Spotlight Series: Calvin Khor

Thank you for speaking with us today, Calvin. As an Associate Consultant can you tell us a little bit about your role at Digiterre.

I am an Associate Consultant at Digiterre primarily working as a Python and Azure cloud developer. I currently work with the team to move older pipelines to Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. I also assist with the migration effort from legacy MATLAB models to Python and Databricks.  

My team is not a very large team, which is a good thing as we can move quickly. We’ve got a Delivery Manager, Martin. There’s also Stevie on the team and Helen, the Engagement Manager who checks in with us regularly. Martin usually leads the daily standup calls and, from there I work with others on the client side to implement the tasks that we agree on. 

What was it about Digiterre that inspired you to join us? 

What drew me in was the chance to work on real, meaningful problems and create solutions for them. The opportunity to not only design these solutions but also implement them and watch them come to life is incredibly rewarding. As a consultant at Digiterre, this is really the core focus of my work and it’s what I found compelling about joining the team. 

Was there anything about Digiterre that made you feel this role would be a perfect fit for you?

Absolutely. Before fully coming onboard, I spoke with the CTO, Rajesh and Delivery Manager, Martin. One of the things they mentioned was the small team size, which was appealing to me because in larger teams it can be quite difficult to get your ideas moving, but with smaller teams, especially small, focused teams, you can push for changes and actually see the results. 

As a recent recruit you have fresh memories of how Digiterre manages the process of onboarding new consultants. What was your experience of this? How did you find it? 

From my recollection, the process was very smooth. I didn’t have any issues. Everyone I spoke to was very nice, very efficient. I wasn’t placed on a project immediately but I was made aware of this from the onset. I was still given plenty of tasks in preparation for the client work, which I thought was great. 

Before coming onboard, Martin and I communicated regularly to ensure I was aware of the start dates, arrangements for setting up my laptop and other necessities. 

Can you tell us what a typical day looks like for you?  

Most days start with a stand-up meeting where we go through the team’s progress, discuss the ongoing work and any potential blockers that stop us from progressing. After that, the rest of the day can vary.

A large portion of my time is spent coding and developing the solutions. I also attend a lot of meetings with team members and the clients. I join interviews to recruit consultants, and sometimes attend workshops. So, the days can be quite varied.  

It sounds like you get involved in a lot of different things. Tell us about your interviewing experiences? 

About two weeks or three weeks into my time at Digiterre, I was invited to interview other candidates. From my teaching experience in university, I was used to interacting with people frequently, and this feels similar, but in a much more focused and targeted way. 

What are you looking forward to, what sort of things are you most excited about in your role? 

For me, I like being able to use technology to enable big changes, big improvements in people’s work or lives or their projects. It feels like there’s a big impact, a big positive impact through this kind of work and this makes me quite excited for every day. 

What would you say about the learning culture at Digiterre?  

I find it comforting that there are no stupid questions you can ask. If you want to know something, you can always throw the question out and there will be someone who can and will help you, because people here like to help people. Many different people have many different skillsets here so there’s a very good chance that your question will be answered quickly. 

Is there anything that has surprised you about working here? 

Given that I started in a relatively junior position, I was quite surprised by the level of independence and autonomy I was given. I’ve had the freedom to apply my expertise and approach tasks in the way I felt was best. It’s refreshing not to be told exactly how to do things or follow a strict set of steps, which made the experience much more rewarding. 

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience of working here so far? 

I enjoy the supportive and friendly environment at Digiterre. The recent summer get-together in a venue overlooking the Thames was great fun, and a good opportunity to meet everyone in person. That made me feel a strong sense of community.  

We have now reached the end of the interview. Thank you, Calvin, for your time, it was great chatting with you.