How we hire in engineering
Applying for a new job can be daunting, especially when youâre not sure what the recruitment process is. At FreeAgent we try to be as open as possible about how we hire and make sure there are no surprises, so that you can be well prepared. Application â Our application process is simple: just upload your CV and cover letter, and answer a few questions about why you are interested… Continue reading
Type checking in Ruby – Part 1
Over the course of a career in software engineering, we learn to love elements of our tooling and dislike others - thatâs perfectly natural. As requirements change, including our own need to improve as engineers, so does what appeals to us when reaching for a new framework, language or library. A common path for lots of engineers will have been to learn something like C or C++, both strongly typed… Continue reading
My experience as an Analytics Intern
I was really excited to begin interning at FreeAgent and after 9 weeks in the Data Analytics team I feel Iâve learnt a lot about working in a team inside a company, and about the culture here. I thought I would write a bit about how it was getting set up, working on my project and communicating my findings to the rest of the company. Onboarding/set-up There were a lot… Continue reading
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Fixing my first bug – the experience
As a computer science student, I obviously fixed bugs in code before. However, the first one I had to fix at FreeAgent felt significantly different from the corrections I had to make in my university assignments and other small projects. I think that was because whenever I worked on a project, I either wrote the whole code or the project contained just a few files. That meant I could skim… Continue reading
A brief introduction to âthe cloudâ and managing infrastructure with code
Over the last decade the âcloudâ has become increasingly prevalent . A cloud based system allows a company to flexibly buy servers, storage, networking and various other services that are hosted externally rather than on-site, typically with a programmatic interface to allow large-scale use. According to a 2019 report, 94% of companies were utilising the cloud in one way or another. The market for cloud providers was valued at $200… Continue reading
What is a tech spec and why do I need one?
For the past three months, Iâve been a Software Engineering Intern in the Connections & Add-ons team here at FreeAgent. We look after a number of features that allow FreeAgent to work with third-party services: if a business owner wants to get paid faster, they can add a PayPal, Stripe, GoCardless or Tyl payment link to their invoices; if they need to get their business insured, they can sign up… Continue reading
The 4 SQL queries you need to debug Redshift performance
This blog provides four useful SQL snippets you can use to debug poor Redshift performance. Continue reading
So you’re going to be an intern
After months of nerves, interviews and one too many LeetCode questions, youâve done it. Youâve landed an internship, youâre free from the dread of a long, empty summer and your brain is filled with vague notions of what your internship might be like. Iâm here to gather up your brain clay and sculpt it into solid ideas of what things will be like. Before we start, it needs to be… Continue reading
CSS Day conference, June 2022
In early June 2022, Laurence and Ryan from our Design System team visited Amsterdam for CSS Day. Here, they reflect on an inspiring two days of learning and community. Continue reading
Engineering lessons from my SaaS startup
Iâm now almost two months into my software engineering summer internship at FreeAgent. When I was 18, I chose to delay the start of my university course for 18 months to have a go at building a âSoftware as a Serviceâ (or âSaaSâ) startup with two others. Our software, âtrackioâ, was a bring-your-own data platform that allowed sales teams to collect, connect and reconcile their disjointed data sources. It was… Continue reading