YLD Perspectives: Jhonny Moreira

For our new series of YLD Perspectives’ interviews we’ve invited our ‘insiders’ to shed light on their dreams and aspirations, career growth as well as their experience working at YLD.

Could you introduce yourself please?

My name is Jhonny Moreira and I work as a Software Engineer at YLD. I’m based in Porto and I’m currently working from home.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

When I was growing up I wanted to be a rock star — something quite different from what I’m actually doing right now (smiles). Music has always been a passion of mine and a great source of inspiration! I play guitar and bass although it’s now more of a hobby for me.

What attracted you to the tech industry?

When we first got a computer at home I was immediately fascinated by the Internet and all the great amount of information and features for me to discover there. I would mostly spend time playing games or just browsing the pre-installed programmes, trying to figure out what you could do with them. There was also a programme, and unfortunately I don’t remember the name of it, that was part of the Microsoft Office and allowed you to edit HTML pages. I believe those were my first experiences with web development and the ones that inspired me to explore the tech industry further.

What did you do before joining YLD?

Before joining YLD I was working as a Junior Consultant at another IT company, dealing with a Contract Management System for the medical facilities. So when I had my first contact with YLD I was still really new to the industry .

What drew your attention to YLD?

At the time YLD was known for being a JavaScript consultancy company and I was very much into it — up to these days it’s my favourite tech language to work with! That’s why I thought it would just be a fantastic opportunity to work with some of the greatest engineers in that field. YLD’s active presence in the JavaScript community was also something that drew my attention to the company. YLD engineers could be seen giving fantastic talks at numerous conferences and so I didn’t want to miss my chance to be working around them.

What three words would you use to describe YLD?

Competence, growth as it’s a company that gives you opportunities to thrive for growth, and people, as they are the ones to make the company so great to work at.

What personal traits do you think help you succeed in your job?

I would say curiosity as I think you have to be curious working in any field but especially in the tech industry. For me personally it’s also endurance — I don’t like to give up even if I’m banging my head against the wall. When I joined YLD I was very much into my shell and right now I think I’m a lot more open and communicative, and it’s definitely something that I’ve gained throughout my career. Good communication skills are key when you work as a software engineer so it’s important that you get more at ease along your professional path.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your career?

‘Do first, apologise later’. I think it’s really great advice as sometimes things get lost in policies — you see something that is wrong yet it doesn’t get fixed. So it’s important that you take the necessary action, and if you make any mistake you should be able to apologise for it.

What advice would you give to someone going through the same route as you?

I think I would give the same advice as I was given. Another thing I would like to add is that it’s not all about being a good engineer on a technical level — one needs to understand that we work with and for people. You can write a really clever piece of code however if only you and the machine can understand it, it won’t be easy to maintain. What you need to remember is that at some point someone else might pick up on your work so it needs to be readable.

What in the engineering field (or tech industry in general) are you excited about at the moment?

I’m not currently working on it, but I’m very interested in AI and what comes out of it. We have already started to see exciting things coming to light as, for instance, there are a lot of eyes on self-driving cars. I’m looking forward to really nice systems and things like personal assistants to help on everyday tasks.

What inspires you or keeps you motivated?

One of the most important things is that I like what I’m doing — I think that if I didn’t, I would lose my motivation pretty quickly. When it comes to inspiration, I can get inspired quite easily. Reading something exciting, listening to a talk or music are the things I draw my inspiration from.

What are you looking forward to in the future with YLD?

I have moved to a different project quite recently so it’s hard to tell but I’m looking forward to producing great results. Besides the work itself I can’t wait to meet everyone in person again!

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If you want to join Jhonny and become part of our team take a look at our open positions here. If you don’t see the role you are after do still get in touch at talent@yld.io

YLD Perspectives: Jhonny Moreira was originally published in YLD Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.