Meet Alan, our KxStudent Lead Engineer…
Welcome to the third edition of Humans of Kinetic! In this edition, we spotlight an incredible journey of resilience and growth. Meet our lead engineer, who transitioned from a supermarket delivery driver to a key player at Kinetic. With a background in Computer Science and a passion for sustainability, his story is a testament to hard work and continuous learning.
Q: Can you tell us briefly about your background and what led you to Kinetic?
I left school without qualifications and worked for a supermarket, initially as a delivery driver, then as a driver trainer, and finally as a department supervisor. It was hard work but never dull, and I maintain that everybody should work in a ‘public-facing’ role at some point if they can! While working, I took an Access qualification in Computing. This allowed me to go on to study Computer Science with a Year in Industry at the University of Kent.
Kinetic has had work placements and interns over many years and I was lucky enough to have my degree placement year at Kinetic as a Product Manager. I stayed with Kinetic throughout my degree part-time and after graduation. From Products I moved into Professional Services, then using more of my technical knowledge from my degree I went into Student Web development, team leadership and my role today as a lead engineer.
Q: How do you define success in both your personal and professional life?
Right into the ethical quandaries with question 2! 
It’s a bit twee but I think there’s a poem which rather nicely defines ‘success’ to me, it can be paraphrased: “Leave the world a better place”. That has been a big motivation for me in working on Sustainability at Kinetic alongside my role where I hope the software I work on has a positive impact on people’s day to day.
Linked to the above success for me involves staying curious, keeping learning and enjoying my life both at home and at work.
Q: What’s a typical challenge you face in your role at Kinetic, and how do you overcome it?
Every day is different and that’s one of the things that I love about the role. I’m never bored, our product set is so broad, and our customers use it in so many ways that I’m always learning new things and working on different challenges. This does mean a lot of competing priorities; I work closely with product owners in my team to try and maintain focus and ensure we prioritise the right things.
Q: What’s one area of personal or professional growth you’re currently focused on?
During the pandemic I started a master’s degree in data science, part-time with the University of Edinburgh, I’m now in my final year of this and working on my dissertation, looking forward to graduating later this year!
Q: What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?
Towards the end of my undergraduate degree, I realised I’d need to move nearer to the office and I didn’t want to continue renting, but I also didn’t have enough to look at buying anywhere. So I took out an alarmingly larger personal loan and bought a narrow boat. I lived on Juniper for around 5 years and still spend a few days a week staying aboard when in the office.
