Lauren Hughes has worked with a number of well-known brands on many website builds and re-brands.
She has worked with the likes of Herbert Brown, Sovereign Healthcare, Frontline Bathrooms and For All Events, as well as working on the front-end of the BHS website redesign. As a Web Developer, Lauren helps build and maintain the websites created at TK, by updating content and images, testing sites to ensure that they run and look as planned. Lauren is passionate about keeping up with the evolving digital industry.
What about your current role do you enjoy?
I really enjoy solving problems. It’s really rewarding when you solve a particularly challenging issue that is key to a project’s functionality. I also love collaborating as a team to create the most innovative and interactive websites.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
When I was at university studying ICT, I wasn’t sure what career I wanted. When it came to applying for a placement year, I chose my favourite module – web development. I found that it combined both creativity and logic, which drew me to it. From then on, I have been continuously learning and honing my skills in web development.
Have you faced any challenges along the way and if so, how did you deal with them?
Web development is a challenge in itself, you need to keep on top of the latest technologies and constantly find new and innovative ways to build websites. If I come across any challenges when developing a site, I find it really useful to talk things through with another developer. Sometimes you don’t necessarily need someone to give you an answer, because the discussion can help you get to a solution.
How challenging is your average working week? Biggest common factors
It depends on the type of work we have in at the time. Development projects that are pretty straight forward can go really smoothly and be simple to carry out. When the client requires a really bespoke, showcase website, we might be using technologies that we haven’t explored before which can pose a lot of challenges and hurdles. However, it is all worth it for the final product!
When faced with two equally-qualified candidates, how would you decide who should have the role?
I would look past the qualifications and see who had the most passion for the role. It is sometimes more important for candidates to be enthusiastic about the work that they do and have the hunger to learn (especially in our line of work).
On a typical workday, how do you start your day and how does it end?
I always start the day with a coffee, it helps get my brain into gear! Our team starts with a “stand up”, where we discuss what we did on the previous day and what we are doing today. This provides a good platform to find out what the other team members are currently working on and raise any concerns we may have with the tasks we have been given. My day usually ends by me checking through my emails and making sure I have completed all of my tasks for the day.
What advice can you give to our members about raising their profiles within their own organisations How have you benefited from coaching or mentoring?
We find that setting up knowledge share sessions are a good way to raise profiles and get people discussing the topics around development. It encourages research into new technologies which we can look to implement in upcoming projects. This can be done within the team you are in or with the wider agency.
Do you think networking is important and if so, what 3 tips would you give to a newbie networker
It is interesting to see how other companies work and what processes they use to inspire better working practices. As a team, we attend local events which bring people in the same industries together. HeyStac is one of our favourites – they have guest speakers to present on current topics every couple of months. The talks can be focused on digital, but also on a broad range of topics.
What does the future hold for you?
I want to continue to create websites that people enjoy visiting. This industry relies on keeping up with newer and better technologies that are emerging all of the time, so this is something I will always need to do. One of my favourite parts of my job is sitting and helping people to solve issues, so mentoring people really appeals to me and it is something I would really like to focus on in the future.
