Coffee Break with Tom Dyson

September 19, 2022

Ladies and gents, today stick around for a cool coffee break with Tom Dyson, Head of Gaming Managed Services within EveryMatrix!

How did your career in EveryMatrix start? What’s your favorite thing about working here?

A contact of mine within the industry recommended EM to me and introduced me to the company.

My favorite thing about working here is the community feel of the office. Everybody is always willing to help with completing a project and there is a good sense of teamwork throughout which is great to be part of.

What was your first job?

My first job was mowing lawns for a gardening company when I was 13. I did it during the school summer holidays for three years, and looking back I was paid terribly, but it was a lot of fun. It made me appreciate the value of hard work and thanks to that job I had my first ever beer in a pub!

What’s one of your biggest work pet peeves?

Excuses for mistakes. It’s much easier and more productive to just own it, learn from it and move on.

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Give us your top productivity piece of advice.
It’s changing as I get older, I used to be a night owl but now I find myself awake before my alarm every day.

Productivity wise I think it’s hard to beat a to-do list. Document the tasks you want to achieve, broken down into achievable steps and take a small break each time you achieve one, get a drink, chat to a colleague etc. Then crack on with whatever’s next on the list. I find it gives me focus when there may be a thousand things going on and there’s something satisfying about ticking off a task on your list.

What personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why?

I’m not sure of the specific word for it, perhaps curiosity, but I hate not knowing how something works. I think a lot of tasks can be done without an understanding of their role in a larger process. Whenever you dig a little deeper to understand how task A relates to task B, and how they impact the outcome of a process. I find that to be the most satisfying part of any job.

That understanding of the areas of the industry I have experienced is, I believe, a factor in whatever success I may have had, although I wouldn’t call myself successful, but I hope to be.

What would you tell your younger self?

For work life I would tell myself to find a role that fits my personality. I spent a long time doing jobs that I didn’t enjoy and wondering why I found it so hard to apply myself.

As soon as you embrace the things that give you satisfaction (for me it is learning how things work and applying that knowledge to get results) work takes on a completely different role in your life, from something you have to do, to something you want to do.

For personal life, I’d probably tell myself “nothing good ever happens after 2am” but he wouldn’t have listened.

What is your biggest guilty pleasure?

A reality TV show called Made in Chelsea. Utter garbage television that I can’t help but watch.

Name one thing everyone should add to their Bucket List.

Go to Oktoberfest in Munich. Disneyland for adults!

What would you do if you were gifted a million dollars, no strings attached?

A very boring answer, but I’d buy buy-to-let properties, so I could live off the rental income and have financial freedom. Oh, and I’d buy my old rugby team some new kit.

Share a photo of your favorite pet!

This is Rhavis Entwistle a.k.a. Steve.