Kevin Trebell
Software Developer
Business / Employer : SCSL Health
Location : Lanner, Cornwall
Years in tech : 27 since first training, 21 post grad
“seek out good education, training and experience opportunities and learn as much as you can from the senior people around you.”
Job Description
I develop our software and services using a range of skills across a range of technologies including the likes of C#, MVC, JQuery, JScript, SQL Server, Analysis Services , TDD etc.
What does your company do?
We develop software for the medical sector, including INRstar, the leading anti-coagulation management software.
The company is small but very friendly, driven but also understands work life balance. There is huge opportunity to learn and develop a range of skills with all staff encouraged to develop as much as possible within their roles and teams.
The company works in a genuinely agile way, with all work carried out across kanban boards and all work broken into stories and tasks. The company also focuses on stringent test first development, with a huge focus on quality testing.
What are your favorite products and services you have helped to develop?
I’ve enjoyed many of the services I’ve developed and delivered from software to extend our core ERP systems in my early days, to estate agency software, through educational and social housing and software to medical software today
I had a lot of fun being involved in establishing and transforming services back at Kerrier Homes/ Coastline and was very proud to have delivered huge savings in the automation and delivery of a range of services.
In recent years I’ve been very pleased to have worked on the course catalogue and results calculator systems at CC and to have improved, extended and rewritten these vital tools.
I’ve also greatly enjoyed getting involved at SCSL, with both INRStar and also with the supporting analytics product.
Career Pathway
I first worked at IBM as a part of my degree in computing back in 1992. I returned to Cornwall in 1995 to work at Watson Marlow as a programmer.
Since then I have worked in a range of roles from software development to service delivery to service management as the IS Manager at Coastline Housing for some years.
I returned to software development as a part of Mike Trebilcock’s IS team at Cornwall College 4 years ago and have since made the move to SCSL Health where I now work.
I also did a PGCE part time some years ago so that I could begin to act as an adult trainer/lecturer and spent a couple of years delivering regular training as a part of my role.
What’s your favorite part of the work you do?
I most enjoy solving problems to help people.
I enjoy it where what I can do genuinely improves people’s work and makes life easier.
I also very much enjoy dealing with the people and getting involved in training
What piece of advice would you give anyone considering a career in the Software sector?
Take as many opportunities as possible to get skills , training and experience and take your time before stepping up your responsibilities.
The role demands a lot of you and being well equipped to do it makes all the difference.
If someone was interested in doing the job you do what advice would you give and what resources might you recommend?
I’d say you really need to love it, don’t just do it for the money. It can be hugely enjoyable but also very stressful, especially in service delivery where you can feel the weight of pressure for all departments during service failure.
I’d say seek out good education, training and experience opportunities and learn as much as you can from the senior people around you.
My first role in Cornwall was working for a brilliant manager who had been in the industry for years and was a fantastic trainer, I learned so much from his experience.”
What’s the best thing about living and working in Cornwall?
The environment. I love the coast.