Why I Chose to Work at Joymode
by Matthew Montanez, Software Engineer
My name is Matthew Montanez: I’m a Los Angeles native who has been working in the L.A. tech scene for over ten years at companies both large and small. Over the past decade, it’s been truly amazing to see the growth of startups and tech companies rising throughout the region from Santa Monica and Venice, to Downtown L.A. to Pasadena on the Eastside. With so many options it can be a challenge to decide which of those companies to join when it comes time to seek a new opportunity, and I faced this decision a few months ago myself. I explored the opportunities in front of me, discovered Joymode, and could not have ended up happier with my decision to join the company.
As a software engineer, working at Joymode is a great opportunity for a variety of reasons, but I’d like to focus on the three most significant ones from my perspective.
The technical stack is poised for transformation.
The Joymode engineering team is just beyond the phase of comprising a few hackers rapidly iterating on a minimum viable product. It is now at the point where the product is proven and scalability matters. When a software project transitions from prototype to scalable system, a number of significant architectural decisions must be determined and implemented. Should we implement a front-end framework? If so, which one? Would a microservices architecture serve the company well? If so, which tools and which design strategies will be most effective? Joining the engineering team at this time has given me the opportunity to make an impact and directly influence the design of our systems. In my opinion, this is the most exciting phase of development for a business’ technical platform.
An engineering culture of learning.
Working at Joymode has provided my first hands-on, production development experience with Ruby on Rails. Much of my past experience has been centered on PHP and Python. Ruby has always been of interest, but I never quite found the opportunity to work within it. The engineering team at Joymode recognized my past experience across other languages as valuable in itself and didn’t hesitate to give me the opportunity to learn Rails as I went. It’s this openness to giving engineers the opportunity to learn new technologies that makes me proud to be a member of this team. I look forward to learning additional new technologies as we adopt them including Vue: our recent framework of choice for front-end development.
Joymode’s team is set out to change the world.
It’s almost cliche or cheesy these days for startups to claim to be ‘changing the world’, but I’ve found that this mission is core to the Joymode team and product. We are set on transforming a habit ingrained in modern culture — the habit to go out and purchase everything we need. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of buying a sleeping bag for a trip or high-powered steam mop for spring cleaning, all only to be used once and left as clutter in our garage. The Joymode team is determined to create a new pattern of thinking about ownership, to give people the ability to do more while owning less, and it’s exciting to contribute towards this endeavor.
There are a number of other reasons why Joymode is a great place to work as a software engineer, but these are the ones that stand out for me. I’m excited to be a part of the evolution of Joymode’s technology, developing new skills along the way, and getting a real shot at changing the world.
