My Working Day: Aditi Bhattacharya

I usually don’t need an alarm… because I always wake up at around 5am. Even on days when I feel like lying in for a little longer, 6:30am is usually the latest I’ll get up.

My morning routine… changed during lockdown but pre-COVID, my day would start with an hour of exercise, followed by a shower and breakfast in front of the BBC newsfeed. I’m an early bird so I like to be logged in and ready to work by 8am. During COVID, that routine went out of the window. But now that things are feeling more normal, I'm trying to get back to my healthy habits.

My job as an Android Application Developer involves… delivering technology changes to the Android version of the Barclays app. I work within the Digital Barclays App Core Features team, which focuses on optimising the digital experience of customer banking journeys.

My day-to-day tasks include building new or enhanced app features in Android technology; working with different teams to define and design optimal solutions; providing testing support; and helping to maintain and improve code quality, design and performance. This means my job involves daily interaction with colleagues across the UK and India.

Within the bank’s engineering community, there are also appointed Tribe Leads who help to uphold technology standards. As an Android Tribe Lead, I am responsible for ensuring that all standards outlined by Barclays are adhered to by teams within my ‘tribe’.

My career in Android development began… when I was awarded three Google and Udacity Nanodegree scholarships to learn Android app development. At the time I was working as a freelance web consultant – a role I also loved. I’ve now been working in IT for over 20 years, following a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and an MSc in Information Technology.

A technology career is ideal for anyone who is up for a challenge! We face challenges every single day, and everything moves so fast. Whatever is trending today becomes history tomorrow. You have to be hyper-aware of what’s happening in your domain.

I joined Barclays because… my husband was working here, and I used to talk to him about the organisation. I admired Barclays’ values and that it takes diversity and inclusion so seriously. The people who work here sounded so empowered and helpful that I wanted to work here too.

A typical day at work… starts by going through unread emails and messages, which helps me to assess my priorities and make a quick plan for the day. My meetings are usually clustered into the first half of the day to accommodate colleagues in India, so I try to block out time in the afternoon to focus on my own work.

At lunchtime, I try to take my eyes off the laptop and read a novel while I eat to recharge my brain. Then, at the end of each day, I do another phase of planning for the following morning. This helps me prepare a draft plan with outstanding tasks and any follow-up tasks from the day. Planning is always a priority.

The thing I love most about my job… is tackling technology challenges and feeling very proud when it all goes live. I’m a perfectionist, so I’m always looking for ways to improve standards and performance, and most importantly to have neat and clean code. Making a screen full of programming code look like a piece of art gives me huge satisfaction!

The hardest parts of my job… are the days when I start with a plan and everything just goes pear-shaped. But the people that I work with are engaged, highly competent and extremely helpful, so we can lean on each other and reach out to other teams for support when we need it.

Right now, I’m excited about… a major technology project I’m working on. I joined the project in January of last year and it’s been very interesting to see it progress from one phase to another. New things come up with every phase, and it’s constantly challenging to work on.

One of my most memorable days at work… was definitely joining Barclays. I joined a week after lockdown started, having relocated from Edinburgh the day before lockdown was announced, so it was a very strange experience. My onboarding was all done remotely. But even though it was a new experience for everyone, it was wonderful to see my team come together to help me settle in and make me feel welcome.

If I wasn’t working at Barclays… I’d probably still be working somewhere else in mobile technology. I also love being a technical mentor because it allows me to help other people and, at the same time, to stay close to the basics.

After work… my favourite thing to do is spend the evening with my husband. We used to go to a lot of music concerts and film festivals in Edinburgh, but these days we love hanging out with Netflix, catching up on a good British drama, or watching cricket and tennis. We moved to our new house a year ago, and there are currently many discussions about home improvement projects – which keep me busy in the evenings and weekends. We’re planning to create an art room in our house as we both love crafts and painting.