An Interview With…Harry Cooper
In the latest instalment of our interview series, I chatted with Harry Cooper, who joined Origin in July 2021 as a Graduate Software Engineer.
Harry and I discussed a whole host of topics, ranging from his love of physics, the ISO27001 certification process, why a hybrid of remote and office working works for him, podcasts about neuroscience, golf, Manchester United and Origin’s fast-improving 5-a-side football team!
We hope you find this series interesting. If you like the sound of the work we’re doing here at Origin and want to be a part of it, please drop us an email.
An interview with... Harry Cooper
Work
Take us through a little of your background. Where did you grow up and what did you enjoy studying at school?
I grew up in a town called Uttoxeter in Staffordshire. It's not known for much but its great contribution to the world is that it is the birthplace of the malted milk biscuit! In school my favourite subject was physics and I lived in Uttoxeter until I moved here to London in 2017.
You had a couple of internships prior to joining Origin. Tell us a little about those. Did you enjoy them? What did you learn from these experiences?
Prior to joining Origin, I interned twice at a company called Tracr. They’re also a start up but operating in a very different industry. Their mission is to enable the tracing of diamonds from the mine they come out of all the way to their end form, be that a piece of jewellery or something else. I worked on the DiamondID team, which had the responsibility of matching diamonds that are seen at different steps in their journey through the supply chain.
One cool project I worked on was the creation of HarryBot (the name was not my choice!), which was part of the data ingestion process that was responsible for bulk processing 3D scans of diamonds so that they could be used later on in the matching process. Tracr is also where I was first exposed to DevOps, so I learnt a lot about the challenge of deploying machine learning systems into a production setting.
Why did you choose a young company like Origin over, perhaps, joining a larger, more established institution?
From my previous experience working in a smaller company I think it’s more suited to me. I’ve not worked in a large company before, but I imagine the work that you’d do is much less varied and fast-paced like at Origin, especially when working on, for example, infrastructure work, the type of which I’ve been focused on of late.
At Origin, we’re working on and learning different things all the time rather than doing the same thing every day. I also think that when you’re working with fewer resources than say, at a big tech company, you end up finding more creative and practical solutions to problems.
You’ve been spending quite a bit of time working on Origin’s ISO 27001 certification, which Origin has recently received. Talk us through this project and what you learned whilst taking part.
ISO27001 is an information security standard that is vital in proving to our clients that their information stored in the Origin platform is secure and protected.
As part of the certification, we had to ensure that we met a variety of controls, focusing on things ranging from encryption and network security to password policies and code review processes. Alongside the rest of the team, I helped with infrastructure work to ensure that we’re compliant with the controls in the standard. I learnt a huge amount during the process, and I’m glad to have been a part of it.
What’s your take on remote working versus the office? Do you prefer working from home, in the office or a bit of both?
I actually really like the hybrid set up that we’ve got at Origin, as I find there’s benefits to both ways of working.
I think if you never go into the office and interact with colleagues its harder to build relationships with people that you work with as this usually happens in the in-between moments when talking about anything that’s not work, and this doesn’t happen as often on Zoom. On the other hand, working from home for some time each week is great for doing focused work. Also, not having to get the Tube is nice!
Play
I hear football is a big deal. Who’s your club and why?
My club is Manchester United. My mum’s best friends from university are both lifelong fans and season ticket holders, and my mum was the first of them to have a child, so they had me in a United shirt as soon as possible. A lot of my family are Stoke fans, but my mum said the “brainwashing” from her friends started at an early age!
Do you play football? Or are you more of an armchair supporter?
I played football growing up, but stopped playing most sports after I had a serious injury. Excitingly, I’ve actually recently started playing again after many years, as we’ve started a 5-a-side team here at Origin. I'm not going to lie and say we are amazing, but we did get our first win last week and we’re improving all the time!
Sports seem important to you, especially golf. What’s the best course you’ve ever played on and why?
It's not the best course in the world, but the one closest to my heart is a course called The Manor in Kingstone. It's where I learned to play and where I played with my dad and grandparents from a young age, so it holds a sentimental value for me.
Any podcast recommendations?
At the moment I’ve been listening to the Huberman Lab podcast by neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, who talks about science-backed ways to improve physical and mental health.
If you could time travel, where would you go?
I guess you could use the ability to time travel to do some good things for humanity, however selfishly it would be very cool to go back to the 1999 Champions League final and witness in person the injury time goals that sealed United's treble winning season!
