We had a chat with Manchester based Senior Web Developer Benny May about their first 6 months, and discovered a globe-trotting, rollercoasting (250+), gig obsessed (600+), celebrity dog parent (check out ‘mybestfriendstory’ on Insta, ‘Lucifer the Pomeranian’) who now applies skills from their former career as a magician, to their life as a StrategiQ dev.
“I got into building websites around the age of 9. I was creating my own comic book characters and making Flash games for them, so making them available through a website was the next logical step. Because the sites were so small, they bypassed my school’s filters, so it wasn’t long before all the kids were playing them at lunchtime! It was a natural step for me to leave college at 16 to pursue a web development apprenticeship, and it wasn’t long before that became my first role at an agency.
My career has rotated between in-house and agency roles, but I’ve come to realise that my brain works best in agency. I’m a natural born problem solver and thrive in an environment where there are more problems to solve. My brain sees coding like puzzles and I love having the opportunity to work on lots of different puzzles at once.
When I started looking for a new role, an agency CEO friend of mine recommended StrategiQ. I took a look at the company’s site and loved how much of a showcase of skills it was. Most agencies’ own websites are quite boring, but Strategiq were showcasing their work through their own site and evidently cared about the external view of the agency from the top down. It seemed like a place where I’d be given exciting work and encouraged to do it properly (whereas so many often cut corners to manage stretched budgets).
I had an initial conversation with James B and we got along so well, that the time just evaporated! A big part of my decision to join was based on the people I’d be working with. It’s important to consider who you’re going to be chatting to when things are difficult and I got such a good feel from that initial call and it’s absolutely played out.
I absolutely love working with Alix. There’s a lot of back and forth between us daily. She does a fantastic job and between us we’ve worked on some intense timelines. One of my favourites was a project where we put together a site for a client with a tight deadline. Between us we built it, tested it and got it live within a week, we just work really well together.
I love being a resource for other developers in the team to bring random problems to. We’ve been building out the front end of an ecommerce store and have hit some snags in managing the complexities of a huge volume of data. I’ve gone away, slept on it and come back with a solution, which is a great feeling.
I’ve now been given the reigns to lead our client support work which sees me fixing servers and API integrations a lot of the time, show me a complex problem and I‘m all over it! I’m excited at the range of sites we’ve built and am enjoying uncovering areas where we can add even more value. The pace of work is rapid and there’s always loads going on, and I’m having the best fun I’ve ever had in my career and really getting the most out of it.”
What colleagues say about Benny:
“March has been a crazy month and whilst the dust settles on the Jacada launch, Benny has been a stand out for me. They have been an absolute trooper and team player from the day they joined, jumping on to help with any task that is thrown their way and always one of the first to put up their hand to offer assistance to any one that needs it. They are revolutionising the way we deliver development retainers, working to ensure each client gets the time and attention they need, whilst freeing up other developers to focus on projects. Benny is an absolute asset to the team and a pleasure to work with, keep smashing it Benny!”
“Benny has gone above and beyond for She Grows Veg this week, I am excited to see what they can do across our retained clients! Keep it up!”
“I was really impressed with Benny’s ownership with the launch of the new Reuters Best site. Reuters can be a tricky client to pin down and obtain details from. However, Benny was persistent and handled the launch very well (albeit a few hurdles caused by the client) – and quick to react to any changes that were required. Well done Benny, keep it up!”
“Benny has been nothing but a valuable asset to the team as soon as they arrived. Suggesting and making improvements to current systems, identifying issues before they arise, and even taking the time to find solutions to these problems before they become issues. Absolute MVP material this month and I feel like they’ve been such an asset to each project they’ve been on, especially the Shopify sites.”
“Whilst only being here a short period of time, Benny has really shown their expertise and willingness to drop onto any task assigned, quickly kept up to speed with how everything works and then see solutions through to the end, never straying away from anything tricky or outside of their wheelhouse and instead taking any and all challenges head on, great month Benny, here’s to even greater things in 2025.”
“Benny hasn’t been in the team long but has already shown their ingenuity, expertise and enthusiasm to take on any challenge and put in the extra effort to solve a problem. I know when I’m handing work over to Benny that I just have to give a clear instruction once and they’ll handle the rest and anything that’s come up. Very impressed!”
“It’s hard to think Benny has only been with us a couple of months, given the impact they have made already! This month they have particularly stood out for me, diving into any (and every) project or task thrown their way, finding solutions for complex issues and requirements and then working late to ensure they are delivered and launched on time. Benny has excellent attention to detail and when they meet a brick wall where others might turn around, they finds a way to smash through it. Keep up the great work Benny!”
“Benny has really hit the ground running supporting the team with a number of projects and delivering great results within his first few weeks. Their attitude to helping out whenever I have a problem is greatly appreciated, even if its a fairly simple fix they’re also happy to provide an answer. Well done Benny!“
