Fancy a career in tech? Here’s one pathway from our lead developer, Harrison.

Harrison Hayward-Gore, our lead developer, has been with TouchByte for 5 years. 

Harrison’s day to day can involve anything from writing code for our facial recognition applications, building hardware for customer installations, to physically installing the technology we produce into customer sites. 

He started his tech journey with his GCSE’s. 

“The year that I was in, happened to be the first year that my school ran a special ICT course. So, I started my GCSE’s right at the end of Year 8.

Essentially, I replaced PE with computer science, which I was pretty chuffed about. By the time year 11 came around, I had the equivalent of two GCSE’s in ICT.

If I’m honest, this didn’t inspire me to go into tech. But, it taught me the side of computing that I didn’t like – word processing and basic IT wasn’t for me.

It also taught me that there’s a good chunk of stuff that I didn’t really need to know. But knowing what you don’t need to know is valuable in itself.”

The next stage of his journey was at college.

“I studied Computing (the programming bit), Electronics (the circuit boards bit), Maths and Further Maths. What did I learn? That a lot of problems in programming can be solved with cold, black and white logic. 

 The relationships that you make with college lecturers and staff are very important – they can inspire you to pursue your dreams (or the total opposite – bore you to tears!). 

 I then left college and moved on to university to study Computer Science. This gave me a good flavour of everything, from network security, to databases, to the history of computing, to artificial intelligence (AI). 

 I realised pretty quickly that AI is the coolest thing in the world. 

 I wrote my dissertation on creating a game which allowed Super Mario to ‘play the game himself’, using a combination of neural network and evolutionary learning algorithms. 

 I spent a lot of time studying how “people learn things”, so that I could teach the AI to learn things too. AI replicates things that humans do. So, having a background or some in-depth knowledge into psychology can also be useful in tech and programming.

All careers can somehow lead to tech – maths, psychology, even communications-based degrees. Every tech team needs a project manager (essentially, someone organised and assertive!) and a salesman, as well as tech leads. 

I landed at TouchByte through an industry year during my degree. I googled “software companies” and found this interesting AI company building facial recognition solutions. I called, left a message quite literally saying: “do you want an intern”, forgot to leave my name and number – but somehow still managed to wind up with an interview. Which, I was late for, as I got lost on my bus journey down to Cornwall. But, Jeremy still had faith in me – and I’ve been with TouchByte ever since. 

The great thing about programming, is that if it can exist on your screen, you can make it. The not so great part? It takes a long time and a lot of effort to get it right. But, it’s worth the perseverance. 

“Every time I get a small victory, I feel like a mad scientist. Who wouldn’t want that as a career?”

 Jeremy Sneller, TouchByte’s MD, is passionate about inspiring the next generation and creating pathways for graduates in Cornwall to pursue their dreams. 

 “We’ve invested in a number of local graduates and school leavers, helping them develop their skills through work experience, internships and permanent positions across the company. I’m passionate about giving back to the community – after all, the next generation is the future.” 

 TouchByte are always keen to support the careers of young people in Cornwall – particularly aspiring developers, coders and computer scientists. 

Who knows, perhaps you could follow in Harrison’s footsteps and work with us one day?