When I was 16 and had just learned how to code, I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life. You could say I was naive to think I would never get tired of developing, but today, 14 years later and having worked 10 years in the systems area, I still find myself thinking the same thing: I love developing.
One of the best things that came from earning my degree in systems engineering from Universidad Tecnológica Nacional was joining Kin + Carta about a year and a half ago. Here I’ve had the chance to join a family. Here I have not only developed myself professionally, I also have met some amazing people with whom I enjoy spending my days. There’s always someone available if you need support or advice; Kins never hesitate to give you all the necessary tools they have to help you.
I am a tech lead on a project that’s building a website for a company with more than eighty clients around the world. My tasks are more than merely programming. I am in charge of defining technical tasks, looking for constant improvements, and interacting with the team’s UX designer to improve the user experience and add product value.
The down side to this job? When I try to explain what programming is, the first question usually is, “So, you can hack Facebook, right?”
Now I invite you to take a look at one day in my Kin + Carta life, and I can promise you it has nothing to do with hacking Facebook.
A Day in the Kin + Carta Life: Leonardo "Leisho" Rossi, Technical Consultant
7:15 AM: Wake up
Argentina has a wide range of seasonal temperatures. Summer makes me eager to leave my bed, but winter makes me wish I could grab my notebook and work under tons of blankets. No matter the season, sooner or later I get up, shower, watch some daily news on TV, drink chocolate milk (hot or cold, depending on the weather), which in turn gives me the energy to start my journey to the office.
8 AM: Ride to work
I take two buses to get to the office. I spend the time listening to some of my favorite playlists, checking my calendar, chatting with my girlfriend (who is on her way to college), and reading Slack messages.
9 AM: Welcome to Kin + Carta
Instead of an office receptionist, we have our own face recognition system that was built by Kin + Carta people for an internal Kin + Carta Labs project in the Buenos Aires (BA) office. The system recognizes us every morning, greets us, and gives us relevant information such as coworkers’ birthdays and weather conditions across our many office locations.
As soon as I arrive at the office, I make myself a cup of hot coffee. After socializing, I go back to my desk to decide what I’m going to have for lunch. Kin + Carta provides lunch for the employees in BA; we complete a spreadsheet every day to select what we’ll eat that afternoon.
10 AM: Internal meetings
As there is a two-hour time difference between BA and the Chicago office, we use our mornings for internal meetings. Today, we have our BA Engineering Circle meeting when all the BA developers gather to talk about our status, any blockers we have, and share some technical learning (what we call “knowledge share”). This meeting is normally conducted as we drink mate (a traditional Argentinian drink infused with dried leaves of yerba mate) and some medialunas (croissants).
During the days when we do not have internal meetings, I stay at my desk with my headphones on to do what I like most: develop without distractions.
11:45 AM: Daily project Stand Up meeting
Every day we have a 15-minute stand-up to provide feedback about what we did the previous day and talk through any blockers and what we'll be working on that day.
12:00 PM: Project meetings and internal design review
This is one of my favorite project-related meetings. The UX designer on our project shares the designs for future functionalities. We discuss, debate, ask questions, and suggest changes based on our experiences with other platforms or websites. Our designer is super open-minded to changes and fast enough to do them on the fly, which allows us to collect instant feedback about the proposed ideas.
1:00 PM: Lunch
On the second floor of the BA office we have a lunch area and a huge terrace where employees generally eat. My lunch today isn’t super healthy — smoked grilled beef with grated cheddar and fried eggs (with fries).
4:00 PM: Sync up with client developer
From time to time I have meetings with one of the client’s developers in the United States with the intention of supporting previously defined tasks. We do that because the US developer is in charge of codifying a few functionalities of the site our internal team is working on. This is easy with Zoom because we can share screens and develop together.
5:00 PM: In-person interview
One of the things I like most about working at Kin + Carta is that I get to participate in interviewing candidates. I love having the possibility to contribute and select people who could add more value to our work and our culture. That’s why I take interviewing so seriously. All consultant-level employees and above have the opportunity to interview candidates.
6:00 PM: Wrap up
In this last half hour in the office I finish any pending tasks, touch base with the Kin + Carta people who have a few hours left in their day, and I write down what I need to remember for the following day.
7:30 PM: The "Pipis" time
Today, I decided to hang out at a favorite bar with my high school buddies whom I consider my lifelong friends. We started calling each other “Pipi” in a friendly way years ago, which informally translates to “my people.” Our nights generally do not have a particular purpose. We only want to catch up with each other, drink some beer, and eat some food (finger food, fries, anything except low-carbs).
11 PM: Winding down
I spend the last hour of the day relaxing and watching Netflix or YouTube, usually about some technology topic (I recommend AngularNYC YouTube channel or Nir Kaufman, one of my favorite speakers).