Citrix is one of the world’s most successful technology companies, winning a plethora of awards over the last few years commending its vibrant culture, workplace environment and business leadership. But what’s it really like to work there? We caught up with two Graduates, Tom and Ollie, who told us about their typical day…
Tom: I joined Citrix back in 2013 and work as a Test Engineer in the Interoperability team. In my role I work across all Citrix products and a range of technologies. I completed my undergraduate degree in Computer Networks at Sheffield Hallam, converting in my final year to Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire.
Ollie: I studied Computer Science at Trinity College, Cambridge before joining Citrix as a Graduate also in 2013. I am currently working as a Developer in the Studio Team and will be moving to the Authentication team shortly.
So, tell us about an average day….
Tom: I usually get in at 9.30am and firstly I grab cereal and a coffee from the kitchen and spend the first half hour getting up to speed on emails before a team scrum at 10am. Often there might be actions from other teams that have come in that we need to build in to our workflow.
Ollie: I’m very similar – I tend to get in for 9.30am but our team working hours are hugely variable by individual working styles. I work in a team of 8 – some start at 7.30am, some at 10am and the last at 11.45am.
Tom: We have scrums every day for about 15 minutes. We use these to talk about what we have been working on the day before, what we’ll be working on during the day ahead and any blockers/challenges we’re facing. We work in two-week sprints and so we often use those meetings to review where we are in the sprint and pick something out to crack on with.
Ollie: Our stand up meeting takes place at 11.45am. We use this to check in on where we are in our three-week sprint. We typically try to work on one feature at once and split the activity between features and bugs, so we tend to be working on related things across the team and relying on each other’s developments to progress. It’s independent but linked.
Tom: We tend to have a close working team environment. In the morning I might be supporting a couple of our interns, checking they are comfortable with the various languages we’re using – PowerShell, Bash, C# etc. We’ll be testing an aspect of the product – whether it’s compatible with a new feature or in a new version.
Ollie: Within each sprint we have a grooming and a planning session in which we try to decide on the immediate tasks that need doing. We break them down, assign a rough difficulty level and use that to decide who should be working on what.
Tom: Around midday I head for lunch. There is a Tesco just up the road so I tend to head there and pick something up. Sometimes food will be ordered to the office and it’s great to get involved in this every now and then.
Ollie: There’s also a park just around the corner so often a few of us go and sit there and eat our lunch outside. If not we have a big communal canteen with table football and comfy chairs for a break.
Tom: In the afternoon I continue the morning’s test activity. There might be a weekly team meeting, or meetings with the various teams operating all over the globe. I tend to wrap up at 5.30/6pm and head home – we don’t have a long hours culture here and so the office tends to be pretty quiet after 6pm.
Ollie: I also finish around 5pm for the day and head home. The great thing about working in Cambridge is that the commute home is never too long so I get to enjoy my evening and catch up with friends.
--
Want to know more? For more information about Citrix and details of their graduate and internship opportunities, click here.