Getting to Know – Ansaar Younis

At Tradeprint our most important asset is our people! In our latest Getting to Know feature, we shine the spotlight on Ansaar Younis, Lead Frontend Developer and asked him to tell us a little more about his working life at Tradeprint.

What did your pre-work morning look like?
I get up about 7 and get ready for morning prayers, as a Muslim we pray 5 times a day. After prayers we get the kids ready for nursery, I have a 5-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, I drop them off and I’m at my desk for around quarter to nine.

What’s the first thing you do when you get to work?
Coffee! Then checking emails before my first meeting at 9.30am.

When we were in the office, I would have a coffee in the kitchen and catch up with colleagues, but I mainly work from home since the pandemic.

How did you first start out in your career?
Tradeprint was my first job out of uni. I always wanted to be a developer from a young age and I studied computing at university. After graduating, the opportunity at Tradeprint came up so I started in a junior developer role and then developed my career and skills with the company. 7 years later, I’ve done a few different roles within the team and am now Lead Front End Developer.

What’s the one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to start a career like yours?
Always stay ahead of the curve. Tech changes so much that stuff I learned at uni isn’t always relevant. It’s important to keep learning new languages, keep up to date with trends and keep growing your skills.

What’s your favourite part of your working week?
In my role I spend a lot of time in meetings with Developers, Product Owners and the Directors which is great, but my favourite time is probably when I don’t have meetings and I have a block of focused time to code, creating futures, investigating bugs. That’s what I love doing!

What’s your least favourite part of your working week?
Monday mornings! Getting my head back in the game after the weekend.

What do you do when not at work?
I am really into sport, so I watch football and cricket and boxing. I’ve been to see Anthony Joshua fight a few times.

I am a proud Muslim, and I am committed to advocating for Muslim beliefs and fairer representation in the media. The media portrayal of my faith isn’t accurate and can focus on fundamentalism and the actions of a very small minority. Islam means peace and our religion speaks about the unity of human beings regardless of skin colour, of bringing people together, I want people to understand that this is what we represent.

I make time to go to interfaith gatherings, groups, and conferences to speak about it. During lockdown, when I had a bit more time, I even made a YouTube channel and posted video content to try to engage a younger audience that would be a bit bored by a four-hour lecture.

What makes you proud to work at Tradeprint?
As a team we push forward together, it’s a shared mindset.

I’ve worked with groups of people from across the company on releases and launches and everyone has a similar mindset to just pitch in and get it done.

If you had to sum up working here in three words, what would they be?
Enjoyable, Forward thinking, Beneficial (to my career, I’ve developed a lot in 7 years).