With the rapid growth of Ultimately Better over the past 12 months, I’m really excited to launch our Meet the Team series so you can get to know our little WordPress agency better. We kick things off with Christine, who’s been an incredible asset to UB since she started.
Jem Turner, Managing Director
Hi! I’m Christine and I’ll kick off our Meet The Team series.
I have been with Ultimately Better since February 2024, so that’s the better part of a year now. Prior to starting this job, I was teaching myself web (and WordPress) development while working full time as an NHS ambulance paramedic. Joining UB as a junior developer has enabled me to follow both my passions: emergency medicine and programming, while creating a much better work-life balance.
To say I learned a lot in my year at UB so far is an understatement. While I have previously created websites for friends and family, working with clients was a new experience for me. I am very grateful to Jem and Matt for being patient and supportive while I found my feet in this new environment. But I wasn’t the only one in uncharted territory: as only the second junior developer in the company – Steph having joined not long before me – the whole team underwent some inevitable growing pains. This made it even more amazing to see the team expand by two more members in late 2024. UB is officially outgrowing the “micro-agency” label and I am here for it!
So let’s take a closer look at what I do as a junior developer on a daily basis. All our workload is managed on ClickUp, so that’s where I find my tickets and tasks to do. Work is mostly assigned by Matt, our Operations Manager, or Jem, when she would like me to pitch in on a particular project. We have a very wide range of clients by now and tasks can include anything from creating a completely new website from scratch, rebuilding a website in Gutenberg that maybe used a page builder, older versions of WordPress or no WordPress at all, or maintaining and optimising existing WordPress sites.
One of my favourite projects so far was taking the lead in the rebuild of a website that had been using a page builder, and improving its performance by using the WordPress native Gutenberg editor instead. The project prior to that one was one where I experienced a very steep learning curve, and I mentally struggled with transitioning from my job role as a paramedic, where I have several years of knowledge and experience, to a “junior” dev role, where I needed a lot of help and support. However, being then able to immediately utilise that hard-earned knowledge and put it into practice with the new project, completing it without major complications and well within the timeframe, was a great feeling and definitely made it worth it!
As juniors, we are actively encouraged to develop our skills, and are given time and budget to facilitate this. We have regular 1:1s where we discuss our current performance and our future ambitions. Although I have been focusing mostly on frontend work, I am quite interested in backend development and have been well supported in setting time aside for learning new skills – in this case improving my CSS, JavaScript, SQL and PHP.
I love that I am free to choose in which direction I would like to develop in the future, and don’t feel stagnant in my role!
Another amazing perk of this job is that my hours are completely flexible. Have an important appointment? No worries, I’ll work a different day instead. Fancy a longer lunch break? Also no problem, I’ll just work a bit longer in the evening. Work-life balance really is prioritised, and one week off per quarter is not just encouraged, it is mandatory. Although remote work can sometimes get a bit lonely, advice, help or just a chat is always only a message away. We mostly communicate via Slack, and I also have daily check-ins with Matt and weekly team meetings with everyone where we talk about our current projects, any problems that come up, and generally just chat 😊.
When I am not making websites or zooming around on an ambulance, I like to do things that help me relax. I love reading and read 53 books in 2024. I also like going on brunch-dates with my friends and try to maintain a good workout schedule.
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities I’ve had at UB so far and excited to see what’s next as the team and company continue to grow. It’s been a challenging-yet-rewarding journey, and I’m looking forward to learning even more, taking on new projects, and contributing to our amazing team. Thanks for taking the time to get to know me – here’s to an exciting future at Ultimately Better!