Name: William Glass
Role: Software engineer, CME Group
Degree: BSc Computer Science at Ulster University
What does your typical day look like?
In the morning, I usually spend some time reviewing emails and prepping for any meetings I might have that day before the morning stand-up with my team in Belfast. After stand-up, I focus on whichever ticket I am currently working on. Lately, most of my work has been focused on migrating existing services to GCP or working on new services that benefit from the cloud environment. In the afternoon, I have another stand-up with folks from the Chicago office which is more focused on GCP. During the day, I also engage in other activities such as meetings, demos and code reviews.
What are you working on currently?
As mentioned above, my major focus on late has been the GCP migration. This has involved moving many of our current applications from CME Group’s on-prem environments to Google Cloud. The move to GCP has been very exciting as it has given us a wide array of new tools and technologies to take advantage of and use to improve our software and services. In addition to moving existing services, I have also been working on some new services that take advantage of the power and scalability of GCP, which may replace older applications.
What inspired you to join this company in particular?
At the start of my second year of university, I was very keen to try and get a placement, so I applied to a lot of companies. CME Group was very appealing as the interview and introduction to the company were very welcoming and I was interested in what CME Group did. During my placement year, I benefited from their commitment to training and overall found the company atmosphere to be very friendly and open. This positive placement experience, including the support I got from senior members of my team, made me want to stay once I had finished university.
Did you always want to work in this industry (tech)?
Since high school, I have been interested in technology and always thought I would work in tech. My time at university and my placement at CME Group solidified my interest in software specifically. I enjoy the problem-solving that comes with software development. Seeing the apps I have worked on being used in the real world brings a feeling of accomplishment.
What is your favourite part of your work?
Working on new applications and services, and learning about new tools, technologies and design approaches is always interesting. I have gotten to do a lot of this recently with the GCP work, which has given me the opportunity to contribute to a key business and growth initiative for the company.
What would you say to people considering a job in this industry (tech)?
I would encourage them. I really enjoy working in tech and there are a lot of different jobs for people with different skills - development, infrastructure, QA, analysis, etc. - and most of them are in high demand.
How do you see this technology impacting our lives?
CME Group is a relatively small company in terms of the number of employees but it has a big impact in helping market participants around the world manage risk. The services that I have worked on are used by many firms across the globe.
Who inspired you to work in this field?
I’m not sure that I was inspired by any one individual. No one in my family before me was into tech, I just became interested in it through high school ICT classes and home learning. I would say that the senior developers and mentors I worked with at CME Group when I was an intern were a big inspiration, not necessarily in getting into the field, but certainly in what sort of developer I wanted to become.
What do you consider to be the most important tech innovation or development in recent years?
It is hard to say, as often it takes time to see which innovations will truly change the world and which are a short-lived fad. I suppose I am quite interested in the advances in augmented/virtual reality that have been made in recent years. Even with all of the chatter around Facebook’s Metaverse project, I am interested to see how this technology will continue to evolve and impact the world in the context of gaming and beyond.
What tech gadget could you not live without?
I suppose my home computer would be the one I use the most. I use it for most of my recreation activities and home projects and it has all my important documents on it.
