I’ve worked for Fidessa for six
years now, having originally joined as a Graduate
Software Support Analyst in 2000 after graduating
in Psychology. I applied for the job on the recommendation
of a friend who was working at Fidessa and found
their work both rewarding and challenging.
In a small, expanding company I saw the potential
to forge a career and not get lost in the crowd.
From day one it was clear that opportunities were
available for me to grow within a friendly and
fast paced environment.
Since I joined Fidessa has
established a stronger and stronger presence as
a leading provider of electronic trading systems,
in part because we provide an exceptional level
of service to our customers.
After joining I began by supporting the trade
reporting and position keeping components of the
Fidessa suite. As part of the second line support
team my job was to learn as much as I could about
this product so I could diagnose and provide technical
assistance to our customers.
As a graduate of psychology I initially found
the technical aspects of the job difficult to
get to grips with but the structured training
program and plenty of hands on learning allowed
me to become confident and expand my skills. Since
those early days I have had the opportunity to
become the leading support specialist for this
product and branch out into supporting other products.
Each part of the Fidessa suite supports a specific
set of business processes and requirements, which
makes a near endless supply of new functionality
to understand and master. This can be daunting
at times, however the common infrastructure linking
each product makes it possible to begin analysing
and solving any kind of problem.
A large part of the challenge comes from the need
to understand the technical structure of each
component but the job is larger than this. In
order to provide the best quality of support possible
it is important to understand how a customer's
business flow can be facilitated by Fidessa.
My work is varied, working with customers to maximise
their use of Fidessa by assisting with integration,
customisation and boosting performance of their
system. At times the work can be fast paced and
hectic, although there is always a strong team
spirit within Fidessa which
helps us pull together to meet any challenge.
My role has grown along with my experience; I
am now a team leader of a team of eight product
specialists. My job still maintains a strong technical
basis and it has meant the opportunity to take
on a range of extra responsibilities that include
coaching and motivating my team. I look forward
to expanding my role within the company over the
coming years, taking on more and more managerial
responsibilities.
