By Stephen, Senior Scrum Master
Welcome to a day in my life. It’s a Tuesday morning and I am enroute to my job as a Senior Scrum Master at Fidelity. I am a dad of 5 living West of Galway City at the beginning of the beautiful, rugged Connemara region. Today is a “Learning Day” for my team and me. We will spend most of the day learning a new tech skill or agreeing on a process improvement that we can use in our future work. After work, I will head back home to coach my kids’ Hurling and Gaelic football teams. Later, we will finalize our weekend plans – we’re thinking of a plunge in Galway Bay off the Blackrock diving boards followed by a walk along the promenade in Salthill. For lunch we will take in the buzz along Shop Street and sit in one of the many award-winning restaurants or cafes, browse through the market stalls and sample the multitude of homemade produce from all around the City and County. We might even sit outside one of the bars and listen to the street performers playing live traditional music.
I didn’t always live this idyllic life in Galway! I went to college in Limerick, where I am originally from, and have an Honours Degree in Business Computing. I always wanted to work in technology but wasn’t sure where. I started my career at an Investment Bank in Dublin for 7 years before making my way to Fidelity as a Scrum Master. I started in the Dublin office, and immediately loved the support Fidelity provided its employees. Specifically in tech, there are a lot of opportunities to learn or council others on a variety of topics. We have “Learning Days” once every 2-weeks, which allows our team to upskill and set ourselves up for success. You’re encouraged to think outside the box when coming up with a solution to a problem or use case.
While I was loving my life at Fidelity and in Dublin, reality set in when we had 3 kids under 4 years of age while living in our Dublin home. We wanted to move somewhere with a bit more space. My wife was on maternity leave and had family in Galway so we decided whilst she was off, we would move West to try it out. My manager and team were extremely understanding and flexible during this transition. Now, I am happily located in the Galway office, full-time, as a Senior Scrum Master involved with two squads in Digital Experience. One squad manages self-service tools like virtual assistant, chat, and search capabilities while the other squad tracks the interactions with our customers via email and phone calls.
Galway is such a diverse city and county; it has a festival atmosphere in the city all year round that compliments the beautiful and historical buildings nestled alongside the fast-flowing Corrib River into Galway Bay. It also has an unforgettable landscape outside the city with dozens of hidden turquoise blue beaches to explore along the Wild Atlantic Way! There is a place for everyone in Galway. It is full of interesting people – artists, innovators, and creators from all over the world contributing to our vibrant culture. It is the most naturally inclusive place I’ve ever been, the safest city I have ever visited, and I am lucky to call it home.
Aside from its booming creativity, Galway has a strong software engineering presence. Many of the colleges in and around the city offer an array of courses around tech and software engineering. In turn, there are a handful of major companies who are actively hiring innovative technologists. I’d highly recommend any technologist considering a change of location to consider moving to beautiful Galway!
Check out our open tech roles in Galway here today to learn more.
