Met: Nico

"Hello all! So Nico is the name. born 29 years ago in Blaricum, but now living in Amsterdam. On the NDSM terrain even, in one of those beautiful new residential towers. Apologies to older readers who think back with nostalgia to those rough old days here, but I walk to the office in 5 fun minutes. At least, until we all had to work at home again for the second time. Fortunately, the view is still nice :)"

"And thanks for the nomination, Erik! A good question from him, though. Now I'm not really the floaty type or anything; someone who's going to tell you they found themselves on a journey. But I definitely think I've grown. You're in a new environment with an unfamiliar culture and a language you don't speak. Especially if you seek adventure a little bit, you quickly end up in strange, funny and sometimes exciting situations. You are challenged and have to improvise. Much more than you would ever have to at home."

"All those moments and experiences, the stories you take back with you, they work on in your head for a long time. Even after you get back. I started looking at my life here a little differently. How relative it is, but also how good. I think that shows that I have gained quite a bit of life experience."

"Many years ago I did my graduate internship at Unc Inc. I liked that so much that after another study and six months of travel, I decided to knock on the door here again. That was about three years ago now. I work here as a back-end developer, which means that I am responsible for the technical functioning of our projects. In practice, this means that every day I am analyzing, implementing and maintaining the functionalities of some of the websites and mobile apps we develop and manage."

Describe your team, what are you guys good at?

"Hey, we're not called the A-Team for nothing! Give us a challenge and we'll find the right parts together to cobble together a happy ending haha. But no kidding, even before we became a Scrum team (ed. Unc Inc reorganized to permanent teams in mid-2019), we were already working together a lot on the same projects. As a result, we were actually already very well matched and that has only improved since then."

"With our team, we mainly work on large websites and web applications. Setting up a stable, user-friendly back-end combined with a beautifully designed and elaborate front-end, that's what we really excel at. Currently, we are delving into complex mobile applications. That's really cool, because we like a challenge. For us, we prefer a complex assignment to a simple job. That's how we stay sharp and keep learning, otherwise it gets boring."

"Where shall I start!? My team of course! You do notice that I am very happy with the atmosphere and cooperation. We stimulate, encourage and correct each other. Just what you need from your closest colleagues. But the atmosphere is good throughout the company; informal and friendly. Everyone here is just themselves and you notice that!"

"In addition, I really like the diversity of projects. One minute you're working on a widget for HVC that tells residents whether the nearest waste station is busy. The next you're working on a database for Spares in Motion, which gives quick and easy insight into the storage of huge numbers of wind turbine parts. And this week ends again with something completely different: The migration of Matrickx, a large scheduling tool for the medical world."

"I also enjoy improving internal processes for us developers. Continuous Development and Continuous Integration are then the technical terms. But in concrete terms, this involves, for example: automatic testing of new features, or automatic release on an environment of your choice."

"It's necessary, there's no debate about that. And the team also functions fine. But other than that, I think it sucks. No more fooling around at the coffee machine, no more noisy lunch together, no more get-togethers. Colleague Quenten and I had a tradition of spinning bangers on the DJ set every Friday to firmly usher in the drinks and the weekend. So now it's suddenly very quiet on Friday afternoons, at home."

"But we just make the best of it. We call more often now instead of sending a message. We also agreed that everyone turns on their camera when video calling to make the contact a little more social and human. And Quenten and I now use Watch2Gether to still listen to those bangers on Friday afternoons. Drum 'n Bass, Dubstep, Hardstyle and Hardcore. More and more colleagues are now hooking in and that's how we recreate a bit of that Friday afternoon feeling after all."

"Good question! Let me think. I've learned something from every project, but the one that stands out head and shoulders above the rest is Brenger. Derk and Wisse (ed. founders Derk van der Have and Wisse Koedam) came to us in 2016 with an idea: A platform to mediate the transport of furniture and other large items."

"It was really an innovation, because such a platform did not yet exist at all. We therefore designed and developed it completely from scratch. All customization. First an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), and when that quickly gained traction, developed it through to the current platform. After working on it for three years, it was recently handed over to their new in-house team. No one who had put as many hours into it as I did. So that's how it became a kind of love baby after all haha. From the absolute beginning I was involved. And so I went through all the stages of developing a start-up. Super cool and super educational."

"Hmm, that's a less fun question. I think I have repressed most blunders haha. With little success because one comes to mind right away. It's been a few years so don't judge me!"

"Well, I had once made some adjustments to a piece of code that handled online payments. In my opinion I had tested it well, and everything worked properly. After going live, we soon got a concerned call from the client; that visitors were having problems with the online payments. The money was being debited from their account, but the payment was not getting through to the customer's system. Suboptimal, you could say."

"I discovered that I had indeed not tested the adjustments properly. Worse, I hadn't completed the adjustments at all! Not very pretty, to say the least. Fortunately, I was able to solve the problem quickly. And one thing I know for sure: I will never make such a gross mistake again. This, because nowadays we do code reviews. That way, fortunately, it can't happen to anyone again."

"That in our spare time we do want to look at your computer to fix something..."

What is your best reading, listening, watching or doing tip and why is it worthwhile?

"Pieter Derks' weekly column on NPO Radio 1 is always a must read! Every Wednesday he highlights current affairs and knows how to put his finger on the sore spot. Always funny, and often socially embarrassing, which nevertheless sharpens your view of society a bit."

"For the developers among us, I recommend Stack Overflow 's weekly newsletter. In it, they highlight the most fun and engaging questions on their platform. Think technical solutions, ways of working, or just funny facts."

Who's next?

"That's Jos! After all, it's about time the guy who does these great interviews got to speak up himself."