A Day in the Life At Talis by Nadeem Shabir, Automation Lead

Nadeem Shabir, Automation Lead, Talis

What does your typical day look like

I prefer to start early and finish early. So my typical day begins at 6am which is when I log in, I go through my emails. I review where I got to the day before and loosely plan out my activities for the day and then send out my daily standup email. For me personally, I tend to find i’m most productive between 7am and 9:30am so try to get those tasks done that require focus.

I work in the Platform Team and our team has our daily standup at 9:30am, right after the standup we spend 15 minutes as a team looking through new tickets that have been raised and discuss and estimate them. After that we continue with our work.

What was it like switching from office-based to fully remote?

I was one of the few individuals who always chose to work from the office, so at first I struggled with the transition to working remotely, I did feel lonely and isolated at first. But I wasn’t alone in this. The Platform Team decided to deal with this by having a google hangout/meet that is open all day long with several of us always in there. Knowing that as soon as I start speaking, there’s somebody listening, made a big difference. There’s always some kind of conversation going on, and others in the business know if they need help they can contact us on slack but also just drop into the hangout.

What kind of company is Talis?

The really wonderful thing about Talis is that I’m surrounded by a team of people who believe passionately thats its the journey and how we deal with it that defines us, and not the destination. We are constantly looking for ways to improve what we do and how we do it, which is inspiring. I consider myself privileged to be working alongside so many incredibly passionate and extremely talented individuals.

What excites you the most about your Job?

I love solving problems, I love to be challenged, love learning new things and improving my craft. But most of all I love doing these things with like minded individuals who feel similarly.

When not at work, how do you take time out?

I do a lot of reading, I make it a point a point to find a balance btw things I’m reading that relate to work or my growth vs reading fiction (mostly Scifi/Fantasy) as an escape.

I love archery, and for many years my favourite pastime was travelling to a different wood/forest around the country and competing against other archers.

More recently, I’ve been trying to spend more time at home with my children, so far less travelling; and that prompted me to look for a new hobby: wood turning, in particular making pens.