Conjure Spotlight: Sam

This month we’ve put the spotlight on Sam — Android Developer at Conjure!

What is your name and role at Conjure?

My name is Samuel Harvey-Collins and I’m an Android Developer at Conjure.

Where are you from and how long have you been at Conjure?

I grew up in Bedfordshire and I have been at Conjure for about a year and a half now.

Before Conjure, what was the most unusual job you’ve ever had?

I used to work in a really small (4 man) company creating software that generated 3D cities for games using openly available street map data.

What tools do you use at Conjure on a daily basis?

On a daily basis, I use Android Studio, Kotlin, RxJava and Linux shell.

What is the best thing about working at Conjure?

The best thing is the company culture - respect, responsibility, taking pride in your work, and enjoying your life.

What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on at Conjure?

I really enjoyed working on Irdeto Contactless as we used lots of elegant modern tools under the hood on that project. It was a lot of fun to write and I learned a lot!

Another contender would have to be Aura simply because it looks so good and I got a chance to write lots of nice custom Android views. It’s really cool to see a car actually being made from scratch, and a large part of the driver experience is the software we are working on which is great!

What advice would you give to someone new working at Conjure?

Take initiative and don’t wait for others to spot the problem. As teams and projects are constantly changing, we have to keep an eye out for missing roles and we have to stay flexible in the way we work.

Where is your favourite place to eat in London?

That is a tough one; variety is the spice of life! However, my first instinct tells me the vegetable thali at Babur brasserie is hard to beat.

What does a perfect Sunday look like to you?

A Corona with a slice of lime in a hammock in the sun.

If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I can’t answer this question. I would probably rather be without music than doomed to that level of repetition! However, I will say that I’ve been listening to a lot of Khruangbin recently.

You have one chance to travel in time, what year would you go to and why?

The year 3000. I want to know if we ever become a multi-planetary species and if we can create a sustainable environment on earth. I would also love to know if we ever make contact with alien life!

There are so many possibilities and questions about the future of humanity and technology. Also, I want to be there for the millennium celebration.