Hello World

First of all, I’m very excited about start writing and sharing my thoughts as well as learning about your stories and experiences.

My name is Maximiliano Tulian. I’m a System Engineer from the UTN in Argentina. I’m twenty-six years old. If I have to describe myself in a few words I would say: ” I’m passionate about learning and teach things. ”

Four years ago, I was studying at the university and needed to do 300 hours of supervised work. That amount of hours will unlock the final work at the university. At the same time, there was an open house at Globant.

I went to the open house with a very close colleague. I remember that moment as if it was yesterday. We were like babies with new toys. When the event finished, we discussed being part of Globant but didn’t imagine it was possible for us. We were like any other in the field.

Some months later, one of my friends told me about a boot camp at the dreamed company. As you can imagine, my immediate answer was yes! I remember something like, it’s my opportunity. I really want to be there.

But, then, back to thinking. Do I know anything about programming? What is a Web UI Developer? What should I do? is it the right work for me?…

I decided to start the course without so much thinking. It was very hard. More or less than eight hours a day. First reading and then doing the exercises. In the beginning, struggling with a lot of things… but then, dealing with myself. Sometimes, I do have a sense of perfection that could be trouble.

After finishing the boot camp, I was considered as the “key/star player” of the course. (Let me think that it was that way), aha.

I didn’t finish the course, but the company wanted me to start as soon as possible. The project was the complete redesign of a webpage for an important airline in the United States. There were a lot of people involved. If I’m not wrong the account had more than 500 employees.

The tech stack was pretty awesome. Reactjs, nodejs, gulp, sass, bem, mocha, chai, karma, among others. It was the first project, the first company, the first of many things. I didn’t realize at that moment, but it was a very, very, very good start. Thanks for that Globant. I also say thanks to my coworker and friend that has introduced me to this world, Andres Troiano.

The responsibilities were the followings:

1. Create reusable components that are accessible (double A).
2. Create a unit test for each functionality in the component.
3. Follow a couple of standards made by the client.
4. Apply the feedback from teammates and learn from them.

The components were used by more or less than five single page applications. And also, there was a huge list of devices (tablets, phones, monitors, each of them with different sizes).

The development process was pretty good defined. So far it sounds like a dream, isn’t it?

The thing was that I didn’t feel good at all. I was pretty much stressed. I realized about the opportunity neither the tech stack or the knowledge of my coworkers. It was kind of automatic pilot, achieving things and asking myself to do more and more.

Eventually, I improved the performance of the input components but ten times. I think I didn’t enjoy it at all. It was a very huge improvement.

Finally, the project finished, and I started at another one with much more disorganization. No tech stack defined neither standards or processes. Completely chaos. I won’t wish you anything of that…

It wasn’t at the first neither the second project. It was in the third one. I realized that I didn’t enjoy my professional career so far.

At that moment, I was facing a period full of stress and self demand. Still, don’t know why, but working on that.

I think the breaking point was because I was feeling so bad and overwhelmed. Then I started to re-think the goals achieved. I’m not a superhero but I consider that I did a very good job. And the most important point is that now I’m enjoying my work and also my life.

The breakpoint was not only because of me wanting to change but also because of a closer friend telling me that something was going wrong.

Finally, I would like to share with you some of the things I’ve learned:

Don’t forget to take a breath... Heads up, socialize and have fun! It feels better when is shared. Don’t over push yourself. The best ideas come when you feel relaxed.

Originally posted at https://maximilianotulian.github.io/. What was your first professional experience?