute a formal process, or something more ad-hoc to track and guide the employees’ progress.
The culture at Saratoga is the right fit for Donal, as he’s found Saratogans to be open and friendly – but also strongly focused when necessary. “There is almost always help at hand, but also enough space to forge your own path.”
If you’re interested in joining Saratoga’s team of talented developers and tech experts, visit the our careers page for more information about our current open roles.
