“My name is Eamonn Boyle and I’m one of the Development Managers at Gearset. I run Gearset’s Belfast office which opened in April 2022, managing the engineering teams working out of there. I have about 20 years’ experience in the industry doing some form of software engineering, working in all sorts of areas including research, telecomms, hardware, consultancy and training.”
What made you join Gearset?
“I knew all the great ways Gearset worked from a really trusted source, and I’ve also seen how that way of working pays off in the success that Gearset has seen and how quickly it’s grown. So, what attracted me to Gearset was it’s a great balance between working the way I like to work (no politics, no bureaucracy, focus on the customer and getting value out the door quickly) but with the support of a larger, successful business with great people working together with a common goal.”
How would you describe the culture in the Engineering team?
“Our culture is a mix of things. I work with some really talented people and I’d say Gearset is the most collaborative place I’ve ever worked. Trust and safety play a big part in making that team effective and the level of collaboration possible. There’s a big emphasis in Gearset on honesty, transparency and working in the open and we see that from the top down.
There’s also very little politics or bureaucracy — good ideas are championed wherever they come from and we try to evolve the way we do things continuously to cut out waste.”
How do your teams like to work?
“We follow some core principles and then each team might vary slightly with how they work. Day to day our team works really closely together (though I’m a bit more detached from the daily coding these days). Every day the team will jump on ad-hoc huddles on Slack to pair up on work or bash around ideas. Thinking about the next smallest increment is a big part of daily and weekly planning in the team. Everyone works full-stack so they may be in our .NET backend (C# 11) or on our frontend, where all the new code is using TypeScript and React.”
What are you most excited about for your team?
“I’m really excited for Belfast to become a larger and larger part of engineering in Gearset. We’ve grown a lot in the first year of the office, and I’m looking forward to spinning up some more product teams here as we grow. We’re also into continuous improvement and everyone can suggest changes to how we work — so I’m keen to see how the way we work evolves with some current initiatives around releasing more frequently and improving quality.”
Why should someone join Gearset?
“You should join if you want to work somewhere that you regularly see your work make a difference to customers, and if you want to cut away excess process, bureaucracy, politics and egos. You should also join if you want to work with really talented people from many disciplines who are all working together with a common goal.”
Tell us something we probably don’t know about you.
“I’ve dived with manta rays, turtles, sharks and wrecks but can’t really swim properly.”
What Gearset Slack channel do you hang out in most?
“I’m a fan of #movies-and-tv! This channel and I have a love-hate relationship. I’m a bit of a movie and tv fanboy and so love getting recommendations or a bit of banter about the latest shows, but I have to be careful too as I hate spoilers.”