Leaders in Tech: Matt Rees

[DevOps Online]

Welcome to our Leaders in Tech editorial series. Speaking to leaders in the industry to capture their stories, career highs and lows, their trials and successes, their current company and their role, most recent projects, advice to others, and the individuals who they most look up to in the industry.

This week, we talked to Matt Rees, Digital Solution Architect at BT, to find out more about why he joined the tech industry, what his role entails, what are the challenges he faces as a tech leader, and his advice to aspiring engineers and developers.

First of all, could you introduce yourself and your current role?

I’m Matt Rees a Solution Architect at BT Digital working in the Consumer division – we build and maintain all the digital products for BT’s Consumer brands (BT, EE, and PlusNet).

Can you tell me about your journey in technology?

I went to university to study Audio and Music Technology at the University of the West of England (UWE) which is a new university in the city of Bristol, UK. I’d chosen that course as I wanted to become a sound engineer. On the first day the course leader said if we wanted to be sound engineers, we should “go and be someone’s tea boy in a recording studio … and that we were at university to learn about the technology that underpins sound and music”.

That was 2008 which was a big year in mobile development as iPhoneOS 2.0 launched. Most people don’t remember that when the first iPhone launched in 2007 it only had the default Apple software. iPhone OS 2.0 saw the launch of the App Store where developers could build custom software “Apps”. I saw the iPhone as the natural evolution of the iPod – the defining piece of music technology of my generation so being able to add custom software to this seemed to me like the perfect intersection of music and technology.

At university, I learned the basics of C and C++ building audio plugins, in my final year I began learning Objective-C so I could build iPhone apps. UWE is the newer and smaller university in Bristol but whereas it can’t compete with Bristol university’s heritage and research status it was very good at preparing students for work. So much so that one module even required us to build a digital product for a local company. I managed to convince my friends that we should build an iPhone app for a local football website and so my journey into professional development began.

Once I’d graduated the university secured me an internship at a local digital agency building mobile apps and over the course of the last 11 years I’ve worked for a number of agencies across the UK building apps for brands including Jet2, McCain, and UK Greetings. After a few years, I decided to switch from being agency side to being client-side and saw that EE was hiring. EE sold iPhones so it seemed a natural fit for a place to go and make iPhone apps. BT then purchased EE.

What inspired you to get involved in the IT industry?

It’s great to be able to build something that people are using. It’s similar to music when all the parts come together and you can see people enjoying the song it can be really rewarding. Having an idea and being able to build that and have it come to life is the main reason I started coding.

What is the favorite part of your job?

I love learning, so being in such a fast-paced industry where you’re constantly having to learn new skills is really enjoyable, it can be stressful always having to stay on top but as you get more experienced you learn when and how to pick up new tools.

According to you, what makes a good leader in the industry?

Empathy – leading a team is both about being great with technology and making sound decisions but also appreciating that everyone has their own lives with their own circumstances. Those circumstances could be anything from having a newborn baby, a relationship breaking down, or a family member being sick. Being able to support your team by helping them through those moments will pay dividends in the long run.

What are some of the challenges you faced during your career?

One of the earliest challenges was the perception of not having a computer science or software engineering degree meant I didn’t know how to code. This is where having a portfolio of projects I’d worked on really helped. I produced fully working apps that helped me learn the basics of coding. Software engineering can be taught on the job and each company has different standards anyway so never be afraid to apply for a job that you think is above you. You can teach standards, but you can’t replace passion.

What are you the proudest of in your career so far?

When our app (My EE) hit number 3 in the App Store charts for Utilities (behind Google Chrome and Google Search) that was really rewarding to see.

Do you have goals for the future?

I’d love to be involved in making software engineering more environmentally friendly. In my spare time, I build the website for Protect Our Winters UK where we help passionate outdoor people become effective climate advocates to achieve systemic solutions to climate change.

Do you have any advice for aspiring engineers and testers?

Start now. There is so much great content (both free and paid) out there start making mistakes now. Mistakes are how we learn and get better, it’s better to make lots of small mistakes and keep continuously improving than it is to be the perfect first time.

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