Student Stories

Mark Davies

BSc (Hons) Computer Network Management and Security

What made you choose Glyndŵr University in the first place?

My major reason for going to Glyndŵr was that members of my family worked there. I had been to another University before but had health problems that meant that I could not continue there, Glyndŵr made it possible for me to be in an environment where I had support, both from the University and through knowing staff already. The course was interesting and quite challenging with a good deal of material that required thought.

How did the course prepare you for working life?

The course gave me the skills that I required to do my job; there is no way that I would have had the network programming experience that I require every day had I not taken that particular course, particularly the expert knowledge of protocol technologies (I work with a number of different networking protocols daily) that was passed on during my time at Glyndŵr meant that I was uniquely equipped to produce solutions for my company when I started. 

Additionally the software engineering work that we undertook not only prepared me for life in a business but also gave me the skills to adequately express myself in a business style when conversing with my superiors.

What does your job involve?

My job has two parts; I recently took on the job of repairing and upgrading our website (www.cymba-tech.com ), making me “webmonkey” in programmer vernacular. My main responsibility, however, is to provide the means for our Order Management System (OMS) to communicate with external sources of data such as other OMSs, Brokerage companies (who do the buying and selling of stocks and shares) and service providers. This has meant writing C++ code to send and receive data to and from these sources, and to ensure that once I have finished, the messages that are passed back are of the correct type and format.

The protocols I have been implementing and integrating so far are SSL, the secure sockets layer that is also used by many websites to secure communications, and the FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol that allows our OMS to send messages to brokerage firms to buy and sell stocks and shares when our clients want. Since FIX is an almost instantaneous way for our clients to trade they are very keen to have as much functionality as they can. For the less technically minded a praecipe of my work is that I write the code that makes computers communicate with each other.

How did you go about getting the job and getting in to what you wanted to do so quickly?

The most important thing I did when trying to get this job was to be persistent. On my first day I was told that they were looking for someone more experienced for this role but had accepted me mostly because I had done well on the (relatively simple) programming test and because I had made sure I kept up correspondence with them to find out how my application was proceeding. Naturally I don’t recommend that people correspond daily or even weekly but my fortnightly emails to check on the progress of my application appear to have done the trick.

I would say that it is important not to restrict which companies you apply to. Even if you believe that you are very unlikely to get a job you see advertised there is no harm in applying; the worst thing a potential employer can do is email you to reject you.

Finally, and very importantly, be prepared to move very rapidly; I was given five days to move to London before my job started, this is not always the case but it may harm your ability to get jobs if it will take you a month or so to relocate, companies are always impressed with people who have drive and ambition.

What tips would you give to students looking to get in to the industry?

My biggest tips for getting on in the financial industry are to work hard, present yourself well and learn not to sleep! Most city jobs claim to be 9-5 but end up requiring a lot of hard work outside so be prepared for that and remember not to make plans that can’t be changed if work overtakes.