Voice of NextGen: Austin Wells

Austin Wells, Junior Developer, Hermes Logistics Technologies

My interest in tech first started at a young age, after playing games and using visual programming languages like LEGO Mindstorms and scratch in school. Completing an IT BTEC culminated in me studying game development at university. After finishing a placement year at an energy company, I came to realise that what I enjoyed wasn’t making games but programming them instead. This inspired me to move into a more standard programming career instead of game development.

Since coming to Hermes as a Junior Developer in April 2021, I’ve become a significantly more well-rounded developer beyond my very back-end focussed experience with new front-end, back-end, and azure experience. Understanding and working with new cloud technologies is one of the main driving forces behind how I approach my work as a developer today.

My most memorable experience at Hermes so far has been my work on Track and Trace, where I implemented new User Interface, API, and back-end functionality. As my first major piece of work, it introduced me to many technologies that I hadn’t had much experience with before, like front-end development with Angular. It also gave me good insight into a large portion of Hermes’ NG ecosystem, which was a solid starting point for getting to where I am as a developer now.

With many companies, the systems and technologies they use are already entrenched and resistant to change, but Hermes’ current migration into the cloud and event-driven processing gives junior developers like me a unique opportunity to work with the implementation of new and evolving technologies, rather than just their upkeep, which is very beneficial for professional development.

In the future, I would like to move into a more senior development role, getting more involved in the decision-making processes that decides much of what I have been working on today. 

Story edited by meantime.global