Tweak Digital Podcast

Today on the podcast I tried something different after being approach by a junior developer, Josh Brearly, who is currently working his way through his training with Code Nation. In this episode, Josh and I discuss the state of the tech market and what took him out of recruitment and into a development role. Josh… Read More »Josh Brearley of Code Nation

In this episode I chat with the Business Director of The Social Chain, Ben Harris. Ben had a load of experience for a bigger media company but joined The Social Chain with a view of taking a more hands-on  role and as Social Chain have exploded this has really paid dividends for him. In case… Read More »Ben Harris of Social Chain

Justin Gilchrist and I first became acquainted when I approached him after discovering his work online. Justin has been well-known in the world of buying and selling digital assets, specifically websites for many years and I was delighted to learn that he lived just a few miles away from me. I didn’t end up purchasing… Read More »Justin Gilchrist of Wellbox

Dr. Abiodun Yusuf is a founding member of Qalhatta Technology, who specialist in data analysis and are based here in Manchester. Abiodun, took a non-standard route into a career (and subsequently business ownership) in technology that you don’t see every day. After studying a Master’s that had him take a module on intelligent systems Abiodun… Read More »Dr. Abiodun Yusuf of Qalhata Technology

Since starting the podcast, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of permanent developers who’ve contacted me and shown an interest in getting into contracting themselves. Contracting has suited me incredibly well for a wide variety of reasons…not simply because of the juicy day rates. In this episode, I spent a bit of time chatting… Read More »Lee Mason of Masetech

Money Supermarket are one of the UK’s leading technology businesses and continue to go from strength-to-strength. I’ve been keen to record with them as they are a major entity within the Manchester technology community, having moved their head office here from Chester a few years ago. In this episode I speak with their Technology Director,… Read More »Rob Bowley of Money Supermarket

In this episode, Chris and I chat about his background in technology and music entrepreneurship, with specific attention paid to his current project, Hyperlaunch. Chris explains about the extent to which he feels the music and technology industries overlap and goes into some detail about the colossal amount of data the music industry is now… Read More »Chris Garret of Hyperlaunch

Chris Thacker left Money Supermarket to become CTO of Mojo Mortgages, a new business setup to disrupt the mortgage market. Chris chats about his reasons for taking the role and how his life has changed shifting gears into a more-senior position at a smaller organisation. We chat about his predictions for the future regarding the… Read More »Chris Thacker of Mojo Mortgages

I first worked with Wez on a project back in 2016 before our paths crossed again during my time at Booking.com. Since we left Booking.com, Wez and I worked together briefly again at Co-op before he and Bayo joined forces to work on Peer Pioneers, a technology company focused on mentoring. In this episode, we… Read More »Wez Pyke & Bayo Jide of Peer Pioneers

Naomi had been a consultant in the tech space but lost her job which proved to be a blessing in disguise it would seem. It wasn’t long before she found herself with more consulting work and now engages with a variety of technology businesses as a growth consultant, here in Manchester. The good news for… Read More »Naomi Timperley of FreelanceHER100

Simon is one of the founders of PushOn, who specialise in online marketing for e-commerce companies. We chat about how the agency came to be founded and what they’ve experienced as a business over the past 10 years operating here in Manchester. Simon explains that PushOn capitalise on an opportunity they saw in the market… Read More »Simon Wharton of PushOn

Evie Brockwell is a Senior Product Owner at Booking.com and after working with her back in 2019, I was really keen to get her onto the podcast to speak about her rapid rise through the ranks and her experiences as a women in tech.

In this episode of the podcast, Ersel and I open with a chat about his work at Reactive Energy and why he feels it can fill a gap in the market, even though he feels the UK is ahead of the curve when it comes to smart energy. We chat about the stage Reactive Energy is at in its lifecycle and what's on the horizon for the company.Ersel talks about his involvement with coding bootcamps, as well as one of his earlier startups (Just Fulfil) that is a bit more mature now and requires less input from him. Ersel has transitioned from contractor into business owner and while it hasn't been easy, he isn't looking back.Reactive EnergyJust FulfilErsel Aker on LinkedIn

Ersel Aker is a serial tech entrepreneur based in Manchester and in this episode we chat about his work, specifically on his current focus: Reactive Energy.

Parul is quite active on LinkedIn and her profile caught my eye as she's in the minority of tech recruiters in that she can actually code. Parul is involved with Code Your Future and was very keen to talk about the great stuff going on over there both to help people into tech careers and to help businesses diversify their teams.Parul and I spoke a bit about why you, as a developer, might want to work with a recruiter and how they can help you on your career path. We look at why they get a bad reputation and what recruitment work is like working for both larger and smaller recruiters.Code Your FutureParul Singh on LinkedIn

In this episode, I spoke with Parul Singh of Manhattan Partners about her involvement in the tech community and her experiences as a recruiter and a developer.

James and his co-founder Becky have spent over 3 years working on Tech Returners. In that time, they've had some lucky breaks but have poured and awful lot of effort into the business to make it a success. In this episode, James and I discuss the business model and how they've managed to set themselves up to fill a huge skills gap in the Manchester technology market. James and I chat about how and why people might find themselves taking a career break and some of the interesting reasons that cause them to struggle to get back into a role that marries up with their skills and experience.We look at some of the major success stories at Tech Returners and why they've gravitated towards working primarily with women.James Heggs on LinkedInThe Tech Returners website

James Heggs is the co-founder of Tech Returners, which helps individuals with previous technical experience get back into a technology career after a hiatus. We discuss how the business came about and how it's currently filling a huge skills gap in the Manchester digital market.

In this episode we start out with a brief intro to Mike Beach and his work as UI engineer at Sainsbury's here in Manchester. We move on to discuss Sainsbury's design system, Luna, in more detail and how it's been implemented across brands like Argos, Habitat, Tu and Nectar. Luna is setup to give teams in Sainsbury's the tools and flexibility they need, as opposed to a set of guide rails that they cannot deviate from.Mike explained how previously neglected areas of the business, like purchasing gift cards online or in-store, have exploded due to COVID due to changing behaviours. Mike goes on to talk briefly about Sainsbury's hiring practices and what they're doing to attract development talent in an increasingly competitive market.Luna Design SystemMike Beach on LinkedIn

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke to Mike Beach a UI engineer at Sainsbury's in Manchester. We spent a bit of time speaking about their design system Luna, which has been driven forward by Mike and his team.

Quite a lengthy episode  this one! Heather, Ross and I discuss the digital market at length and go into detail about how the market has changed both for developers, for recruiters and employers. We've all seen wages rises dramatically in the relatively short period of time that we've been immersed in the Manchester technology market, but we dig deeper into the specific programming languages that seem to be most in-demand. We also talk about The Social Code, which Ross has launched to  increase his engagement with developers in Manchester and to help them reach each other.Heather Watson on LinkedInRoss Townsend on LinkedInThe SocialCode on Meetup

In this episode, Adam and I chat at length about his route into business ownership and how (and why) he started My2Be, which helps organisations to facilitate mentoring between its members. Adam discusses how he uncovered the idea whilst working in banking and seeing how well mentoring could work when done correctly. We go on to discuss success metrics for software entrepreneurs and how COVID has played out for My2Be and their clients. Find Adam on LinkedIn hereMy2Be's website

In this episode, Jarryd and I went off-piste a little and discussed things beyond the scope of simple working as engineers for tech companies. We dived into the complexities of working remotely and the psychological effects we've experienced working for such long periods of time in such atypical circumstances.Have a listen and learn about what Jarryd and his team have been doing, when they plan to start hiring again and why you might to join a company like Couchbase. This isn't salesly...it's just that (like many tech companies in my experience) they genuinely seem to care about their employees!Jarryd Trokis on LinkedIn

I spent two years contracting at Booking.com (formerly Rentalcars.com) during 2018 and 2019, finally wrapping up my contract with them at the start of 2020 and heading to Co-op. Bruno was my line manager for a big chunk of my time there and and all-round great guy to work with. In this episode we talk in some detail about how COVID-19 has played out for Booking.com. Predictably, the business took a serious hit as the travel market dried-up considerably but funding was secured and the engineering teams used the lull in demand to prepare for the influx of business they knew would return in the future.Bruno Rodriguez on LinkedIn

In this episode, Peter Cameron (find him on LinkedIn here) opens with a discussion about how he moved from a simple developer into more of a tech lead role and subsequently into his current position as something of a CTO/architect-for-hire. Peter spends a lot of his time either contracting (typically with bigger organisations) or freelancing (typically with smaller organisations) and has a diverse array of clients both in terms of market and geography. We chat about difficulties that we've both faced during lockdown and how working remotely has its pros and cons. Have a listen and let me know your thoughts. Feedback is always welcome. 

Alex's company isn't one I've worked for an admittedly a slight deviation from some of the others I've spoken with on the podcast so far. However, with this being a new venture his work seemed really interesting and I wanted to speak to him as a result. In this episode we chat about how Alex started up and while everyone was encouraging him to get into programming, he found it difficult when trying to exercise his creativity. 3D printing offered a way for him to get involved in tech but allowed him to be more creative in the process. He goes on to talk about how the business boostrapped it's launch and the challenges that presented as well as chatting about pivoting to accomodate the market when they realised they'd mistaken the demand for the creation of their own 3d printer.Alex Andrescu on LinkedInDiceytech's website

Rob Sandbach and I met rather serendipitously at an NCT Meeting shortly before his son and my daughter were born. After realising he worked in tech (his rather modest description of what he did) I proceeded to chew his ear off and eventually found out that he ran his own agency. Fast-forward a few years and I thought it'd be a great idea to get him onto the podcast for a chat about the story of him starting, growing and running his agency. Rob's company has a long history of allowing remote work so the move to 100% remote working didn't hit Indiespring as hard as some other companies, but there has been a consequence in that it's no longer a USP. Have a listen to see how Indiespring have responded to the massive curveball thrown by COVID and 2020.Indiespring's websiteRob Sandbach on LinkedIn

Andy Norton and I open by talking about how COVID has impacted FOOTASYLUM and how the business responded when the team started working remotely in 2020. We go on to talk about how Andy's team has implemented practices to help make them more 'antifragile'. Andy speaks openly about the shortcomings of the codebase that his team had inherited and the steps they've taken to try and modernise it.Andy Norton on LinkedInAntifragile by Nicholas Nassin TalebThe Phoenix Project by Gene KimWhat is an Andon cord?

Chris and I shared a load of connections on LinkedIn so I thought there might be a bit of mileage in reaching out to him for a chat about his work with Sainsbury's. He very kindly obliged and in this episode we get stuck into the challenges and opportunities that COVID has presented to Sainsbury's during 2020. We also had a chat about how his team has managed to attract talent and how they've handled staff churn.Chris Grice on LinkedIn

I've contracted at degree53 on two separate occasions. The first was in 2014 and into 2015 working on the Bookies.com website and subsequently on Betfred.mobi for a longer period during 2016 and 2017. In this episode Richard and I chat about the digital scene in Manchester, how degree53 has carved out its niche and how they compete when trying to attract talent as an agency against much larger organisations with much deeper pockets.Degree53's WebsiteRichard Wagstaff on LinkedIn

As a contractor, I've not actually ever been placed into a role by Rachel but she's set herself apart from many other recruiters simply by being professional and seeming to care about the people she works with. We look at some of the changes to the sector that she's seen over the past few years as a specialist in contract front-end recruitment, discuss some of the technologies we've seen on the rise and chat briefly about where we think the tech sector in Manchester is heading.Rachel Kettlewell on LinkedInTweak Digital's website