Getting to know… Tahlia Dysart

06/08/2021

As we have been working from home for over a year now and onboarding remotely is still happening, we wanted to catch up with one of our new PHP developers Tahlia, to get to know her a little better. 

  1. Hi Tahlia, how are you settling into Ampersand? 

Hello, I’m really enjoying working here so far! Even starting as a mid-level developer, I’ve had a lot of support to learn the Ampersand way of working, and have felt very welcomed into the team. All of the things I need to feel comfortable working at home have been provided along with a few extra goodies!

 

2. What were your first impressions of Ampersand? 

All my colleagues clearly know their stuff, have been easy to get along with and happy to help with any questions that I’ve had. Overall, I’ve been very impressed with the onboarding process. 

3. What did you know about us before you joined? What had you heard? 

I had not heard of Ampersand before I started looking for a new role. Avery (HR Manager) reached out to me on LinkedIn, where I then had a look into their work and social media output and I was impressed with the quality of their sites and vibrant social media presence. 

4. Why did you choose to join us?

Ampersand really stood out for its diversity. A large proportion of their employees are women, which is very rare in tech and even though I am from the UK, their willingness to support international workers impressed me. The hybrid working model was also a huge plus! I am usually more productive working from home, but value having the choice to work with colleagues in person.

5. Are you an ecommerce “pro” or an ecommerce “newbie”?

Definitely an ecommerce newbie! 

6. Tell us about your journey into the back end development world? 

Around five years ago, I started as an apprentice straight out of secondary school and pretty much learnt on the job! For my first year I was training and mostly working with Ruby on Rails. Since then, most of my roles have been based around PHP with a little GO and NodeJs thrown in and almost exclusively on the back-end. My most recent role, however, definitely blurred the lines into full-stack which surprisingly has probably improved my code on the back-end.

7. Since the restrictions lifted, have you been out to restaurants or bars?

On the odd occasion, yes. Some of my friends have just recently opened a vegan cafe in Liverpool called, ‘The Vibe’ so I popped in to support them. If you’re ever in Liverpool, you should definitely check them out! 

8. Tell us about your lockdown joys? 

Covid has forced me to get out into nature a lot more! And lockdown has also given me time to start learning some new skills; I picked up a violin for the first time a few months ago to the detriment of my neighbours!

Wavertree Botanic Gardens, Liverpool.

9. And your Lockdown Lows? 

I really miss live music, theatre, and circus classes! 

10. What are you most excited about doing post covid?

Live music, theatre and circus classes of course!

If you want to join Tahlia as a new starter, check out all of our software engineer roles here.