At Home With Arkom: Keep Calm & Garry On


Quinn: What has our senior developer been doing this week?

Garry: Trying to get through this EPA (End Point Assessment) system. So I’m connecting the CRM onto a website. So the CRM’s doing internal functions. And they’re having a website done which gets used by the assessors and moderators. Those two have to work seamlessly together.

Quinn: Who will use the internal system for them?

Garry: Their customer services are will be using the CRM, whilst the assessors can access it from the website.

Quinn: So is it an easy job, or a difficult one?

Garry: It’s not an easy one.

Quinn: What are the challenges that you’re facing?

Garry: Working out which actions come first. If an assessor does an action, does that override what Customer Services are doing on the CRM? It’s figuring out what stages they have to follow, where my data’s got to go, where I’m collecting different parts of information.

Quinn: Cos you’re building it from nothing, right?

Garry: Yeah, so I’ve got a spec from Alan, and then I’m building it from that. But you’ve gotta try and work out in your head what they want and how it's all going to work in practicality.

Quinn: From the spec?

Garry: Yeah the specs there, functional, theoretically what it will do at the end…but then you’ve got to figure out how to actually make it do that. Taking that from the page and putting it into the real world.

Molly’s done the mock for it which is really helpful, but you’ve still got to visualise in your head and figure out how you’re going to do it.

Quinn: Is that different from other jobs that you do or is it similar?

Garry: It’s similar in the sense that it’s always the same process, but every job is different so the figuring it all out has to be done every time. And you have to put quite a bit of yourself into it.

Quinn: How’s your other work coming along, the app recognition stuff?

Garry: Done! It’s all done now. So you can take a picture of a car and it’ll recognise the plate and bring the data back.

Quinn: Oh awesome! How long did that take in total?

Garry: Well, in duration, 2 months. But the actual coding on it took me about three hours.

Quinn: Yeah, but it’s working through the errors actually isn’t it that takes the time?

Garry: Yeah, and sending it off and waiting for the feedback and stuff takes weeks at a time sometimes. So it probably ended up at about a day, working fully. It’s good.

Quinn: Good stuff. What internet video has made you laugh recently?

Garry: Korean Oasis.

Quinn: I have to check that out, it sounds mint.

Garry: He actually does some really good Liam Gallagher impressions too.

Quinn: Oh does he act like him and everything?

Garry: Yeah.

 

 

Quinn: Have you been somewhere or seen something recently that you’d recommend?

Garry: (long pause) No. (laughs) Everything I’m doing is upcoming.

Quinn: When are you going on holiday, that’s soon isn’t it?

Garry: April.

Quinn: Oh is that you going to the F1?

Garry: No, done that already. That was Singapore. I’m going to Abu Dhabi for a week.

Quinn: Ah, I knew it was somewhere that had an F1 track.

Garry: It’s gonna be amazing, waterparks, Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, Big Mall, Beach and cycling the F1 track at night!

Quinn: And finally, just for Gastro-Gaz, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve eaten this week?

Garry: (Pause for thought)

Quinn: Bear in mind, it might not seem weird for you, because you eat Raspberry Bellini crisps and think it’s just an ordinary thing.

Garry: I ate a whole block of Parkin the other day. Parkin Cake and Whiskey.

Quinn: How big are we talking?

Garry: Like a loaf. Got to about 11pm, got the munchies, and had that.

Quinn: Haha, brilliant, right that’s job done, cheers.