It Was All Started from Indonesia Ruby Conference
Why did you choose to work at Quipper?
It was around October 2017 at Ruby ID Conference, nice noon at lunch break after an amazing talk by Koichi Sasada when I first met Yuya Takeyama. We did not know each other yet at that time, but somehow we had a nice conversation about programming, Japanese food, etc. He passionately introduced me to Quipper’s vision of becoming distributors of wisdom. That was how I happened to know Quipper for the first time.
Working in a multinational company has always been my aspirations. I have always wanted to work on a multinational company where I can have many colleagues from different cultures. I believe that experience on borderless working environment with cross culture people will grow my professional capacity and also makes me a better human being.
One of the amazing things in Quipper is those 2 things combined. We are a multinational company and our mission is to bring the best education to all corners of the world. Quipper global members vary from Indonesia, Mexico, Philippine, and Japan. I see them very skillful and yes, they are also really nice people to work with! Quipper aims to build a knowledge platform accessible to everyone so we can bring the best education to every corner of the world. What do you say when cool people collide with inspiring vision? It’s one word: Dope! Back when I was first introduced to Quipper, I was tempted to learn from cool people and to help Quipper achieve their dreams.
What did you do before joining Quipper?
I was just freshly graduated back then when my friend asked me whether I was available for work. He told me that his company had a 3 months project and they needed a software engineer to rock the project. I did not have a plan to jump-start my career as a software engineer. My first priority was to find a scholarship to enroll a master degree. I realized that preparing for a scholarship is not cheap. I needed money to take an English course, GRE/GMAT preparation, and exam. So, I decided to accept my friend’s offer and join them as an outsource software engineer for 3 months. I coded Ruby.
Turns out, coding Ruby is very fun. After my 3 months project, I fell in love with Ruby. I fell deeply into Ruby syntax. It is very human centric. Reading Ruby syntax is like reading an English novel. I like reading. I like knowing deeper of every actor in a novel as I read it page by page. I like being surprised by plot twist in a novel. So did my experience writing Ruby code. There is a beauty in Ruby syntax that tempted me to know it more.
What are the challenges you face while working as a Web Developer?
From the very first time I started working at Quipper, there have been several challenges I faced. Since we cross-cultured team, one of the toughest challenges is communication. Communication is a core component of every business. Fluent communication means good business. We have members from different countries across the continent. Each of our members believes in some value that is not always believed by other members, especially those living in different countries. The challenge of communication is how we can have equal respect for other people’s value.
The second challenge is to keep up to date with current technology development. In this ever-changing world, keeping up with technological knowledge is crucial. Hundreds of innovation bubble up every day. Drone, the autonomous driving unit, artificial intelligence, etc are evolving every day. It is like a train. Technology is always moving, it is either we follow or it will leave us behind.
And lastly, a challenge for me as a programmer is to have mechanical sympathy. As an engineer, we tend to get trapped into a fallacy that tells us everything runs perfectly without defect. For example, if our wifi connects, our mind subconsciously thinks that internet connection will always available and reliable, while in fact, it does not. Having mechanical sympathy can make us aware of every fallacy out there because we know that there are mechanical parts that move in every technology we’re using or working on.
Do you think your team can support your personal and professional growth?
Sure. I’ve been enjoying this past year working at Quipper. It has been fun to be able to learn from the very best software engineers from every corner of the world. And I hope I can learn more and more in the future so I can be a better person and better coder.
