It’s been a brilliant few months welcoming new crew to the team and celebrating being shortlisted for Best Remote Team at The Spiders and Tech Company of the Year at the Global Business Tech Awards (keep your fingers crossed for us!). But that’s not the big milestone, the really great news is that the arrival of our new colleagues has also helped GCD hit the milestone of over 40 team members! The GCD family continues to grow, bringing in brilliant people to join our award winning teams.
If you’re in the market for a new role, joining Team GCD will be the best decision you make! Take a look at our careers site for available roles.
Let’s meet some of our new team mates. Phil and Jamie have both recently joined our Design team, expanding our UX & UI capabilities!
I caught up with both of them to get to know them a little more.
Hey Phil!
What is your background in UX/Design? How did you get started?
I started designing brochures when I was 17 for my father’s NGO helping inner city people. I then went on to study all over the world, I studied Design and Photography in Greece, Youth & Community work in Australia & Germany and UX Design in the UK. Interesting fact, inner city people didn’t appreciate my graffiti filled designs 
How has your first few weeks at GCD been?
Terrific! The people are friendly, and the projects are very interesting. It’s the perfect combination for me to be able to create and deliver.
What is your favourite part about your role?
The fact that UX can literally shape someone’s daily routine is fascinating. Being able to improve someone’s day, or ensuring that a product’s usability is optimised is pretty exciting stuff.
Is there anything you are really excited to work with or on?
I love the power of small micro-animations and how they make the experience delightful. Most of all, I love interviewing users and really see them use the product, so I’m excited to do more of that. It’s rewarding when a user shares a wealth of knowledge with you, knowledge that you can only guess at in your initial brainstorm meetings.
What hobbies do you have?
In my free time, I love coordinating a Community Centre in downtown Athens, Greece, my home. I’m excited to explore how UX can be used to help refugee children and youth in general.
I enjoy music, watching really old documentaries and losing wrestling matches with my two sons (aged 9 & 12).
Any interesting facts?
Because I fly in and out of Ireland a lot, some of the air stewards know me well enough now to say, “oh you again, sit down.”
Hey Jamie!
What is your background in UX/Design? How did you get started?
I have been working in design, marketing and communications for almost 10 years now. However, design has always been my passion. I am a self-taught designer and was able to really hone my skills during the couple of years I spent working in a design agency.
I got started in UX by completing an online Diploma with the UX Design Institute. During my Diploma I was able to get some ‘real life’ experience by contributing to a customer portal project for the company I was working in. It was great to be able to apply what I was learning as I was learning it. UX very much felt like the pinnacle of all my career experience to date and so the transition felt very natural.
How has your first few weeks at GCD been?
My first few weeks at GCD have been a joy. You can easily tell why they are up for an award to win ‘Best Remote Team’ as the setup and ways of working either from the office or from home are very smooth. The work culture here is one of the things I like the most about GCD – there’s a lovely team vibe where people are ‘for’ each other. You can’t help but be drawn in and energised by the team here. People seem to both really care about their work and enjoy it which is a powerful combination and one in which I feel very much at home in.
What is your favourite part about your role?
I love that GCD is a company that really respects both good design and the UX process. I am buzzing that I get to actually do the whole UX process and to gain more experience in everything I was taught in my Diploma.
Is there anything you are really excited to work with or on?
I have just started working on a project that is complex and a challenge but, once created, will be of enormous benefit to the client. This makes the whole process incredibly satisfying.
What hobbies do you have?
I love wild camping (no tents included!) in the Mournes with friends, playing football midweek and am dying to be able to go skiing again sometime.
Any interesting facts?
I have held an asteroid!
Well that was fun! Welcome to the team!
Stay tuned to catch up with more of new recruits in the next few weeks, in the meantime head over to our careers site to see the current opportunities we have!
