Meet Danica Walpole, Senior Full-stack Developer at Brew Digital

What’s your name and role at Brew Digital?

Hiya! I’m Danica! The best way I’d describe my role is like making a cake; with my team, we create a recipe, test it, add some sprinkles, mix it, bake it, decorate and box it up for delivery. I’m involved in both the front and back end of projects. This means that I play a role in deciding which tech stack is best for a client's needs, how the site performs, and how the site looks too!

What does a typical day look like for you? 

A typical day starts with a stand-up. Beyond the stereotypes, developers like to speak to people. It’s an opportunity to touch base with the other developers, designers, and project managers to align priorities for the day and identify any blockers. Some days, we can have a further developer-centric meeting to discuss new technologies, what we’ve been working on, things we’re excited about, and decisions to make as a team. In between and afterwards, I crack on with approving pull requests, building and testing new features, working on our CI/CD pipelines (this is the process of getting work churning over whilst we all work concurrently), and making our work as efficient as can be.

What’s your favourite part of the job? 

I love getting to work with old and new technology. It’s really enjoyable to either embrace an older system from a client or suggest something new and wow them. It keeps you on your toes and constantly learning.

What are the bits that are most challenging?

Funnily enough, it’s the same thing I love about my job. It’s definitely a mindset shift to know that with every new framework or library, you walk in as a beginner. You have your design patterns and principles in your backpack, and you dive into making things work and perform as best as they should. That’s where the benefit of an online community and bouncing ideas off of your teammates really begins to come into play.

Why did you first choose to go into web development? 

For me it was a ‘nerdy’ childhood hobby turning into a career. I have a degree in English Literature after reading being my second favourite thing to do growing up. When I was at school there was not a clear academic path to get into Web Development, and I actually found myself taking a Business A-level because one singular module allowed you to build a webpage for your business using Dreamweaver. After university, I knew I had to find a way to make doing what I loved my profession.

How has the advancement of technology changed how you approach your job? 

It’s strengthened my resolve to approach everything new with a childlike curiosity. Sometimes when you shed the expectation of yourself to ‘know everything’, you find yourself in this sweet place of picking things up quickly, and rediscovering things that you’ve met in projects before.

Although progress is being made, I think it’s fair to say that development is still a male-dominated industry. How have you seen it change over the years, and what more do you think needs to be done to address the imbalance? 

What a big and great question! You’re right, it is still a male-dominated industry. In December 2023, the Chartered Institute of IT reported that it will take 283 years to close the gender gap in tech, at the current rate of progress. Between 2018 and 2021 the amount of women tech workers rose by only 4%. I appreciate that the issue is not solely that women are not being employed in roles they are suitable for, but it prompts the questions of: What is the industry doing to invest and encourage women into careers in tech. Are the work environments that exist now inclusive for all? What are we doing to ensure that women are able to thrive in their roles in technology? I do not have all the answers, but I have one that is key—we need to start where we can. Invest in your communities and bootcamps. Let’s not gatekeep a really fulfilling career, that in an age with the rapid uptake of AI needs equal representation more than ever.

Do you have a secret skill or talent your work colleagues don’t know about?

I do ballet and tap dance twice a week. I wouldn’t say I'm exceptionally ‘skilled’ at it, but it’s nice to have something that I can allow myself to just have fun with and not particularly work to a grade for!

Is there anything about the job that surprises you? Or something people might not know about what you do?

Good question! When I first started in this industry I was surprised at how it’s both okay and typical to Google things! It sounds like a novelty, but it’s not possible to remember absolutely everything at once. 

Is there a project you’re particularly proud of?

In recent years it would be the re-platforming of one of our clients, PSL, onto a cloud-based architecture. I got to dissect some terraform infrastructure, I worked out what capacity and tech stack the client needed on an EC2 instance, configured backups, and migrated their existing infrastructure. It was a task that had lots of twists and turns, but in retrospect, that was the stuff that made it fun! I also got to implement AWS services that previously I’d played with experimentally or only worked on in isolation on other projects.

How do you spend your ‘off-time’? 

I absolutely LOVE a jigsaw puzzle. One of those, ABBA playing in the background, before folding away the fun in my ‘jigsaw case’ to sit back and watch Gilmore Girls. What a treat of an evening. When I’m not at home, I love hearing my suitcase wheel through an airport as I catch a flight to somewhere sunny.

Do you have any book, film or TV recommendations? 

I’m going to have to double-down and say Gilmore Girls! I love the show and have successfully hooked my husband into it. He went from “ugh that show with the theme tune intro that you never skip” to “Rory clearly likes him, she needs to tell Dean”. 

Is there an upcoming or emerging technology that has you really excited? 

It sounds like the answer on everyone’s lips at the moment, but seeing how we can continue to harness AI. The most integral part of the technology is our input - our prompts. I know there are concerns about AI replacing humans in this industry, but I've never been more excited to see how we can work together.

Why do you love working at Brew Digital?

Because it’s a place that I never stop finding fun in. I’m able to perform day-to-day development tasks in an environment packed with fellow creative minds. I’m given space to approach tasks with curiosity and follow my intrigue and learn from others.