Chikku Thomas, a Software Engineer for M&S tells us a little about herself and a day in the life of her role

Multi tasking, quick learning, a creative mind, fast paced and who love change; surely, these are characteristics that are second nature to us girls. As a software developer within the international development team at Marks and Spencer, my role demands all of the above and more within a day’s work.

As part of the ‘Agile’ team, my role is focussed at developing and improving our country specific websites to drive revenue from un-tapped markets. The typical workday starts off with the team stand up meeting where we plan our tasks for the day. The rest of the day is a mix of activities; no two days are similar. The day is split between liaising with business analysts to understand requirements and developing and testing the code. We work in two weekly sprints at the end of which we release code to production. This quick paced approach enables us to deliver changes and improvements to our customers faster.

The work environment here is casual and energetic. We celebrate our success, learn from our mistakes and constantly strive to deliver better results. The software team is highly supportive and always encouraging to learn and develop. We are given our 10% time in a week that is dedicated to personal development.

I see it as a privilege to work for Marks and Spencer, a company that takes pride to be a traditional British retailer. It is an amazing opportunity to see the effort that goes behind selling products to customers, from analysing the needs of the customer, conceptualizing and design of product to delivery. The focus always being to make lives of our customers that much more easier and comfortable.

To give you a brief background of myself, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication engineering and have over two years’ experience of working within the IT industry. I started my career working as an associate developer for an Indian company and joined Marks and Spencer last year through their graduate software engineering scheme. The journey so far has been intriguing and filled with varied experiences. In today’s world where everyone is highly dependent on technology, I see working in this field as an opportunity to contribute to society whilst being able to work in a relaxed fun filled environment. IT is definitely not just for the boys!