My week at Brilliant Basics
Diary
Monday
As I walked the short distance from Old Street station on my first morning of work experience, a few butterflies annoyingly materialised in my stomach, and a slight apprehension settled upon me. However, any flutterings of nerves were quickly replaced with a new curiosity in first coming across the bold blue exterior of Zetland House, home of brilliant basics. It’s quirky appearance and welcoming atmosphere immediately presented me with the feeling that I’d stumbled upon a fun and interesting working environment; heightened by the presence of the world cup flags adorning every balcony.
This feeling wasn’t suppressed as I entered the offices and became introduced to the team by Ben, a UX director. Everyone was attentive and welcoming and I experienced for the first time the underlying buzz of creativity and excitement I’ve come to associate with Brilliant Basics.
I was then given a desk by the tech team, of whom I’d be spending most of the week with and chatted with Tom, the Head Technologist. He explained the progression of technology in terms of a smaller disparity between coders and designers due to the difference in the size of back end and front end coding compared to the past; now with a smaller back end database, and coders no longer just “sitting in a dark room coding.” This results in a greater interaction between coders, designers and clients; something Brilliant Basics is very much involved with to create a greater UX experience.
He assigned me to Cliff for the morning, a junior assiociate of technology who talked me through his graduate course in multimedia technology and design and explained his role in the company, even throwing in some helpful hints at ways of unblocking websites at school (although he will insist I “didn’t hear it from him”). This was my first on-hand experience with coding and I was already interested.
The rest of the course of the day follwed a similar path, watching Arthur, a senior technologist, working on the code for new products they were creating. I glimpsed the frustration in picking apart the code to fix problems that may have arised from the miss-use of a single comma, and an almost detective-like approach to creating solutions if something wasn’t working. I also sat in on a demo meeting of the new products the tech team were working on, both of which I was duly impressed with and seemed new and exciting. I even enthusiastically got involved in the naming process, but unfortunately my creative stimulus didn’t stretch as far as to coming up with any mind-blowing suggestions.
Tuesday
The next day I was handed a computer in the morning that would be mine for the rest of the week and told to sign up to the code academy, a free online program that gives step-by-step tutorials for a range of coding languages. It struck me how easily accessible all the information on learning how to code was, and I was itching to start to learn myself. I quickly picked up Html and CSS and designed a page for a website, following instructions from the tutorials.
Just before lunch the whole company got together for a meeting. The atmosphere was coloquial and I got a sense of how forward thinking and involved with progression of ideas the company was. It was compelling to watch everyone expressing individual opinions and the interaction of every section of the company working together.
In the afternoon I made an attempt at learning Python, which exposed me to the sheer quantity of coding that was available to learn, also dawning on me how many languages there were and the amount of time it would take to properly perfect them.
Wednesday
By Wednesday I was getting the hang of working life, even feeling like a proper tube commuter eagerly snapping up copies of the Evening Standard on the way home, and having my personal space frequently invaded by being so delightfully squashed in with the blur of other Londoners during the surging rush hours.
As well as delving into the language Ruby in the morning, Arthur got me to download a program that teaches the coding language Processing, with tools to sketch and save your animations. My morale was slightly crushed in attempting to learn it as it proved much harder to grasp than Html or CSS, and this according to Arthur was because they’re not “proper programming languages,” which when I mentioned to Anand he further backed up.
Despite this I thoroughly enjoyed trying to get my head around it, and although it hasn’t clicked yet, I know with perseverance I will be able to unlock a whole new world of opportunities in terms of what I can create with a computer.
In the afternoon I reverted back to Code Academy and designed a solar system animation which I found highly entertaining, giving me a little thrill every time I managed to successfully put a planet in an orbit around my little glowing sun.
I also enjoyed speaking to Alan, a member of the design team, who explained more about the processes they go through when they are faced with new clients; showing me examples of prototypes they create and the steps behind building products, fulfilling the client’s criteria and visions.
Thursday
Thursday is burrito day for the tech team, and it would be an understatement to suggest I waited in eager anticipation for lunch, an anticipation that increased rapidly as time slowly stretched towards the lunch hour (you’ll have to excuse my incandescent waffling about burritos, but humour me for a minute; I’d never had one before and feel this experience should be shared). Although I managed to smear guacamole all over my nose and definitely hadn’t perfected the art of eating one in style I definitely enjoyed my first burrito, feeling more and more integrated into the tech team as Cliff chanted “one of us,” when I told him how delectable it had been.
Aside from burrito eating, Arthur also asked me if coding had “clicked” yet. He went on to explain that for him he felt that he could literally make anything when it had and again it showed me how useful and eye opening learning those skills could be. There’s even an article about programmers being tiny gods, highlighting how you can create “something out of nothing.” It further emphasised something that has become prominent to me: the lack of any exposure to coding or digital experience in schools. It makes me wonder why such a useful skill isn’t being explored more in the curriculum; especially as the digital industry becomes more and more prominent.
For me, realising how easy it is to find information online to learn coding has motivated me to invest more of my time into it. There’s even a whole book available free dedicated to Ruby: Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby, with witty and interactive comic strips to amuse you while you furrow your brow over understanding variables and functions.
Friday
As I near the end of my week, I can honestly say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working here. It has opened up to me the huge expanse that is the digital world, and as I leave I know I will continue to pursue learning how to code.
Everyone at Brilliant Basics has been so friendly, and it has felt slightly like working amongst the characters of the Big Bang Theory. I hope they have enjoyed having me, probably heightened only by the promise of me bringing in left over chocolate and raspberry cake; but who said you can’t buy friends with food?
