I'm Samuel Warner.

Starting at Black Pepper

New beginnings.

Well, kind of new, anyway.

In actual fact, I had spent 3 months at Black Pepper before I joined as an intern, in the summer of my penultimate year at university. I had fond memories of my summer spent there, getting to grips with software development in the real world instead of producing assignments for my degree course.

But still, it was new. Somewhat. I got up in the morning the same as usual. I had my breakfast, brushed my teeth… But it wasn’t the same. I was starting my first day as a Software Developer. This was the beginning of my career, standing on my own two feet for the first time, after three years of safety nets at university.

So after fumbling, and making sure I had remembered everything, I set off, on my way to work. Hmm, work. It still sounded strange. But it is remarkable how quickly it started to sound normal. Exciting. Daunting, but not in a bad way.

When I arrived, a swathe of familiar faces greeted me, people I had met previously on my internship. This was good. People remembered me, and (hopefully) for good reasons. I settled at my new desk, set up my new laptop, and got to know my new colleagues. I was told of the exciting things to come, including training and starting on what promised to be a really interesting Java project.

I was going to put my skills to the test (in a paired environment - I wasn’t that ready yet)!

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t think my first day in the big bad world of work would go quite so smoothly - and with such little admin! I wouldn’t have changed a thing, and I am so thankful for everything Black Pepper have done.

Exciting things are happening.