Working in the technology field means there is always something new and exciting to learn
Anton has successfully progressed and grown his career in Mobiquity within an impressive short amount of time. Starting out as a junior backend engineer he has worked his way up to become a technical architect. Now at 28 years old, he talks about his interest and curiosity for all things technical, and how he continues to expand his knowledge and skills day by day.
Anton Perez: My name is Anton. I’m from Spain and have been working in Mobiquity since I moved to The Netherlands, three and half years ago. My background is in computer science. I enjoy the simple things in life, such as playing video games, reading, and my work. I love what I do, so after work, I often continue my own learning and development. I like to keep up to date with the latest technologies so I often practise and investigate in my spare time, as some of these things I cannot learn on the job or don’t have time to learn within work. It helps me to keep sharp and on top of new trends.
Open for a new adventure
I started out studying industrial engineering at USC, University of Santiago de Compostela, but quickly changed to computer science. After I completed my education I got an internship at a small company. This company would validate modifications made to vehicles. My project at the time was to create a system that could automate reports for the owner, reducing time spent on administration.
From there I went on to work for a larger organisation. We were responsible for creating software for the Spanish Government that gathered data analysis and business intelligence on the healthcare market and produced reports, for example on the average time for a surgery or how many beds were occupied at a certain time, to enable government officials to make key decisions.
Two and a half years later I felt it was time for me to make a change. I come from a small town in Spain so to get the type of IT job I was looking for I would have to move outside my province to one of the bigger cities. As this was the case, I thought why not look outside of Spain and search for an opportunity in Europe. I was open for the adventure and it would give me a chance to practise my English. I had a friend that was working for Mobiquity, which had a job opening at the time for a junior backend engineer, so I decided to apply. I didn’t have any real professional experience as a backend engineer at the time so I thought this would be a great opportunity to develop my skills. I really liked the fact that Mobiquity had a lot of different nationalities, a very multicultural company. Coming from Spain I was excited to get a chance to meet new people with different backgrounds and experiences. Moving country was quite a stressful time, but once I got settled I started to enjoy my new lifestyle.
With big responsibility comes a great opportunity for learning
I started out as a junior backend engineer but was able to quickly progress through different roles to where I am today. I work on diverse projects with clients where I have to architect and implement things from both the front end and back end. I have worked on projects where I have been involved from the beginning as it grew from four to thirteen engineers. Even though I am a developer, because I understand the context of the project from being involved in the early stages, I help businesses to make decisions and answer their questions.
I am also a competence lead so I am there to listen and help those around me. For the more junior people who are starting out their career, this could mean offering some mentoring, or helping them to learn new things, and finding together with them opportunities where they can grow. For more experienced and senior team members, I would help to facilitate whatever it is they want to achieve. It can range from facilitating conversations around a promotion or personal issues, to providing feedback on their performance, to helping them also develop and grow. I am there to listen to whatever it is people want to share, and if there is an opportunity in which I can help them to sort out or figure something out then I will do that.
My expertise in serverless
One of the first interesting projects I worked on at Mobiquity was MOOvement. This project was the start of a relationship with a new big client for the company so it was fun to be a part of that. The project itself was built to enable Australian farmers to track their cows to increase the efficiency of their farms, and enable them to better understand their livestock through data, insights and alerts provided via the app. I am proud to say the key stakeholders of this project were very happy with my work.
It was not the most technically challenging project, as it started as an MVP, but through my work on this project I have become heavily experienced with the Serverless model. This is not a model that people are always comfortable with as there is a lack of knowledge around how to implement, when to consider using it and the implications of doing so. It can be useful in certain situations, it’s not for every project or every situation, but it can make your life easier, or speed up the development process of a small project significantly. It is an additional tool in your toolbox.
A culture that brings out the best in people
How would I describe the people I work with? Kind! At Mobiquity there is a common shared feeling of kindness. Everyone is respectful and mindful that our team comes from all over the world with different backgrounds and views of life and work. People will always make an effort to try and approach you in a way that is mindful of that. They are also very intelligent. There isn’t a single person that I could not explain something new to that they wouldn’t pick up and understand straight away.
I am involved in many of the interview processes for hiring new joiners so I get a glimpse into the culture of other companies. And I think we have a very open mindset culture where all employees can act and think flexibly. As the company grows we are starting to develop and put in place more processes to run efficiently, however we are managing to still keep this open and flexible culture which I really love.
I have had the pleasure of seeing a lot of people grow and progress through the company, similar to myself. This is something I really value and appreciate. As a person who is always looking for the next thing to learn and how to continue my growth, Mobiquity really encourages and provides such opportunities.
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Originally published at https://www.mobiquity.com.
