Amir Abu-Akeel, Cloud DevOps Engineer, joined Millennium after serving in the United States Army. Learn more about his journey to join our technology team.

When you were in University, how did you envision your future career?

I enlisted in the Army while studying engineering in college and planned to be a military officer for as long as possible. It was either that, or something with airplanes, a childhood fascination I haven’t shaken.

Tell us about your first job post-grad.

I trained as a bomb disposal specialist. It has been my focus throughout my Army career, including three year-long tours – twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan.

When did you decide to focus on technology?

Engineering degrees are now very reliant on computing and programming, so jumping between the two is more straightforward than it might sound. When I retired from active service, I got a position as a Cloud Architect, an experience that helped me formalize and expand my skills.

What attracted you to the technology team at Millennium?

I’ve always found financial markets fascinating and Millennium has a stellar reputation. The people I interviewed with really sealed it for me: they were clearly really smart and incisive, but warm and humorous too. I wanted to be on their team.

What advice would you give to candidates who are interested in joining Millennium but haven’t got a traditional finance background?

Take the interview! People here are curious and inclined to see opportunity, so trust that they’ll see the strength in the diversity of your experience.