Martin Edwards

Web Developer

Biography

Published Spring 2010

As a web developer Martin Edwards is used to having the world at his fingertips. But it was a spell working for a travel agency that inspired him to see more of the world for himself.

The 27-year-old from Chester knew he wanted be a web developer as soon as he graduated in Computer Science from Aberystwyth University. Indeed he hasn't worked as anything else - and so had gained enormous experience even before joining Samarind last year.

Martin's previous position was at the Global Travel Group, on Deeside. It must be a common experience for travel agencies, encouraging wanderlust in their younger employees - and that's certainly what happened in Martin's case. He took a year's sabbatical and jetted off on a backpacking American adventure with his best mate Mike.

Martin said: "We landed in New York with the vague plan of making our way to Los Angeles, but we had no set route. The entire trip was arranged around whatever cheap flights we could get, so it was a really circuitous route, taking in places like Niagara Falls, Washington DC, Miami and Chicago on the way.

"Then we began to feel a bit like 'Champagne backpackers', what with flying everywhere, so we took a Greyhound bus instead - a 24-hour trip to Dallas, Texas. Texas was great, watching rodeos, hanging out in saloons, pretending to be cowboys. We didn't fool anyone, mind. As soon as we walked into a saloon and put our hats face down on the bar, they knew we were tourists - a real cowboy puts it the other way up so he can put his gloves or whatever into it. So that's something we learnt!"

From the deserts of Texas, they went to the other extreme - 10,000ft high in the snow-clad Rocky Mountains. After that they finally got to California, but the story doesn't end there. From LA Mike flew home to Blighty, but the intrepid Martin took a flight all the way to New Zealand.

"New Zealand was fantastic," beamed Martin. "I climbed the Franz Josef glacier and sky-dived over Lake Taupo - from 15,000 feet!"

From NZ to Aus, and here Martin decided to take a breather. He spent the next six months working as - guess what - a web developer, in Sydney, making his home in the surfers' paradise of Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach holds particularly happy memories for Martin, because it was here that he met the love of his life, Emma.

"Funnily enough, I didn't really get to know Emma well until after we had both moved back to Britain," said Martin. "We hooked up to swap stories about Sydney and really got on. We've been together now for 18 months."

"I'm settled at Samarind and I really want to develop my career here. I love the fact that in a company of this size you can really get to know the customers and follow a project through from start to finish. You really feel you're contributing and it's very satisfying."

And what of the future?

"I feel sure that over the next few years the web team will expand: we're doing such good work. It would be nice to train people, to share my knowledge as the department grows."