Etermax Engineers | Pablo Vasquez
Etermax is made up of great professionals who face problems and challenging tasks every day. That’s why there is nothing better than knowing the people who make Etermax what it is.
What is your main responsibility at Etermax
I am the manager of the Berlin Studio engineering team.
What does an average day at work look like for you?
When I get to the office, I am usually kindly saluted by Mia, our favorite office doggo. Then, I have breakfast with some of my teammates, and we have our standups.
After the standups, I take care of whatever team planning errands I have pending, and run 1:1s with the team.
The whole team has lunch together We either go out or just order food on days of bad Berlin weather.
Afternoons are often pretty busy working on code for our projects and brainstorming features with the whole team. We are planning on bringing new talent to the team, so we are also running some interviews with Tatiana, our Executive Producer.
In which projects have you worked / are you working?
During my time at Etermax, I worked briefly in Trivia Crack Kingdoms, set up iOS build pipelines, led the development of Trivia Crack X, led the iOS Common team, and worked as a TO for the Platform team. Later on, I took on much more global tasks as I became an Engineering Manager, taking the lead for various teams within the ever-growing Etermax engineering structure, as well as pushing forward some internal initiatives and task forces to help grow a better, stronger technical team within the company.
Where did you work previously?
I started my career as an engineer coding for embedded platforms in plain C/C++ for terminals that had no operating system. I also worked with embedded linux, even with some kernel drivers: low level programming has always been one of my true passions.
In the past, I also had a brief experience working in the infosec world.
What made you decide to opt for Etermax?
The incredible freedom and room for growth that I was offered. I also had a friend within the company who helped a lot with that decision.
What is your favorite thing about Etermax?
The prevailing ever-evolving mindset, the openness with which we undertake each and every task that we feel will make the company a better place to work, and get our products to an ever higher and meaningful impact.
What would you say to someone who is considering entering Etermax?
That it’s a great place to develop your career. You will find an awesome group of very nice and talented people. There is no better ground for growth than to learn from the best!
What do you expect from Etermax in the future?
At this point, most of what I expected has somehow been fulfilled. My plan for the future is to succeed in the challenge of building up the Berlin studio and manage to create a great work environment in which great new games can be created while satisfying every teammate’s thirst for growth.
If being part of Etermax’s history is already good, imagine being part of the upcoming success stories!
What was your most challenging task/project?
Interestingly, it was an app that barely reached production status: Trivia Crack X.
The technical requirements were quite strict as we had to render UI in video directly in the devices, which already brought us a lot of headaches. But I think the biggest challenge was to push forward a team of young devs. At the time, I was quite inexperienced in leading, and I was the most senior-ish member of the team. In the end, I learnt a lot from this experience. We ended up with a very tight cross-functional team capable of taking on any challenge with great thrust. Even in the worst moments of the product, the whole team could exercise ownership,steer the mood and focus as a group, setting individuality aside.
Technology/Favorite programming language?
This has changed a bit during the latest years. My favorite language nowadays is Swift, and I think it’s going to be difficult to get over it. As to technologies, I have always liked working on iOS and I still enjoy embedded programming a lot.
What strengths make you a good engineer?
I love learning new things and technologies and consider myself to be quite fast at it. During the last few years of my career, I have developed quite a taste for leading and managerial tasks, and found that my interpersonal skills and usual proactivity were great assets, to the point that I nowadays consider them some of my greatest virtues.
Why did you choose to be a software engineer?
I started coding at 14, when my dad showed up with our first computer. I started playing Age Of Empires with a borrowed CD, and wanted to crack it so I could play without it. I shortly learned that the only way to do that was to learn how to code. Once in college, a friend offered me an entry-level job where he worked, offer that I gladly accepted. From then on, it has been nothing but a love story ❤️
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