Q&A with Senior Software Engineer, Brendan Lawton

Welcome back to yet another Meet the Team Q&A, this time with Tillo Senior Software Engineer Brendan Lawton! 

Brendan joined Tillo in March 2023 and is one of the newest Software Engineers to join our rapidly growing engineering team.

Without further ado, let’s get into the Q&A!

Hello, Brendan 👋 Welcome to Tillo!

Help us get to know you a little better - the floor is yours

I’m Brendan, a Senior Software Engineer based at Tillo’s Hove UK office. 

I’m originally from Bristol and graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Computing and Information Science. I’ve lived in London on and off since 2011, with brief stints around Europe (Germany and Spain) while working as a remote worker, eventually moving to Hove in August 2021.

I love playing the piano, watching horror movies, finding great places to eat, and walking my dog Mabel on the beach.

For a bit of fun, describe what you do in 10 words or less

“I write code to create and improve websites"

Why software engineering? What is it about computers that led you down this path?

I’ve always been amazed at how computers can enhance creativity and productivity and was fascinated by taking them apart as a child - though I wasn’t as good at putting them back together again… So instead, I decided to focus on what you can do with them whilst they’re still in one piece.

What does a typical day look like for you?

It’s still early days for me (I'm writing this on my second day), so I’m mostly getting up to speed. However, in the future, I will be championing improvements to particular areas and features of the Tillo platform whilst also coaching junior developers. 

What’s your favorite thing about your role?

I love the crossover of hands-on engineering with coaching and knowledge sharing so that the whole team can learn and progress together whilst still getting my teeth into something.

Ok, now for the big question - Why Tillo? 

A tech-first company with the resources that Tillo gives to the engineering department is a real treat for an engineer; being able to show up at work, do your job and continuously improve. 

I also did a bit of research, and insta-stalking about the company and the culture and environment really won me over. Sure enough, everyone has been really warm and welcoming! Plus, the free snacks are a pretty great perk…

Lastly, if you had to give one piece of advice to someone looking to get into software engineering, what would it be?

Ask loads of questions and dive right in with personal projects. It’s a really rewarding career path with a fantastic community and tonne of skills that transfer over into everyday life.

You can expect to be as proficient as you are passionate about it because it’s an ongoing process of continual learning that gets easier the more interesting you find it.

Looking for your next engineering role?

Tillo is hiring!

As Tillo continues to scale and evolve, we’re looking for new software engineers to join our growing engineering team 🚀

Who knows, you may even end up working with Brendan! 

To find out more, visit our Careers page, or if you’d rather jump right to it, check out our current vacancies here. (And if, like Brendan, you also like to do some Insta-stalking, here’s our Instagram.)