Every so often in your career, you accept an offer that turns out to be the best decision ever. Just like when I was randomly approached by a recruitment agency (whose emails I usually delete or skip). Well, this time, I read it and took him up on his offer. His email said: “I have a brilliant developer who recently graduated that I think will be a great fit for you.” For one reason or another, I showed interest, and we ended up meeting Awen.
First of all, do you know how cool it is to meet a coder that isn’t a guy? In all my years running digital agencies, I had not worked with any. In such a heavily male-dominated industry, it’s always an amazing feeling to meet someone who breaks the mould.
So we met Awen, and one of their first questions was on accessibility. What? Do you know what an accessibility nerd I am? So obviously I was very excited to answer their questions on that.
The best thing, though, is that when we had a call back from the recruiter, he said Awen had a higher paying job offer with a much bigger agency, but preferred to work with an agency that aligns with her values of sustainability, inclusivity, and accessibility. “Brilliant!” I said. “This is my gal!”
I asked Andrew Minton, who interviewed and hired Awen with me, for his first impressions:
“To me, Awen was the perfect fit for our band of misfits and eclectic outcasts. Quirky, driven, and talented from day zero, with the ability to turn her hand to anything technical.“
And so she was. What a brilliant developer Awen turned out to be! I want to say she struggled at first and then found her feet and blah blah blah… But no. When I asked Perry (our technical director) about her first commit, he said:
“Awen’s very first task was adding labels to a chart component. She smashed the task out, I didn’t expect her to complete it as fast as she did.“
We’ve been through so many ups and downs with Awen, and they gracefully handled each chapter. Awen never questioned my leadership, but they certainly made me a better one. Together, I feel like we put guardrails around issues, created career plans, and, most beautifully, witnessed each other’s growth. I am so lucky to have seen such a young person come into an environment that in the early days was very challenging, and flourish—maturing relationships with her colleagues and becoming a kick-ass developer. No wonder they got all those job offers!
What I am proudest of is that Awen is now off to London, which is something they have wanted to do since university. They’ve been so transparent from day one, including us in their job hunt and relocation plans. I couldn’t be prouder to have a team where we don’t feel like we need to hide things from each other or go behind each other’s backs. If our first team member at Seedable is going to leave, I couldn’t have imagined a better scenario.
Now, I want you all to know what a genius Awen was for us. But I’ve said enough, so I asked our team to highlight her unique habits and what they’ll miss most about Awen:
“I will miss working with Awen, and the wonderful way her brain works! From the first day we started working together, I knew she would be a force to be reckoned with. Awen’s brain works a million miles an hours and it has been so much fun working on solving problems together. I know Awen will go on to do great things – I just hope she remembers us along the way!”
– Lowri
“The biggest thing I’ll miss about Awen is how she likes to try and break stuff. She’s the edge-case queen, always thinking about the ‘what ifs’, what happens when I do Y and not X, and just generally being very good to discuss solutions with. No one likes to break my designs as much as Awen does, but she’ll always be down for helping me work out how to put them back together better.“
– Ben
“You fitted right in with your energy and enthusiasm, and certainly delivered awesome work. You even helped me out with an app build I was struggling with, and I knew then Awen was destined for the big leagues. Our chats on your lifts home made me appreciate you being part of our team more and more. You are a down-to-earth, wonderful geek of nature with a passion to give back, and you will be sorely missed. Wishing you the best on your next adventure in the Big Smog! Onwards“
– Andrew
“What I am going to miss about working with Awen is being able to bounce ideas off each other to improve a solution to a problem or methodology. They are always able to think through something in great detail and propose tweaks to our work to get a higher quality end product. They put a lot of care and consideration into her craft to ensure processes are as smooth and efficient as possible.“
– Theo
“I will miss Awen deploying internet slang in real life, makes me laugh every single time! And, of course, the lilac theme.“
– Perry
“I’m going to miss the geography chats, lunchtime quizzes, and off-topic tangents about anything and everything with Awen. They’re truly one of the best problem solvers I’ve ever met. Gonna have to up my game on the quizzes now so Theo still has a competitor!“
– Kyomi
And lastly, Awen, we are going to miss you a bunch. I’ll miss your straightforward, factual inputs, your questioning, your research skills, our food and exercise conversations, your frequent corrections, your random love for flags and quizzes, your passion for the colour lilac, and your chill vibes…
It’s going to be very, very hard to fill your boots. I will miss your presence every day, but I can’t wait to see everything you achieve next. London isn’t ready for you!
