Name: Eakan
University: University of Southampton
Position: Content Integration Engineer
What attracted you to FactSet?
I became interested in FactSet when I attended a CV clinic organized at our University. I used to attend a lot of CV clinics, but what made this one with FactSet different was that, in spite of the session over-running way beyond the planned timelines, the FactSetters took all students who came in late and sacrificed their lunch time to help students with their CVs. This was something that I had never seen done by any other company at our University. That was what made me feel that I should work in a place that cares like that.
What are the best things about working at FactSet?
I must admit, the impression I had about FactSet has only gotten better. The people here are awesome. There is a month and a half of training for new joiners which includes some exciting social events and game nights. The work environment is very positive and colleagues and managers are very approachable and supportive. They make sure you have no trouble getting your work done. And they also ensure that we get our share of fun by organizing regular social events.
What projects have you been working on recently and what you have you most enjoyed?
After my training I worked on what we call a mini-project, which was to design an update system that regularly updated our financial databases with feeds from vendors. The mini-project gave me hands on experience on a variety of programming languages, since we use different languages for different purposes and also an idea about our proprietary database technology. Now I work on re-writing an update system, to work in a standardized framework.
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Name: Jakub
University: University of Southampton
Position: Software Engineer
What attracted you to FactSet?
As I was leaving a career’s fair organised by my university, I stopped by a FactSet stand. I was going to pick up the leaflet, have a short chat and head for lunch, but in the end I left after one hour with a bag full of goodies and knowing that I was definitely applying for a job. Out of dozens of companies’ representatives that I’ve spoken to, FactSetters were the only ones that seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs. Plus, I really like their career’s fair freebies – if you’ve had a play with a FactSet jellyfish I’m sure you know what I mean!
What are the best things about working at FactSet?
One of the best things about FactSet is the atmosphere in the office. The management structure is pretty flat, so it might be surprising that you have meetings with department’s presidents in the first three months from joining, but you get used to it in a while. Everybody’s friendly and ready to help out; you feel as comfortable speaking to a fellow new engineer as you do speaking to managers or directors. Plus, there’s plenty out of office opportunities to get to know your co-workers better.
What projects have you been working on recently and what you have you most enjoyed?
The work you do at FactSet is very varied – even though you’re given a few projects that you’re put directly in charge of, there’s plenty of opportunities to join a project from a different team or even suggest a project yourself – even within the first few months at the company!
One such example was when I noticed that the database I’m in charge of does not get updated due to a dependent database not being closed correctly. After speaking to the person who last updated the dependent database, I’ve learnt that the update is a cumbersome and manual process that could be simplified. I’ve gathered the requirements from the stakeholders and put together a simple system that takes away most error-prone activities from the product developer. The problem did not appear since and the system is saving development time and effort every day!
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Name: Stephen
University: Imperial College London
Position: Senior Software Engineer (8 years tenure)
What attracted you to FactSet?
FactSet is a software engineering company, not a software engineering department within a larger corporation. This was attractive as this is a much lower stress environment and allows much more innovation and quality engineering than working in a similar role for, say, a bank.
Everyone I met at the career’s fair and throughout the recruitment process was friendly and had good things to say about the company and their roles.
The interview process was very individual with interesting and challenging questions. This let me demonstrate my technical knowledge and experience without having to jump through the hoops of an assessment centre or psychometric profiling. The promise of thorough relevant training, enabling me to quickly become an effective member of the team immediately working on real client facing products.
What are the best things about working at FactSet?
Individual responsibility for real engineering challenges, with the support of knowledgeable team members. Our excellent client facing consulting staff manage the day to day client relationships allowing the engineers to concentrate on clearly prioritised, well specified projects. We also enjoy free lunch, a friendly and sociable team atmosphere, with frequent formal and informal events, as well as a clear career progression plan which recognises technical knowledge and contribution independently of any management responsibilities.
What projects have you been working on recently and what you have you most enjoyed?
I work on a high profile database product with constantly expanding exposure of the data to clients through a variety of reports, charts and applications. This level of exposure of the work you do is daunting but it is also very rewarding to see existing clients praising the new product features, or deals signed with new clients as a result of the quality of your work.
One specific on-going project for my team is the engineering challenges surrounding the heavy parallel computational loads to generate the data for our product. We are constantly looking for ways to optimise and enhance the calculation processes and ways to improve and automate our monitoring and maintenance tasks. This is made more challenging by the constant requests for new data to be calculated, resulting in more demand on the servers. Balancing the hardware and software optimisations make this a very interesting and fun problem to be involved in.
As the engineering team manager, I enjoy the challenge of balancing these different demands and prioritising work for my team, representing the engineering project needs, as well as of course actively working on enhancements myself.
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Name: Veronica
University: Castilla-La Mancha University (Spain)
Position: Software Engineer
What attracted you to FactSet?
After my graduation in Spain, I came to London looking for a great place to work. I learnt about FactSet from a FactSetter who told me about the company and I immediately knew that FactSet was the company I wanted to work for. FactSet is a really good place for a graduate, where you learn new things every day because you work with a lot of bright people who are keen on sharing their knowledge. It is a place where you become valuable member of the team from day one.
What are the best things about the working at FactSet?
I love the multicultural environment at FactSet and everyone is very collaborative and supportive. You can ask for help and be sure that everyone will do everything possible to help you, because we all work for a common goal: offering our clients the best possible product.
What projects have you been working on recently and what you have you most enjoyed?
I have worked in a variety of projects since I joined FactSet and I have enjoyed every one of them. You work on a real product used by a lot of clients, which makes you feel valuable.
The project I have most enjoyed so far is the one I am working on at the moment. I am working with my manager side by side, so I can learn from the way a very experienced senior software engineer thinks and makes decisions first-hand.
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