Lynne McCormick works as a developer at Screenmedia – a Glasgow based digital design agency specialising in web design and development.
Lynne’s academic background is in computing, animation and art. From a very young age, Lynne was interested in web development and used to try to build websites using basic HTML and CSS.
“I taught myself as much as I could through online resources and help from developers I know”, Lynne says about how her adventure in web development started. “I enjoy it because I like that you get to work on various different projects, each with their own challenges.”
Learning to code can take you down various different paths. Read on to find out more about what a day in the life of a web developer entails.
6:30 AM – Generally I wake up around 6:30am, get ready, and I’m out the door to get into work for 9am.
9:00 AM – We like a good breakfast at Screenmedia. This is generally a time in the morning to ease into the day and have a chat with coworkers about what projects we’re all working on.
9:30 AM – Working in a studio like Screenmedia means that I get to work on a variety of different projects. Sometimes I’ll be given a big project to work on, that will take a few months overall, and some days I may be working on smaller bits and pieces for existing websites, or adding in new functionality.
10:00 AM – I generally catch up on emails or check in with people to see what’s happening with my schedule that day. Then I’ll read through any brief’s I’ve been given and generally just jump in and start coding!
10:30 AM – I take 15 minutes to read blogs or articles. What I love about my job is that things are always changing. There are always new ways to do things and new advancements in technology that you have to keep on top of, by reading blogs/articles and generally keeping up to date with what’s happening in the industry. This means there are constantly new things to learn, and no two projects are the same. The challenge is to adapt and learn something from every project that you can take into the next one.
10:45 AM – Occasionally in the morning I’ll have a planning meeting/discussion. I enjoy working on the bigger projects because I get to be involved more in the planning stages, and see how it develops from the initial concept, through UX Planning and Design stages before it comes to Development.
11:00 AM – Usually at this point I have everything sorted for the day, unless I have any meetings in the afternoon – which can happen occasionally. From now on I’m usually coding until the end of the day, and liaising with Project Managers and Designers while doing this.
12:30 PM (Lunch) – In the studio, we are a very creative bunch. People come from a variety of different backgrounds and they bring that experience with them. We are very big on knowledge sharing and often share links to cool things we’ve seen or things that inspire us.
4:00 PM – I take some time to sketch. As a Front End developer, the main tools I use every day are Atom (code editor), Git, CodeKit, SASS, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. My own background is in 3D modelling/animation, and I think that helps a lot in my current job when it comes to things like UI animations or looking at the composition and layout of a website, as well as the code structure.
5:00 PM – I generally review the work I’ve done for the day, and make a plan for the next day. This includes the goals I want to achieve in my current project and sometimes long term plans, including which areas of my job I want to improve on and any things I might need training on. This plan is then sent to the production team and managers.
7:00 PM – Outside of work I enjoy going to the gym, gaming, cinema, art and playing my guitar. I’m a bit of a nerd about space and science stuff, I just find it fascinating.
I do kettlebell classes, which are insane but great fun! And I also take part in running events such as Race for Life and the Great Scottish Run 10k. I have a passion for learning and self-improvement, and I’m always trying to learn new things.
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