Real lives - What a time to start your career!
Robert Patterson has just completed his first year with a UK bank
Can you tell us a bit about your job?
I work on computer programs that help the bank understand the risks it faces. This involves breaking complex maths down into simple packages that can be combined into a longer list and then used by a very fast computer.
How did you get into this line of work?
I have been interested in maths and computing for a long while, because of their strict sense of order and logic. These are the areas I focused on when I had the opportunity to study at university. I left university as a specialist in computer programs that estimated soot formation in flames. This helped others trying to reduce air pollution from vehicles such as buses. I apply many of the skills I learned doing this to the job I now have, although the information I am dealing with is obviously very different. This time the aim is helping my employer steer round credit crises!
Has the global financial crisis had much effect on you personally?
There has not been any direct impact yet. However, I have watched the events in the banking industry unfold via the financial news services. I have also seen a number of emails warning against doing business with certain financial companies. The possibility that similar emails could be sent out warning others that my employer was about to go bust has not escaped me.
So how worried are you?
Each summer while I was at university, I had to look for a job to avoid borrowing money the following year and God always provided one (rarely more!) job offer. This has given me confidence that, even if I lost my job, God would provide something before I ran out of money.
One of my Christian friends tested this belief a little further. Shortly after he learned that he and his wife were expecting their first child, he lost his job as his employer went under! He has much to be thankful for in that he got a new job two days later. I have to remember that God does not promise to provide so quickly, but I do believe that he knows what I really need and will always provide it.
Are you surprised by the financial difficulties the country is in?
Like most people I did not see the credit crisis coming, but as a Christian I have often tried to point out to others that a world in which people do what they want will become an increasing mess.
A natural human response to this is to try to forget tomorrow and pretend that the only goal of life is immediate pleasure. Knowing that, I am not very shocked as I now learn of the problems of businesses which have been run recklessly and 'responsible' adults who borrowed money with no clear prospect of repaying it. It is a pity that even those who tried to be sensible will now suffer.
Do you think anything positive can come out of current events?
I hope that through the present uncertainty and, for some, distress, more people will come to realise that when they were born they owned nothing and that when they die they will own nothing. And my prayer is that as we are forced to tighten our belts we will spend more time asking what our real purpose in life is. This need not make us depressed, because in the Bible we have a message of hope from God, the person who put us here. He offers everyone a new start and a new purpose, with His power to make us different.