What was your HE course and when did you graduate?
I studied MSc eCommerce (Technology) and I graduated in 2008.
Could you briefly describe the organization you work for?
Visit Digital Ltd builds software for the tourism industry, we put a tool set in the hands of town and city marketing teams allowing them to reach a global audience with the goal of increasing footfall. Our website is at http://www.visitdigital.com
What is your job title and role?
Managing Director – I oversee day to day operations at Visit Digital Ltd. My primary role is to guide a small team of developers and designers to deliver a cutting edge tourism platform on the Drupal 7 platform.
What modules are most helpful to you in your job?
Programming – although I am a competent programmer I am self taught so I skipped the first 3 chapters in most books when I learnt for the first time. The programming modules took me right back to the beginning and immediately filled some missing gaps in my knowledge.
Where do you use your specialist skills and abilities?
Having a background in software engineering is a key ingredient in giving my applications the edge when it comes to their organic digital marketing performance. I quickly learnt that how data is structured at database level can make a critical difference to your marketing campaigns. Even something as simple as a user sharing an application on Facebook, it has got to look good in that environment. Often applications are rated by their creators in their native environments like a website in a browser, little attention is given to how each page renders in social channels but in reality this is just as important.
Do you find yourself using the transferable skills that you developed in University?
Presentations were never one of my strong points but needing to do them regularly at University made it second nature when it came to delivering them at board level in London.
What aspects of your job do you enjoy most?
I really enjoying having a broad skill set so I can tackle most tasks from programming one day to a paid search campaign the next.
UWTSD Applied Computing Blog 