Life as an Application Consultant

Having worked for a while now as an Application Consultant, I am ready to explain what my job entails. So, welcome to my working day as an ‘Apper’, as we call it here at Lime.

I discarded the first three drafts I wrote of this paragraph, as they almost resembled a declaration of love for my colleagues. That was not my intention at all! I do, however, want to say this: when I get up in the morning, I mostly look forward to seeing my colleagues. They really are my best friends! It is instantly obvious that Lime’s focus is on good corporate culture and community.

As an Application Consultant, I work on the integration of changes to our products, as requested by our customers. This means that I do everything I need to do – there are no restrictions regarding where and with whom I can work. This can be tough, as there is a lot you need to know. On the other hand, for those who like variety and to learn new things, it’s a bit like being a child in a sweet shop!

In an ordinary week, I might be writing code in SQL and Python. Other times, it’s VBA, C#, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript. Some weeks I build an SSIS flow that downloads a billion (estimated, of course …) tickets and feeds into the customer’s system. Other weeks I may build customized add-ons to our systems using Python.

Sometimes I ring a customer and inform them that the change they ordered from me is complete and ask them to check that everything works as required. Some days I have no contact with customers at all, but just focus on implementing major changes to one of our existing products, that a new customer has requested. One customer might want to receive ticket sales statistics automatically. Another may want, at the push of a button, to create a thousand invoices at once, based on specific companies marked in the customer’s system. A third customer could ask for 9,000 files to be loaded and stored in a new place, as well as information on which company they belong to, who is responsible for it, and so on.

To summarise, as an Application Consultant, I program, modify and install, parts and functionality in our products, at the customers’ request.

When I applied for a job here at Lime, I had a pretty good grasp of SQL, but along the way, I’ve learned many more techniques and frameworks. It’s a lot of fun to try new stuff, but as I said, we don’t expect you to be an expert in everything from the start.

It wasn’t a problem that I didn’t know everything I thought I’d need to know to work as an Application Consultant. A newly employed Application Consultant starts by spending some time in Lund, together with all the other newly hired trainees. There you get to know your new colleagues (or should I say, friends!), as well as learning everything you need to know, to start your journey within the company. You have the opportunity to attend lectures with experienced colleagues who want to share their experiences and also collaborate with each other in customer simulations or other exercises. You will also learn how important it is to join in coffee breaks. Kind of like being a student again, but just the fun part 😉

What are you waiting for?