Rob graduated from St Andrews University with a BSc in Internet Computer Science and has been working in the Professional Services team for two years.

"So far I've worked on client sites in South Africa, Holland and even Yorkshire!"

I first heard about Sword Ciboodle at a recruitment presentation at my University and it sounded like they were involved in a diverse range of projects with a whole range of blue-chip clients, which really appealed to me. I found the people giving the presentation to be really enthusiastic and I soon learned that this sense of enthusiasm applies to all employees, me included!

Sword Ciboodle has clients based all over the world, therefore a key part of a Professional Services Consultant's life is to travel, which I personally love, so when the opportunity arose to work on a project for Eskom in South Africa I was more than willing to go! So far I've worked on client sites in South Africa, Holland and even Yorkshire!

The great thing about Sword Ciboodle is its people. They are always friendly and make themselves available to help out whenever necessary. Sometimes we have to work long hours, but you always feel as if your efforts are appreciated. There is a real sense of team spirit, which is also demonstrated in the pub after work!

"I would describe Sword Ciboodle as a slightly kooky, weird and wonderful success story"

I always had a strong passion for marketing, so realising that was the discipline I wanted to focus my career on was an easy decision - finding a job within that discipline where I wasn't a glorified filer wasn't as easy! However, Sword Ciboodle offered the experience and challenge that I was hoping to find.

Straight away I felt part of the team, and was given significant tasks to achieve. An initial fear was my lack of technical background. However, with guidance from my colleagues and a culture where "daft" questions are encouraged, I can now talk screen scraping, multi-channel integration and business process re-engineering with the best of them!

These are exciting times for Sword Ciboodle - the company is growing rapidly, through new partnerships and customer wins. Marketing has doubled in size since I joined, and the team mentality is stronger than it has ever been. I would describe Sword Ciboodle as a slightly kooky, weird and wonderful success story, where no day is the same and the opportunities are endless.

Ian joined Sword Ciboodle in 2003, after graduating with an MEng in Electronics and Software Engineering from Glasgow University.

"My first project was at ScottishPower in Glasgow; working in a team of 7; it was definitely in at the deep end! It was initially difficult to get my head around the project and the complex system we were working on, but the rest of the team really helped out and I was able to make a real contribution to the project after just a few weeks.

With less than 2 years' experience under my belt, I was made Team Leader on another project for ScottishPower - I would never have had that opportunity so quickly in any other company. There was great team spirit and a really international team, with a good few nights out along the way!

In my time at Sword Ciboodle I've also been to Tel Aviv for 4 weeks for a pre-sales engagement - this was a great experience in a very interesting place! Then there was a Proof of Concept project lasting in Chicago, where myself and a colleague had a week to prove that Sword Ciboodle could integrate to the customer's existing system - not only did we do that, but we also proved it could out-perform the existing system! It was a mad, mad coffee-fuelled week, with everything from Java coding for the integration, to presenting and demo'ing our mini solution to a room full of very senior, cheque-signing, stakeholders - no pressure!! - but we won the deal and it's really rewarding to know that we were a key part in the win.

The best part of the job is meeting so many different people on different projects, and how no two projects are the same. I've crammed ten years' experience into five, and had amazing opportunities that I'd never have got elsewhere - my role just keeps getting bigger!"

Catriona joined us as a new graduate in 2004, after studying for an Honours degree in Computing Science at Strathclyde University.

"I started out working on an internal project and moved to work on a project for ScottishPower - I was involved with this project from day one; it's great to see the full project lifecycle as you learn so much so quickly. I was initially responsible for prototyping the Move To Key processes, and then as the project team expanded I had the opportunity to move into the Team Lead role, so started to get to grips with weekly progress reports (RAG), estimation and allocation of work and prioritisation.

After that I moved to a project for Telecom New Zealand, based in Auckland - I started off in a Business Analysis role before moving into a challenging team lead role on the Campaigns project which involved complete re-engineering of existing business processes - these were complex projects with challenging deadlines - definitely 2½ feet outside my comfort zone!

I'm now in my second project as a Project Manager - the leap from Team Lead to Project Manager is a steep learning curve - being the "man in the middle" between Sword Ciboodle and the customer can be challenging. I was really surprised how quickly I was pushed into more challenging roles - it can be scary but ultimately rewarding as you grow so rapidly. I work with so many talented people, and on such great projects in interesting locations; there is never the chance to get bored!"