A day in the life of… Sagar Bharadia, Software Engineer

Our software engineer, Sagar Bharadia provides details on some of the challenges he tackles as one of TAB’s in-house technology team and how he likes to relax away from the office. 

Sagar’s is up at 7:30am, he enjoys starting his day by taking in the fresh air from his garden and having a moment to himself. He makes his way into the office by car and gets straight into  a morning meeting with the entire technology team. 

As a software engineer for TAB, every day provides new challenges. Sagar normally starts by logging into the admin and marketplace site to review if all systems are working smoothly. He likes to check if there are any errors logged and how he can resolve the urgent errors in an efficient manner, if all systems are working well he likes to check the roadmap and make sure TAB is on target for all updates and releases he's working on. He squeezes in lunch from the clubhouse in the office where he shares some downtime with colleagues from other departments.

Towards the end of the day, he spends around 30 minutes updating the help documentation, making life easier for the rest of the team who use the technology. 

After work he spends time with his family or focusing on personal projects, he tries to get to bed around 9pm, but often something has caught his eye so this can often be closer to 11pm. 

How long have you worked at TAB? 

I joined TAB in July 2021. Before TAB, I worked at an agency where our primary product was an all in one content management system (CMS), managing everything from product stock, ecommerce and warehouses down to basic websites where only content is needed. Prior to this, I was at De Montfort University where I graduated with a First in BSc Computer Science, achieving 92% in my dissertation.

What does your role at TAB involve?

My role at TAB involves almost anything and everything to do with technology including monitoring our servers, networking, working on the code itself and designing a modular solution that can be built on in the future and even development ops. It’s safe to say no two days are the same, the platform is growing day by day, meaning what I might plan to do for the day could be the opposite of what I end up doing. That’s what’s brilliant about having an in-house team, we have the flexibility to adapt to immediate demands. Another feature could be reprioritised up in the roadmap so it becomes all hands on deck for that piece of work, or a new loan may be going out so we have to give the technology a quick once over to ensure it is all working accordingly. It is a lot of responsibility but it’s also incredibly rewarding, seeing our investors use features that I built from scratch or extended from another feature, this keeps me motivated and happy.

What’s the best thing about working at TAB?

Definitely the people! We have an excellent team that’s willing to educate you on different aspects of the business, even if it's not your department. For us, in the technology team, it helps us plan for the future and see what features could be requested soon.  We can continue designing features with that in mind and make sure everything can be slotted together and is easy to maintain. This will make efficiencies across the business and this forward-thinking limits potential issues in the future. 

How do you relax outside the office?

I love developing and creating, so even outside of work I find building personal projects and learning new tools relaxing to me. When I'm not doing that I also go out for long drives or walks, spend time with family or friends or watch movies.

What does the future hold for TAB?

The future is bright, I see the organisation growing at least fivefold in the next 10 years. We’re doing so much and the team is motivated and talented. It's crazy to think what TAB will be able to accomplish in the next five to 10 years, personally I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface with what's possible. As for the industry itself, I don’t see it affecting my role at all. It’s clear how strong technology can be once utilised correctly and how much time it can save for everyone. Whether it’s starting out with auto generating documents, to building a full system, technology plays an important role at every level.