The pandemic caused technology to evolve at an unprecedented pace, we needed to be able to communicate to keep the world running and we had all the tools we needed at the moment to make it happen. While my journey as a worker started remotely, right now I think hybrid is the way to go and I'll talk about some of the challenges I went through over my first couple of jobs which were fully remote.
Coincidentially just as I started looking for an internship I received via LinkedIn a message with a job opportunity, I decided to give it a try and started preparing for the interviews, the role they looked for was a fullstack developer. In short, I had to learn 2 front-end frameworks (React & Angular) and a back-end framework (.NET), thankfully before intervieiwing I decided to learn all of those since they were listed on the job description "just in case".
During this first internship, I had the luck of having 2 great mentors with lots of experience, both took great care of me during my first three months by guiding me through a list of topics and a big project made in team progressively adding more features, they prepared us really well and they are a big part of why I started liking so much software development.
At the second part of this 6 month internship, I joined a team where I mostly focused on front-end development with React, we were working on a big IT company that specializes on selling networking hardware, software and telecomms devices. This was a great experience since I joined from the very start of the project and collaborated with lots of cross-functional teams bringing this project to it's completion.
I would describe my experience in this first internship as successful. In fact, it extended beyond the initial six-month duration. However, over time, I began to feel fatigued and disconnected from the team. The work became quite repetitive, with a routine of logging in, starting new sprints, finishing my tasks, and repeating the process. The repetitiveness made it challenging to socialize. Nevertheless, I didn't mind it too much during this first internship. I enjoyed the remote setup, which gave me plenty of free time since I didn't have to commute to an office. This allowed me to continue learning new things, going to the gym, spending time with friends, and playing video games.
I received an email inviting me to interview for another internship position at a different company. Initially, I wasn't planning to accept the offer, but I thought the interviewing experience would be valuable, so I decided to give it a try. Ultimately, I was captivated by the role. The team was remote and diverse, and the role itself was different from what I was accustomed to (DevOps), offering numerous learning opportunities. I accepted the position, even though it came with a pay cut, and jumped into my second internship, where I acquired knowledge of various technologies.
If it wasn't for this second internship, I probably wouldn't have this level of exposure to all this cloud natives solutions and I feel comfortable working on stuff at a junior level. But the same problem arised, it was hard to socialize, the small social moments we had were good but it was hard since most meetings were to the point, I felt this made it harder to learn and develop, still I had success learning most stuff on my own but probably it would have been better if I could have the option to just walk a few meters to start discussing work stuff.
When I left this company, the first thing I started thinking about was, my next job I want it to be hybrid and the second thing was, I wanted to go back to development. After a few months break while I finished my degree, I started looking for jobs again, the first two weeks were hard since I was jumping between programming languages, I wanted the newer, shinier stuff. After this two weeks I decided to start searching for roles related with my past experience (either React or .NET with the need of some Azure knowledge).
After 4 weeks, I started getting responses back and success with interviews.By the sixth week, I had multiple job offers on the table, some of which didn't align with my cultural preferences, and others offered lower compensation than what I expected. It was really painful to decline some of these offers but I felt I was rewarded with positive karma and got an offer where I wanted to join the most, Steelcase.
I've been at Steelcase for three months now, and I have to say, it's been a completely new and refreshing experience. This company not only embraces a hybrid work model but also has a highly developed and progressive culture. From day one, I felt like a part of a new community where we strive to bring our best selves to the table and inspire others toward success.
I'm fortunate to be part of an exceptional remote team comprised of individuals with great and unique personalities. They are incredibly respectful and intelligent people. Locally, I have wonderful colleagues as well—each one unique, all working in different teams, yet always open for a quick chat on any topic making learning quick. We have an excellent office with unique spaces that everyday surprise me. At this office is where I've met people of different backgrounds and I'm really happy for getting to know all of this great persons at this company and looking forward to the future!