The Appeal of Living The Wild Atlantic Way with Overstock

US technology company Overstock employs more than 80 people at its European headquarters in Sligo. Its people are drawn to the North West by the lure of career progression, highly affordable living and the spectacular location on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Overstock technologists tell their stories:

Colm Harte, Data Scientist on the Machine Learning team

It isn’t every day you see a job posting that offers you the choice of locating in Sligo or Utah, but Colm Harte did, and the unusual combination piqued his interest enough to read on.

The Wexford native had been working for Accenture in Dublin, but he and his wife planned to move closer to her family in Mayo. When twins arrived 18 months ago, the plan was accelerated, and Colm applied for the job with Overstock.

Colm says: “At Overstock, I work with a team that builds machine learning models to improve the customer experience and make better business decisions. An example of the practical usage of the models would be predicting more accurate delivery times for customers.”

“I have a degree in physics with astronomy from DCU and a PhD in experimental physics from UCD. I also worked for Paddy Power and spent two years in Hong Kong working for a fintech start-up.”

As most of Colm’s team is based at Overstock’s  headquarters in Utah, he is able to work from home two days a week and have an occasional trip to the United States. Along with this flexibility, Colm and his wife were able to move closer to her family and live an area with a lower cost of living.

He was delighted to find a technology firm in Sligo of the scale that might typically be found in Dublin.

He adds: “The experience has been comparable to the experience of working for a tech company in a big city, but with the added benefit of a lower cost of living and less stress!”

Jeanette Moran, Front-end Software Developer

When Jeanette Moran set out to do her double honours degree in biology and computer science in NUI Maynooth, she knew it was unlikely to lead to a job in her hometown of Sligo.

The good tech jobs are typically in the big cities, so Jeanette went to Galway for her first job after college where she worked as a software developer in the financial services sector with Fidelity.

At Fidelity, Jeanette received the opportunity to move into a creative role in front-end development, which then led her to obtaining a front-end software developer role at Overstock in Sligo.

She says: “At Overstock, I work with a variety of technologies, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript and React to develop the visual elements the customer sees and interacts with on Overstock.com’s retail site.

“I enjoy the collaborative atmosphere at Overstock as well as the fact that employees are encouraged to contribute ideas and opinions on anything from the software that is used to how the company operates. “

If Jeanette sees technology she would like to implement, all she has to do is propose a proof-of-concept and introduce it to her colleagues who are always willing to give anything a go.

Jeanette is originally from close to the centre of Sligo town and now lives in a more rural environment where she is surrounded by nature. She adds: “I have instant access to trails for walking and running, while only having a 15-minute commute to work.”

She is able to run and access the outdoors at a moment’s notice in Sligo, whereas in Galway, getting the same quality of beaches or walking trails required her to sit in traffic while driving out to Connemara.

Currently, the Sligo native is catching up on the things she missed while away in Maynooth and Galway, while also enjoying the creative challenge of front-end software development.

Will Scott, Senior Front-end Engineer

Will Scott is a senior front-end engineer at Overstock.com with a background in graphic design from Cape Town. He built his career in South Africa when he started to get interest from overseas recruiters.

Prior to working at Overstock, Will worked for PayU, the largest payments gateway in South Africa. Thereafter, he joined ROAM, the biggest online marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, but he and his wife were attracted to the greater career opportunities offered in Europe.

Will had a brief stint in Belfast, which was followed by 18 months in Dublin where he worked for Groupon.

Will recalls: “As much as my wife and I loved Dublin, nearly three hours of commuting each day tempered our enjoyment so we began to think about living in Northern Ireland where the cost of housing and long commutes would not be an issue.”

A Career Zoo recruitment event, ‘Tech on the Wild Atlantic Way’, aimed at attracting technologists to the North West, led to Will joining Overstock in Sligo as a senior front-end engineer, and the couple have embraced life in their new home.

He adds: “We now live in Dromahair, Co Leitrim and feel we have found exactly what we were looking for in a close-knit community.”

Being close to nature is one of the best things about their new home and they relish the fact they no longer have to travel long distances to hike in the countryside or go kayaking

At Overstock, Will works on the OLabs team, which is tasked with developing new and proof-of-concept applications to explore potential avenues of business for the company.

Will finds that the Overstock way of working fosters self-improvement as staff are given far more responsibility to develop expertise than what has been typical in his experience of large tech firms.

He adds: “Staff are not just given a certain technology to work with, they are encouraged to go out and find out which one would be the best one for a specific situation.

“They then bring that knowledge back into the company and upskill their colleagues. This helps you grow as a developer.”

**Check out all of the open roles at  Overstock’s career page. The company is taking part in a special “Choose To Stay” recruitment day on Dec 23rd at 2pm in The Building Block, Sligo. Organised by Tech North West, Overstock and other companies will be telling their stories and sharing their open roles.

See more about Overstock here.

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