Get to know the team: Back-end software developer Dennis Quitaquís Tamay

1. Why did you choose a career in software development?

As a teenager, I always liked computers and video games. Since I didn’t know what to do after secondary school, I studied software engineering. I didn’t have any previous programming knowledge and did this out of curiosity. Hence, everything I learned regarding IT and programming I learned at uni. However, I must admit that this was a more abstract, theoretical formation and that the real programming experience came with the jobs I did afterwards.

2. What does your day-to-day look like?

The nice thing about working at Valudio is our different types of projects. As such, I don’t have a specific day-to-day routine. One day, I can be focused on many problem-solving activities, while on the other, I might be focused on coding for a specific project. When I say “problem-solving activities”, I don’t refer to solving bugs but rather to finding a solution to a client's challenge or optimizing processes. These activities might take several hours, in which I make plenty of diagrams to identify all the possible use cases. I will start implementing the code after getting back to the client with possible solutions. And, of course, once the code has been written, I must also test it.

3. What’s the best thing about your job?

The problem-solving activities. As a software engineer, I’m trained in logical thinking and to investigate the requirements and feasible solutions. I find it very satisfying when I can find a good and simple solution for a complex problem or challenge. My motto is “Keep it simple, stupid (KISS)!”.

4. What is the most challenging thing about your job?

As mentioned before, we work on various projects, which can be challenging. Luckily, I do like a challenge! We work for different industries with different needs and difficulties. As a full-stack developer, I must find the best technical solution for those needs and challenges. I must put myself in their shoes to find all possible use cases and answer the Why and How questions. Then, I must put everything in place to support our development team, like servers, continuous deployments and databases.

5. Why do you like working at Valudio?

I like that we have different projects that we’re working on and that I thus don’t need to be focused all the time on the same project. One challenge and one technology can get boring after a while. I like that in Valudio, I can use different technologies and languages to work on different projects. This way, I can keep expanding my knowledge and skills.

6. What is the most important added value that Valudio brings to its customers?

For me, that’s for sure “personalization”. In Valudio, we develop customized software to develop the best-suited solution for a client’s needs and challenges. We communicate openly with our clients regarding what and how we do things, striving to meet the client’s requirements with the highest quality possible. And thanks to the high level of expertise of all our developers, we manage to do so and deliver a product that we’re proud of.

7. So, what should we call you? A software engineer or a full-stack developer? And what is the difference?

First, allow me to explain the difference between a full-stack developer and a software engineer. A full-stack developer is someone who manages both the front end and the back end of an application. They, as such, develop both the visible part of the application and the processes that run in the background, like the APIs, databases, application programming interfaces and servers. A software engineer's job is similar to a full-stack developer's, but a software engineer is trained in abstract thinking and building complex architectures and algorithms. So, a software engineer typically receives formal training at a university, putting him a few steps ahead of a full-stack developer who learns how to do the same things through experience. Typically, a software engineer often grows more quickly in a company than a full-stack developer. Moreover, as a software engineer, you can also be specialized to be either a front-end software engineer or a back-end software engineer.

To answer the first question, I’m a software engineer, as I did a master's in software engineering. I can do both front-end and back-end development. However, I prefer and mainly do the back-end part of software. This means that contrary to a front-end developer, I have less user experience in mind. Still, I would rather think in terms of computers, space (memory) and optimization of processes.

8. Let’s discuss the software languages that you use. How many backend coding languages have you learned over the years? Which one is your favourite and why?

I have mastered seven software languages: C, C+, C#, Java, Phyton and Visual Basic. C# is my favourite one, and I specialize in this language. It is a strongly typed and static language, which means there are always data type checks on compile-time. In programming, variables or properties are one of the main characteristics and with C#, every property will have a type. Consequently, there cannot be unknowns. Another advantage of every property being typed is that one cannot easily make a mistake. For example, the type “integer” will only allow a number, not a word, to enter. Contrary to C#, Javascript and Phyton are examples of weakly typed languages.

9. What is the latest trend in backend development?

Undoubtedly, the use of artificial intelligence. For example, Copilot of Microsoft, which uses artificial intelligence to assist developers by checking the code and suggesting autocompletion or improvements. Moreover, artificial intelligence is more and more used in tools and applications, like, for example, chatbots.

Another trend for .NET backend developers is Blazor WebAssembly. This software development kit allows you to develop code for web apps easily.

10. What advice do you have for people who want to do what you do?

Don’t be afraid to break things. If you break it, you will find a solution. And while doing so, you will learn and increase your knowledge. You will learn how to do things and how not to do things.

11. What do you wish you’d known before starting your career?

In university, you mainly learn the theory, and it’s only once you are in the job that you start learning to code. A good way to prepare yourself for the job is to do something on your own. You can make it as difficult as you like, but the main goal is to get experience building everyday digital solutions. For instance, it can be a personal website, a calculator website or even an e-commerce platform.