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Hello there! :)
I'm Guido, but mostly known as "El Gordito Salsero".
I'm a Front End Engineer with strong skills in JavaScript/TypeScript and I'm currently working with React mostly.
I love commuting code into UI elements and helping people use the software we build.
I'm a Salsa dancer and a motorbiker in my free time.
I also really love coaching and mentoring junior folks helping them in their growth and achieving their personal work goals.
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In this series, I'll describe my experiences: what I learned, the errors I made, the victories I achieved, and so on.
Yet, another mistake
The author recounts their experience working at Innoteam, a consulting services company. They had the opportunity to work with React, Angular, and Vue, and explore GraphQL. Despite achieving various accomplishments, their requests for a raise were denied, leading them to eventually leave the company. Despite not agreeing with the CEO's vision, the author still recommends the company to junior people as a good place to start and explore various things.
As you may recall from my previous article in this series, I was searching for my next company after completing a fixed-term contract.
Enter Innoteam, which has since undergone a rebranding and is now known as Axelerant.
After two stints at web agencies, I felt the need for something different to advance my career.
I chose Innoteam, a company offering consulting services.
In this role, I would serve as an expert, providing advice and assisting other companies in achieving their goals in software development.
The contract was intriguing, the opportunity was appealing, and I even had the chance to work remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the rebranding, Innoteam offered a variety of services (which may have changed slightly since then).
The most sought-after services by customers included:
Team Scaling
Mentoring
This service was quite efficient and easy to use.
Essentially, a customer could request various experts to help them scale their teams internally using our expertise.
Each of the requested experts could be dispatched to different teams.
I had various experiences with these services, but I primarily worked for two of the largest customers Innoteam had.
As the name of the service suggests, it's easy to understand its purpose.
Essentially, customers would ask us for advice on improving processes, software, or other aspects within their companies.
For instance, one of the most sought-after mentoring topics involved transitioning from a waterfall environment to an agile one.
I have primarily worked with React and Angular in my previous experience, so my focus was on these two technologies.
Additionally, I had the opportunity to work with Vue for the first time, a rapidly emerging library for front-end development.
It was the most thrilling experience I've had, thanks to the variety of clients I worked with.
As I wrote a bit above, my focus was mostly on two of the biggest customers they had.
I'll not name them, but I'll just describe the experiences there.
I don't remember exactly how many months I worked for this customer, but it was the longest engagement.
I was part of the Scaling Team, and along with me, there were other colleagues from Innoteam. We were distributed into different teams based on our skills related to various technologies.
My role involved helping them transition some software they had from Django (the Python framework) to React, in order to separate the views from the APIs.
However, that wasn't my only responsibility.
I also had to lead the development of their new website, which played a significant role in their business strategy.
This website was one of the biggest challenges I had to face, both from a technological and personal standpoint.
Why was that?
Essentially, the customer chose to develop this website using the CMS provided by the SaaS they were utilizing for marketing purposes.
In my opinion, this was a poor decision, which is why I had to confront challenges on a personal level.
I ceased collaboration with this client due to differing perspectives on various matters, as well as personal-level conflicts.
I addressed this situation with my company, and we concurred on transferring me to another client.
After a brief period and some mentoring in between, I transitioned to this new client.
Working with them and their team was a pleasure, as the software they were developing was impressive and held a strong position in the business sector.
During this time, I worked with Vue.
The majority of their new software was written in Vue, with GraphQL on the back end.
This was quite enjoyable, as I had the opportunity to explore GraphQL and eventually fell in love with it.
Why did I Leave Innoteam?
The company was pleasant, my teammates were great, and the clients were nice, offering interesting projects to work on.
So, what was the problem?
The compensation.
Despite achieving various accomplishments, my requests for a raise were consistently denied.
I had grown significantly, both personally and technically, and I was producing results. Thus, I believed it was justified to ask for a raise.
Later on, most of the teammates I had in Innoteam left too for the same reason.
I learned a lot, that's a fact.
I grew technically in various fields as I worked with the leading front-end framework at the time.
I also collaborated with numerous marketing professionals who shared their knowledge, and now I know how to further optimize a web app.
On a personal level, I learned not to take many things personally, not to argue with customers who don't want to listen and other things like that; it was an incredible experience.
I made some mistakes; it's true, I know that.
I still remember the biggest one.
I was working for Company 1, and we were in a meeting.
It was yet another meeting about how to improve old software made with legacy libraries.
My point was obvious: as an external consultant, I was suggesting rewriting the software using new libraries and frameworks.
Why so?
Well, most of these libraries were deprecated, and it was the right time to improve the architecture and the back end as well.
During this meeting, after a long discussion, they decided to proceed with the legacy libraries and refactor only some parts.
They asked me for advice on that decision, and I told them:
This is absurd, are you crazy?
Can you be so dumb?
Well, you can imagine how they reacted.
I have other stories to tell, but this is not the right time.
This was the best experience I had, I admit that.
I'm still recommending the company to junior people as I think it's a good place to start and explore various things; even though I don't agree with the CEO's vision and some of the decisions they made.
It was a great place to grow further, with nice teammates (we're still keeping in touch, and we're planning to meet later in the summer), and good flexibility.
I hope you enjoyed this article, the third of six (for now) about my career.
This series will be a prequel to others focusing on specific topics, so stay tuned and let me know in the comments if you want to discuss a specific section or topic.
🕺🏽 Your lovely neighborhood dancing engineer 🕺🏽
