Spot and Manage Orphan Nights in Your freetobook Diary
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Anya started at freetobook as a Summer Intern while studying at the University of Glasgow back in 2023. After graduating, she returned as a full-time Software Developer in 2024.
Now she’s building her experience across different areas of development and helping the next generation of interns settle in. We caught up with Anya to hear how her role has evolved since that first summer.
Anya initially heard about freetobook through an email from one of her university professors, which led her to chat with our Director Iain at a University Careers Fair.
“It was such a good time; they were so clearly just such nice people that it was very easy to see that this would be a great place to work.”
During her internship, Anya worked on a Business Intelligence project, making a dashboard for properties to see their performance, profit, and occupancy. For Anya, getting to experience the full project lifecycle was a key part of the internship.
“It was quite cool to come from university where you don’t really work on a project like that – to seeing what it’s actually like in industry,” she explains. “I was really glad that this was such a hands-on experience to really see that and be able to get a feel for what it would be like to work here as a Software Developer.”
After graduating, Anya returned to freetobook as a full-time Associate Software Developer.
“I absolutely loved it; I was very happy to get an offer to come back.”
So, what was it like to return to freetobook as a full-time Developer?
For Anya, her experiences during the internship helped smooth that process.
“I felt confident returning to freetobook since I felt comfortable with the system. Because the internship was three months spent coding within freetobook and getting used to everything, there was a familiarity in coming back,” she says. “Because the internship was so well structured, I felt like I was already working as a Developer here.”
One of the biggest differences was the opportunity to take on more responsibility and work on larger projects over a longer period.
“It was great to be given more responsibility when I came back, to get to work on longer term, larger projects that might take multiple months to work on compared to just a couple of weeks. The work felt very similar, but the scale felt different.”
In addition to her usual work, this summer Anya took on a new responsibility: supporting a student taking part in freetobook’s Summer Internship programme.
Having had such a positive experience herself, she was keen to help someone feel just as welcome.
“I had such a great time myself doing my internship, and my buddy was really great,” she smiles. “It really had such a positive impact on my internship in making me feel so welcome and helping me through that transition from university student to full-time work – which can be quite a transition.”
Anya became the first point of contact for her buddy, helping them settle in and answering questions during weekly catchups. Having been in their position herself, she understood how daunting it could feel to join a new workplace.
After supporting them through the onboarding process, Anya met weekly with her buddy to answer any questions that came up.
“It helped a lot to know what it’s like to be an intern entering a new workplace where you don’t know anyone and you don’t know the system. It can be a bit daunting, so knowing what that felt like firsthand definitely helps to know how best to approach helping them. You know that they just want to succeed.”
Anya’s current role involves working on BAU (Business-As-Usual) development, from bug fixes and upgrade work to making improvements across freetobook’s products.
“The day-to-day is different week-to-week. Because it’s BAU, it’s not just one section you’re working on all the time, and so I’ve gotten to see all parts of freetobook. I get to do front-end and back-end work, which I really enjoy.”
This variety has helped Anya build skills beyond her original specialism in human-computer interaction, which focuses on how people interact with technology.
“BAU has been a really great way to gain so much experience across the board […] I feel like my skills have been able to develop a lot because I’ve had such a wide variety of things to work on.”
For example, she’s had the opportunity to learn how to handle upgrade work in freetobook’s internal system; something she hadn’t worked on before.
“It was completely new to me; I hadn’t touched anything like that before. So BAU was a great opportunity to learn how to do that upgrade work. It was a completely new world to me.”
One project that has pushed Anya outside her comfort zone is the Helpdesk AI project. Coming from a university background without a focus on AI or machine learning, she has enjoyed the opportunity to explore something completely new.
“It’s quite cool to be in a field that is being impacted by such cutting-edge technology. Being able to see how tech is changing so rapidly whilst having a front row seat to it all has been really interesting.”
She explains that freetobook’s openness to new developments in AI and Automation has helped her grow as a Software Developer, allowing her to learn, experiment, and develop new skills.
One of the things Anya is proudest of is being able to see the real-world impact of the code she writes.
“I knew I didn’t want to work in an industry where I was just making code, and it’s just kind of there, and you don’t really know what the impact of it is,” she explains.
“But with freetobook you’re helping actual real people with their lives and making their businesses easier to manage, so that’s definitely a very nice feeling.”
Anya recently worked on automatically re-sending review requests. After the change went live, she saw that properties were getting more reviews. She described the immense satisfaction she felt in seeing this small change directly impact customers.
“You feel like, ‘Wow! That’s really going to help their business’. It feels great to help make people’s lives easier.”
Anya’s favourite part of working at the freetobook office is a very close tie between the abundance of pizza and the on-site office gym.
“When I was an intern here, we had pizzas almost every week. Almost too much pizza,” she laughs.
“But the gym is a really nice bonus. It’s so convenient, and it reflects the overall culture that Iain and Craig have cultivated towards employees. They really want us to succeed both in our work life and our personal lives.”
Having transitioned from a student intern into a Software Developer herself, Anya has some advice for anyone thinking about applying for a role at freetobook.
“I would say there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Everyone is so, so friendly and willing to help.”
One thing that’s stayed with her since joining is seeing how even the most experienced Developers continue to ask questions and learn from each other.
“I think that made it a very open and encouraging environment for me to ask questions myself. It’s a really supportive place to work.”
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