Rory How rejoins Columbia Road

Hi Rory, How did you get good at what you do?

I have a long history of working with software development, ranging from sideloading miscellaneous operating systems onto my old Windows 6.5 smartphone from my bedroom at 15 years old to building and managing business-critical infrastructure for clients serving millions of users.

I have also studied Computer Science at two universities - Swansea University (in a corner of Wales, UK) for my Bachelor of Science, and Aalto University (here in Finland) for my Master of Science. I’d like to think over the roughly 7 years that I spent working on these, I gained a reasonable understanding of how to write software – at least, I hope!

Where have you earned your spurs?

Well, for the most part, here at Columbia Road! I previously worked at Columbia Road for almost 2 years back in 2017 (I believe I was the 12th employee in the company). The projects that I worked on back then gave me a really strong baseline in technical consulting, and then my recent ~1.5 year stint at the parent company, Futurice, was a brilliant experience in how core Futurice philosophies can be applied to an incredibly broad range of situations. I also learned during that time that while green is a nice colour for a logo, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the majority of the office should be painted in that same shade… 🙄 (sorry Futurice, I love you really).

Why Columbia Road?

From a software development perspective, it’s easy to become somewhat “blinded” by various technologies, programming languages and frameworks. That’s not to say that it’s incorrect to enjoy development with your favourite tools! Developer experience is an important part of software development as a whole, but it’s not what creates value – that’s the responsibility of the service itself, and its ability to deliver a high quality product. Columbia Road has an understanding of this philosophy that I’ve not seen anywhere else; The Columbia Road development team has an exceptionally high skill ceiling, and they couple this with the understanding that tools are just a means to an end, and the business goal is king. That’s a pretty powerful combination.

Eero, what will make our clients love Rory?

“Rory is a very diverse developer. He possesses vast amounts of experience in a wide range of projects and is remarkably business and result oriented. His communication skills are first-rate, which makes working with him a very smooth experience. He tends to be proactive in solving tasks, and pushes learning within client teams – not only work related skills and tools, but also in some cases niche English language and regional slang. Working with Rory is always a pleasure as he takes ownership of projects while connecting with people on a personal level,” says Eero Martela, General Manager at Columbia Road.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

I rather shamelessly enjoy programming in my spare time, as well as through my career. Usually, I develop software outside of work that is very different from what I do through my day job. More recently this has been mostly revolving around data science, but I’m always looking for new side projects to develop for a couple weeks and then forget about entirely.

I also quite enjoy watching Formula 1 (when it’s on), NHL hockey (sorry, I promise I’ll try and get into the Finnish Liiga at some point), and playing Dungeons and Dragons with some of my friends.

How would you fancy working alongside Rory at Columbia Road? We're constantly looking for new skilful and nice people to join our crew! Have a gander at our open positions 👇