I remember the first day, I had never programmed a line of code in my life and I’d just started a Computer Science degree. We programmed a robot in Teams to draw something on a white board and I was hooked, it was daunting but I wanted more. My course was Computer Science, but we focused on games development, this lead me to finding Unity game engine and learning to program in C#. From my second year I tried to focus my projects around Unity as much as I could. Unity ended up being a massive part of the business for the first few years with our first games being built for iOS and Android using Unity tools. The course as a whole was a great experience, it challenged me in ways school never did. Lecturers such as Sarah Mount and Thomas Hartley supported our path to learning how to program. Kevan Buckley helped instil that independent learning focus and pushed everyone to make bigger and bigger steps. Big shout out to the enterprise team as well, if it wasn’t for them putting me in touch with SPEED the business might not have gotten off the ground.

We started the business as a games development company. My course taught me how to learn to program. I can’t say it taught me programming because you can only learn that yourself with practice but it taught me how understand the fundamentals which can be used to pick up any new language. The skills I learnt in the course directly helped the business when we created our three games. We created three published games between 2012 and 2014 and garnered over half a million downloads across the world with no marketing budget. I was the lead programmer whilst also learning how to run a business and working part time to support myself. My sandwich year shaped my focus immensely. I took a job at my old high school as a IT Technician and developed skills outside of programming. The people I worked with were great but ultimately, I was bored of the work very quickly, it strengthened my desire to become a programmer and make games which I now realise was a desire to be creative and to make things. In my role at VOiD I very rarely program because I’m running the business and the sales. However that base knowledge of how software works, how apps are created and how websites need to be built to convert has all stemmed from my education.

Currently, I’m responsible for the management of the business along with sales and relationship management. With a small business the owners tend to do everything needed to get the business moving but in the past year we have added to the team to allow time to work on the business as well as in the business.

To get to 10 years in business is a massive achievement. For the business to survive and thrive as it has is a testament to the people who have been part of it over the years. Our 10th year was our most successful with our highest turnover and profit recorded and new team members coming on board. We have started to work with some amazing new clients which are allowing us to improve our service offering and refine our process to produce the best work we’ve ever done. We’ve also joined a large community of digital agencies from all over the world who meet weekly with training sessions and webinars to create a support network for growth, it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made in the past 10 years and helping to shape the future of the business.

University was crucial for me and my career because I chose the right course. It’s not always that simple, especially when/if you’re starting university at 18. Make sure you research the course and it aligns with your career goals, and ask, will a degree help you get the job you want in the future? Turn up to the lectures and workshops… I know crazy idea right? But seriously the value is in the lecturers and that time is finite, use it to your advantage. Independent learning is a large part of the learning experience, especially if you are doing a course like Computer Science, so make time for it and make sure it fits around your course requirements. Have fun, it’s unlikely you’ll be back to University in the future once you’ve graduated and started your career.