Let’s explore our newest interview with Gabriela, our senior developer. From what made her fall in love with programming to her favorite songs and shows, discover everything about her work in Deegloo.
Tell us who you are and what you do in Deegloo.
My name is Gabriela, and I am a senior developer here at Deegloo. My job consists of creating, updating, and debugging features and their functionality.
What does your typical day look like?
I work remotely so I wake up about an hour before work so I have time for breakfast, coffee, and a bit of stretching.
I usually start my workday around 8:30-9:00 by checking if I have any unread messages, emails, or new tasks. Most of my day is spent working on tasks, with a call or two in between if one of my colleagues or I need a second pair of eyes on a task.
What made you decide to develop your career in this field?
I got interested in computers and programming in high school, but I really fell in love with programming while studying Java in college.
It was actually a love-hate relationship back then, making my code way more complicated than it should be and then losing my mind over bugs I couldn’t figure out.
Fortunately, I had great professors and later on, colleagues to show me the light of simplicity 😅.
What drives you in your work?
The fun of creating something new and fixing the existing so it works again.
What’s the best part about your position?
It’s hard to single out just one thing. I really enjoy the stack I’m currently working in. React is interesting, to say the least, and Java is my first programming love, so I’m happy about that.
I also like working with all the different people here, getting to know them, and working together towards a common goal, which isn’t easy sometimes working remotely.
What don’t you like about your job/work?
I really don’t have any complaints, but a pet peeve is catching up with logging when I fall behind for a few days, which is my fault only.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career or what ups moment you had?
When I started working in IT, I wrote an SQL query that joined one table which had tens of thousands of rows of data with a table that had hundreds of thousands of rows. It was for a component that was used on ALL of the pages, and uh…it slowed the site load down to 7 minutes. On its own, that wouldn’t have been an issue, but the code went straight into production. Let’s say a lot of people weren’t happy.
What drives you crazy about your job or your daily activities?
When a deployment fails.
Which technology/tech stack do you like the most?
I like both Java and React. In my career I worked mostly in PHP, so working in Java again is really refreshing. It’s a lot more strict and has many rules in place to prevent bugs, and having a compiler to tell you where you got stupid and why is a lifesaver. React is really fun to work with, I like that the focus is primarily on programming, and the markup and styling are secondary.
What advice would you give to someone entering this field?
Don’t get discouraged. It may seem complicated and tough at first but don’t give up, it really does get easier. You will feel dumb a good part of the time, and it doesn’t stop with experience but think of bugs and features as puzzles, not as problems to panic about. No one is going to point fingers at you for not knowing how to solve something, and most of the time, everyone is happy to help. We’re all in the same boat, so don’t let the imposter monster get you.
And if you’re working remotely, for the love of God, put that laundry down during your work hours, or you’ll be catching up to those 8 hours all day. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t avoid those distractions.
Do you have any funny or interesting stories that happened here in the company?
The Christmas party and the team building weekend. Since I work remotely, I don’t have a lot of in-person stories, but those two were such great fun. Doing all the different activities with my colleagues during the team building was a great way to get to know everyone and the activities were thrilling. I enjoyed meeting everyone again, along with a couple of new colleagues, at the Christmas party. It was nice getting to know a different side of them in such a relaxed setting.
Your favorite person to work with?
I’ll be a bore, but I like working with everyone, and I don’t think it would be fair singling out one person.
If you can compare your job/work to one movie or show, what would it be?
The IT Crowd, but only because I communicate with the rest of the company completely through calls and messages. And I do sometimes feel as awkward as Maurice.
If you can choose one song to go along with your job or which would make you be really in the zone while working, what would it be?
This may be a little bit weird, but ever since the first Guardians of the Galaxy came out, one of my favorite things to listen to (and sing along to) while working is the Awesome Mix Vol 1, and if I had to choose just one song, it would be the first song on the playlist, Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede. I especially enjoy belting out the first part of the chorus.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol 1 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack