Jon Witting photograph

“Beacon offers a variety of choices for employees and clients. It’s the type of company where you can work for a very long time there without getting bored.”

 

Typical Day

First Things

  • A lot of mornings I wake up early and bake bread so it’s ready in time for lunch

  • Check emails and Slack

  • Look at our task list, Jira, and create a to-do list for the day

  • Primarily focus on accomplishing any internal or admin-related tasks, (ex. Toggl)

 Mids

  • 50-80% of my day is based around development

  • Adding new features, testing, and fixing bugs takes up the majority of my afternoon

  • Spend some time learning more about Beacon and doing some self-training

  • After eating my freshly baked bread, I digest by taking my dog on a nice walk

 Last Things

  • Working on some internal projects

  • Meetings

  • Sync up with the team across LDN and NY

  • I often cook dinner, then relax by playing some games online with my brother

 

Newly Hired at Beacon

At Beacon, I am a Senior Financial Engineer. I am a part of our Glint Team, working under Iris Kariotelli, which is currently 6 people. Our team looks after the suite of user interfaces that we provide to clients, for them to quickly build their own applications using our platform in Python code. My role is to help develop all kinds of the User Interfaces for our clients and for our internal apps as well. Not all clients want the same type of work, so it’s my job to customize their platform. Building new components, adding features to existing ones, and fixing any issues that arise are the main parts of my job. Sometimes clients request additional functionality, and I help build that as well.

Great Startup Opportunities

Knowing that my work is impactful to the company is one of the best opportunities in a startup. In my previous job, at one of the largest financial institutions, I felt that the level and breadth of impact I could have was somewhat limited. At Beacon, the work you put into an assignment or project has an immediate and noticeable effect and benefits. The startup environment also grants much more responsibility internally and towards clients much quicker than at a larger firm.

What Motivates Me

A mix of things energizes me to put my best effort into work. Anything where I can learn something new excites me. I always try to challenge myself to further my skill sets. Beacon allows me to do that. I also enjoy working on the front-end side of technology because interacting with clients and seeing them use the tools I’ve built is rewarding in itself.

Upcoming Goals

One of the great things about Beacon, is the Glint team’s onboarding process for new clients. As I started remotely in June, due to lockdown, the wide array of on-boarding and training materials helped me get up and work efficiently in no time. I would like to continue adding to our documentation and examples to make onboarding clients and new hires as easy as possible, for us and them. More technically, I want to continue to push the boundaries of our platform itself, making sure it’s up to date with the latest front end design choices.

 

Fast Trivia:

Sports

I enjoy playing squash and doing some weight training. As well as watching rugby on TV

Music

Alternative Rock

Movie

Apollo 13

Geography

Bora Bora, or French Polynesia, has to be the top place I’ve traveled. My wife and I got married there, but swimming with sharks was another reason I loved it!

Food

Beef Wellington

I love to cook, and although I only make it once a year, I savor every bite

Favorite Things

Cooking, Outdoor activities, and films

Joined Beacon

June 2020

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Royal Holloway- University of London

Hometown

Ascot, Berkshire

Work Location

London, U.K.

Community