Discovering the life of front-end developer - Mateo at PROTOTYP

Buckle up, is time to learn more about one of our lead front-end developers here at PROTOTYP; Mateo!

Why did you join PROTOTYP, and what has kept you here?

I've joined Prototyp to further develop my skills and to work in a dynamic environment. Before I applied for the job, I only heard good things about the company and there was no other company that I wanted to work with.

Starting off with the most interesting assignment before I was even considered for employment and receiving a lot of feedback in great detail from the CTO after finishing it blew my mind.

There are a lot of things that are keeping me here, but a couple of things that stand out for me are a constant search for optimizing our solutions and using best practices while doing so, working on some really interesting projects with clients all over the world.

But mostly, it's the working environment and all the people I work with.

What do you find the most challenging at PROTOTYP?

To create a clear cut between work and free time.

It’s really difficult for me to leave something for the next day, or at least not to think about it a lot after hours which usually leads to doing some work in my free time, especially if something is time-sensitive.

I think it's partially because I have a feeling that every project I work on is my own and not "just another task for my 9-5 job". I would dare to say that every single person in this company has the same mentality and approach and that’s why we get along so well.

Or, maybe, that’s just the nature of this business in general?

What’s been the most memorable experience during your tenure so far at the company?

There were too many to pinpoint only one. Every project I worked on has something challenging that requires some investigation and brainstorming to find the best approach for the problem.

There were a couple of business trips to conferences and team buildings that are just full of memorable moments.

But, putting aside interesting and challenging tasks, the thing I fancy the most is that friendly relationship with other colleagues and superiors, even after work hours. And I think that working in such an environment is an experience in its own right - I think that will stick with me for the longest.

What’s your next step, or a few goals you’d like to accomplish in life, or while with PROTOTYP?

There are a lot of things I've accomplished since I've got here, and I'm currently working towards the next goals, but mostly private ones at this moment like fixing up my own place to live and figuring out a better time management/split between work and free time.

Professionally, I'd like to continue my growth in this company and improve my knowledge that we share internally.

Since I have a love-hate relationship with React Native and maintenance of some of its libraries, I would like to try some other solutions out there, like Flutter. This is a step in a different direction from our current tech stack but I'm planning to check it out. I want to see how big of a difference and impact Flutter has on productivity first hand.

When are you the happiest?

When I'm feeling useful in a way that tasks I work on have some real impact and when the actual effort I've put in something has a noticeable result, or when I'm of actual help to some other colleagues.

Also, I really like the feeling when I finally figure out something new which usually occurs after I take a break from developing and have time to consume everything that I was doing for some time.

How do you spend your time outside of the office?

Wrong time to ask this question… In this situation, I do what I can, usually hiking or some other kind of activity and casual gaming. There's nothing much else to do since lockdown, is there?

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see cast as you?

Ever since I've started to work in this company there is an internal joke that I'm a budget version of George Clooney because I have grey hair despite my age, so there is no debate about it. But in reality, any other silver-fox should suffice.

If you had to eat one meal, every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I could settle down with a burger... Why? Well because there are millions of variations and you can virtually put anything in a bun and call it `${randomName}burger`.

Also, you get every food group in one meal. So yeah, I think you can't go wrong with a burger.

What did you want to be when growing up?

I think that I really never thought much about it. I was always a techie kid so interest in this profession came by default, despite the fact that I was trying to find myself in various other areas in life.

I like to take things apart to see what's inside so that's how I got into fixing desktops and laptops which I currently despise because I'm everybody's go-to guy when they are having some issues that are mostly one google search away from fixing it themselves.

Okay, I'll stop here because it's turning into a rant…To summarize this, I always liked to "look under the hood" of things so this eventually led me to development and I'm currently happy with the path my career is going.

Get to know Mateo and the rest of the team.

We’re extremely proud to have Mateo as a part of our team as he is a reflection of personalities we attract at our company and can be a role model for every current and future employee. If you’d like to know more about Mateo on he’s duties as a front-end developer, get in touch with us.