Meet Conor. Conor is our Python Developer here at Mopinion. Day in and day out, he works diligently to keep all of our behind the scenes python services running smoothly. But what’s Conor up to when he’s not coding or testing? A self-proclaimed ‘night owl’, Conor is big on reading (yep, we’ve got a bookworm!) and climbing. And to add to our mix of cultural backgrounds here at Mopinion, he is originally from Ireland, though he’s lived and worked here in the Netherlands for nearly six years now.
Let’s dive in and see how Conor has experienced working at Mopinion thus far…
Working at Mopinion
What does your position at Mopinion entail?
“I am the Python Developer here at Mopinion. So basically I am responsible for keeping the python services running, fixing any bugs and issues our clients may encounter, implementing new features to improve the platform and of course, keeping an eye out for opportunities for improvement.”
What initially drew you to Mopinion?
“I really like that I work in a team that works closely together and where each member gives a hand wherever they can.”
What does a typical work day look like for you?
“I am pretty much a night owl, so first I have to drag myself out of bed and get some breakfast and coffee. But once I’m up and running, I actually have a quite varied schedule. First I’ll go through my list of things to do and determine which items have priority and which items I have time to fix. So it’s a nice mix of writing documentation about the code, testing it on beta, and then testing it on production (our live environment).”
“We work in sprints so that makes it easy to pick out what I need to in a two-week span. So basically anything from tickets and testing.”
What is your favourite part about working at Mopinion?
I appreciate the laid back and flexible nature of the job. At Mopinion we are trusted to do our work with no restrictions. We’re expected to do the work and do it well, which is a company culture that works for me.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your job?
“I think tech debt is pretty high up on my list of challenges. t’s something every developer has to deal with on every codebase. I like to think of it as building a bridge, first you start off with a well defined plan and build according to that. Then someone comes along and asks for another lane so you squish it in somewhere it’ll fit. After a while your well-built and steady bridge will have so much alterations and changes that adding any more becomes more and more difficult and the bridge becomes more and more unsteady.
“It’s also challenging to keep up with a fast-evolving industry. You have to absorb a large amount of coding knowledge and keep up with the standards, as well as keep an eye on new technologies and libraries.”
What is your proudest moment at Mopinion?
“Probably revamping our configuration service (on the backend). It’s something our clients won’t see but it will definitely improve the reliability and scalability of our backend services. I’ve been working on it for a couple of months now – along with a team of others.”
Exploring the office bar…
And now for some fun questions…
What do you like to do in your free time?
“I really like climbing and bouldering. I’ve been into it for about four or five years now. And the funny thing is, I got into it whilst living in the Netherlands which is one of the flattest countries in the world”, he laughs.
“I usually go quite regularly, about three times a week and I’ve even been to France to do some outside climbing.”
Who inspires you?
“I am inspired by Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman. Both are extremely talented engineers and leaders of the open source movement. Most modern tech is built on work they have done and released for free.”
Do you have a guilty pleasure?
“I have a weakness for iced coffee especially the prepackaged ones. I know its more sugar than coffee but I can’t help myself :)”
What is the best purchase you’ve ever made?
“Probably the leather office chair I bought during the lockdown.”
What GIF describes you best?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
“Hopefully I’ll be a Senior Software Engineer – so still working on code and programming but with more planning responsibilities. I’d like to work with the entire platform and monitor how things are going from a technical perspective. And maybe do this type of work in a different country, like either Canada or Spain.”
What is something no one knows about you?
“I’m a really fast reader. Back when the Harry Potter books were just being released I would buy them and be done by the morning.”
Stay tuned for the next Employee in the Spotlight!
We hope you enjoyed getting to know Conor in this month’s Employee in the Spotlight!
Stay tuned for our December spotlight…
