It is time for another employee story – meet Oliver Todd, Monstarlab’s Delivery Consultant. Oliver, one of the true veterans of our company (and a soon-to-be dad!), shared with us his aspirations, discussed what attracted him to work at Monstarlab and debated on new trends in the digital world.
How long have you worked at Monstarlab UK, and what attracted you to join the team?
I have been at Monstarlab for just under 5 and a half years now. I hadn’t worked with mobile apps prior to joining, but it was the wide range of clients Monstarlab worked with that attracted me at first, then once I met with the team it seemed like they had a good culture. Happy to report I was right!
Could you tell us a little about your background?
After graduating from University I worked in media sales for a few years. Prior to joining Monstarlab I worked for a company that provided public cloud infrastructure build and support services for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. I joined Nodes (Monstarlab acquired Nodes in 2017) in 2016 working initially in a commercial role managing bids for new clients, from there I moved into client engagement and finally delivery.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities here at Monstarlab UK?
As a Delivery Consultant, my day-to-day responsibilities include running team sprint ceremonies for the projects I am currently working on. This includes stand-ups, sprint planning, and sprint reviews/demos. I also typically have a mix of both internal and client meetings to review project status and progress. Outside of this I also have the general administration tasks of project plans, reporting, burn charts, etc.
What has been your professional highlight at Monstarlab UK?
For me, it’s always a project going live that I consider the biggest highlight of the job. A project that stands out in particular is the Education Hub that we launched for The Prince’s Trust as the work they do with young people is so inspiring. The project involved a complete transformation of the way education partners interact with learning resources for The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme, over the last 2 years we have launched the new look Education Hub in 2 regions across the UK.
What do you hope to achieve, both professionally and personally?
Professionally I very much just want to continue on the path of being an Agile Project Manager, working on a wider range of projects and programmes of work, and continuing to grow my knowledge base and experience. Personally, I am just about to have my first child, and all I can really think of right now is if I am going to be able to achieve any sleep in the coming months.
What do you enjoy the most about Monstarlab?
Monstarlab has always been about the culture and people who work here. I have got to work with some great people over the years, met some great friends along the way and had a lot of good times. Even through the tough times of COVID, Monstarlab have worked hard to keep the teams together and keep that culture alive.
From your point of view: which trends in the digital world will we observe in the UK in 2022 and beyond?
I would say Flutter mobile apps. There are a load of interesting updates with Flutter 3 and for the first time it feels like there may be a genuine cross platform solution to rival native apps. My personal opinion in the past was always that cross platform options fall short in certain areas, but Flutter is quickly changing that opinion.
Bonus question: tell us about the funniest thing that happened during your work at Monstarlab?
During one of our Monstarlab summer parties, one of my colleagues in the delivery team showed up to a lightning talk with a handbag full of cold chicken nuggets from the previous evening’s activities (I cannot confirm or deny if she ate them or not).
If you would like to learn more about life at Monstarlab and search for open roles, please visit our careers page here.
