Coffee Date Interview 14 - James Heydon

Name: James Heydon

Job Title: Analyst Programmer 


1. What drives you crazy at work?

How long have you got? At the moment I'm being driven crazy by teams of people who collect meaningless statistics about what we do to prove that we are either more or less efficient than we should be / used to be / want to be. I find these measures often totally miss the point.

2. What’s the first thing you do on arriving at work?

Get my colleagues a round of teas and coffees and catch up on what everyone is up to.

3. When the going gets tough......?

I tend to knuckle down and get on with it - quite often when actually what I should be doing is asking for help!

4. How do you relax / wind down after a hard day at work?

I find my 20 minute walk home is a great start to shrugging of the work day. On a Wednesday night I got straight from work to choir and there is no doubt that making music is one of the most relaxing things you can do.
Falling asleep in the front the fire at about 9pm also seems to feature quite regularly....

5. When you were little, what did you want to be?

A train driver (yup, really!).



6. What eats up most of your time at work?

Questions and problems from other people. I love that bit of my job but it does tend to interrupt the work I am supposed to be getting on with.





7. What’s the best advice given to you?

It relates to having children. Someone said to me to make sure you enjoy every stage they go through - even the bad ones - because all too soon you are on to the next one.

8. What are the 3 “always” in your life?

Family
Music
Sense of humour

9. Night in or Night out?

Night in

10. Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsey?

Honestly? Neither! But if you're going to make me choose Jamie Oliver.

11. Del Boy or Rodney?

Del Boy - I have an awful lot of big ideas that never really turn out quite how I'd hoped!

12. Countryside or Seaside?
Seaside every time!