Joanna Sieńko
Current Role: Software Development Engineer
Joanna joined Tesco to support the development of our store colleagues. But in the short time she’s been here, she’s also been able to develop her own skills more than she imagined. Read about her role and the motivation she gets from delivering impactful solutions every day.
“As well as the size and reputation of Tesco, I was also attracted by the technology stack I’d be working with – such as Azure – and the fact that the products I’d be developing could be used by many consumers. And the friendly recruitment process convinced me even more that Tesco was the right place for me. It’s not even been half a year since I joined, and thanks to the support of my manager and colleagues, I’ve already been able to develop my skills so much.
I’m a Software Development Engineer in the Pay, Rewards, Skills and Enablers team. We manage the system that enables our store colleagues to keep track of their learning. So, if someone working in ‘wines and beers’ wants to gain the practical skills necessary to work in the bakery, they’ll make a request through our system and their manager can approve it.
What we do supports our colleagues’ development. That’s an important impact to have. If a colleague wants to have more opportunity for over time, or work on a particular day, they can request the training they need to do that. It’s also important for the business because it means managers know who’s trained on what, which is good for creating rotas. Plus, we’re able to use our system to gather data about the specific skills our colleagues are requesting to learn the most and why, which is quite interesting.
“When you work at Tesco, you’re given an opportunity to be part of crafting the culture.”
My role specifically is all about developing and implementing new features, while always maintaining a good quality of code. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to take ownership of small projects, which can include dividing new features into specific categories and delivering that to the User Interface team. We’re encouraged to be proactive in discussions about how we can continually improve our processes within our team. I love that we have autonomy on the type of technologies we use and our ways of working. We have the full support of our managers to do that.
There are so many interesting things about this work. Our product is used by colleagues in stores, so we’re constantly monitoring and debugging it. And as the system’s responsibilities grow, we regularly gather for design sessions to discuss introducing new features, and the technicalities behind it. And I really enjoy working with colleagues in India and the UK who bring unique, diverse perspectives. Even though we’re not all in the same time zone, the collaboration is evident.
There can be a lot of trial and error when developing our systems. But it’s the greatest feeling when you get through it all and find ways to speed up and improve a process. It’s really motivating ending the day knowing I’ve created solutions that support my team. It’s rewarding getting feedback on what’s working well. And when it’s not, we can learn from that too.
When I joined, there was so much time provided by my manager to get to know both the business and the technical aspect of the project before I was given any technical work to deliver. And now, as I work on my day-to-day, I still get the chance to learn about new tech that’s continuously evolving in the industry, while keeping our store colleagues’ interests as a priority. There are also regular knowledge-sharing sessions in my area, and we’ve got many well-known e-learning platforms to explore. The opportunity to develop is the most important thing I look for in a job. And Tesco supports that perfectly.”
Being part of our Technology team means you get the time and tools to try new things. Like the ideas that make life a little better for our customers. And the career progression that makes life a little better for you, too.