Happy Friday, everyone! I hope your end-of-the-year break was as relaxing as mine was. Alas, new year, new.. same me. I couldn't wait to get back to my coffee chats with my new coworkers. This week, I've sat down with Mauro Juliao, one of our youngest teammates, and a Junior Back-end Engineer! While I didn't get to meet the cat, we did have an awesome chat about getting his first job as a developer. His advice and insight were useful even for an old hag like me, even though his main target was for it was fellow graduates, like himself. Read on to find out why he chose Fidel as the first step in his Developer journey!

A: Tell me a bit about yourself.

Hey, I'm Mauro Juliao, the proud owner of a cute, energetic black cat. I was born in Seia, one of the coldest cities in Portugal, and the home to the world’s best cheese! Since I was a little boy I've always had a huge passion for technology and motorised vehicles, that’s why as a kid you would only find me playing videogames or riding my bicycle/skateboard. As I grew older, it would only make sense to pursue a career in one of these fields.

Since I really enjoy building new things, I find software engineering to be extremely fulfilling. While I was in college, I had several jobs, always as a salesperson. This was the first job I ever had in the IT industry. Needless to say, this is where I feel really comfortable and happy. Now, I feel like the world is my playground, as I'm constantly learning new things that will surely be really useful in the future.

A: Why did you join Fidel?

Mauro: When I finished my computer science degree, the next step was to get a job in this field. With that objective in mind, I left Beira Alta Province and came to Lisbon! At the time I was in several recruitment processes for different companies, and this new world seemed really interesting and exciting as I was able to talk with experienced people all around the IT world. One of the many conversations I had at the time was with Andre, the CTO at Fidel.  I'm still not sure why, his words kept echoing in my mind as I was getting to know other companies, so I knew if I ever choose any other company than Fidel, I would regret. Now with 6 months experience, I really think I made the right decision. My main objective was to learn how to be the best software engineer possible, and here, one step at a time, I'm getting there! I have to say that I feel fortunate that Fidel appeared in my life.

A: What’s the tech stack you currently use?

Mauro: My tech stack is a bit small yet, as my fellow coworkers do most of the heavy lifting. As I'm evolving, I find myself being introduced to new technologies, and every day I learn new things. Currently, my main focus is to build the back-end for some of our products, so you can find me coding in Javascript and Typescript with a serverless framework, using most of the AWS ecosystem, such as Lambdas, DynamoDb, SQS, etc. One of the main objectives in Fidel is to always use the best technology for our needs, so we are always looking for new tools.

A: What are some of the most interesting challenges you’re solving?

Mauro: The most interesting challenge I'm solving is to help my team revolutionize the modern payment world, and while doing that, learning more about the software engineering world and how to be a good professional. To be fair, since this is my first software development job, every day is a challenge, and I assure you that every day I learn something new, which is great and makes my job extremely rewarding and interesting. As the days pass by, and with a new year just starting surely there will be many more interesting challenges ahead of me!

A: What is your favourite thing about working at Fidel?

Mauro: I can’t pick just one favourite thing about working at Fidel since there are so many! But the two things that I value the most, besides working with interesting, state of the art technologies, are the friendliness of everyone and the concern for the well-being of employees. With this in mind, the opportunities to learn and evolve as a professional are great. Even if I think really hard, I see no bad things about working at Fidel. That’s the dream, right?

A: How do you keep up with current trends and advances in software development?

Mauro: Believe me when I say that these days, it’s extremely hard to keep up with current trends and advances in software development as there are so many! For sure, this is the most dynamic field, and as a new software engineer, almost everything is new information, so it’s essential to have a dynamic mind too! To help me with this, my smartphone is full of notification alerts from IT blogs and Q&A programming websites! Whenever a topic of my interest appears, I make sure to not miss it. About Fintech news and trends, I can count on Fidel to help me with that! Luckily we have two slack rooms (#goodreads and #tech-sharing) in which everyone shares whatever they find interesting, and almost every time, it is indeed, interesting!

A: Any tips for people that want to join you at Fidel?

Mauro: Here, I’m going to talk at new graduates that consider Fidel for the first software engineering job like myself. Fidel is a fast-paced company, and although this is not NASA, we deal with high-end technologies, so its all about attitude! Some knowledge about the fintech industry is a plus, but if you don't have it, don’t worry, you will get there!

Before I joined, I did not know anything about AWS, JavaScript, Serverless or even Agile methodology, but Fidel provides all the tools and technology information that you will need through online courses. So, if you are interested in fintech, motivated to learn new things, adaptable and humble, for sure you will have a great time working at Fidel!