Puro’s journey from Summer Intern to Full-time Engineer

Who are you?

My name is Puro. An ex dental nurse, a current health technology engineer and accessibility enthusiast.

Can you share a few words about your background?

I was in the healthcare industry for quite a long time, working in all kinds of jobs ranging from working with the elderly to being a dental nurse. I love working with people and helping others with whatever problems they might have. Having a long history in one of the most stressful industries there is, is certainly a strength I love having as nothing shakes me up anymore!I also just a few months ago graduated and am now a proud health technology engineer!

How did you end up in Wolt?

I loved being a dental nurse but after some time I began longing for something where my time would be more valued, and where I could develop myself and my career. This thought led me to engineering studies and after a few short jobs related to the industry and trying my hand at being a freelancer, I saw an advertisement for Wolt interns and I made a promise to myself that I would be working there.

What do you do here now?

Right now, I work as a frontend engineer at Wolt’s web team, focusing on wolt.com, making the cornerstone of our web presence more usable, accessible and overall better.

What’s the most interesting technological challenge you have encountered at Wolt?

I came to Wolt with very little experience in the industry or the technologies that are used here, so I am running into interesting challenges all the time. It’s great, and I feel like I’m never running out of ways to challenge myself and learn new things. You pretty much can get as much responsibility at Wolt as you can take and I love that.I could name a lot of things, but one of the most interesting parts that I began working on almost as soon as I started working at Wolt has been improving the overall accessibility of our website. It is a long project where I have been given a lot of responsibility. Some of the tasks are small while others are the kind that take weeks or even months to complete. There are so many laws and regulations related to accessibility in lots of countries that only serves to make this project all the more interesting and important.

What have you learned during your time at Wolt?

Humility! I have learned that the more I learn the more I understand how little I know. Working on your own little projects is fun and all, but once you become part of a huge product and it’s codebase, you truly understand that it is a long road to become a great developer and I couldn’t imagine a better place to grow in than Wolt.There are so many teams, so many people in all kinds of roles and from all kinds of backgrounds working together towards a common goal at Wolt that it is truly an incredible experience to be part of this company.

How has it been like to join the company during the pandemic?

To be perfectly honest it has been a challenge. As a new engineer trying to learn the ways of the industry there have been times when I have hoped that I could just turn around and ask the more experienced people of the team about a lot of things. But these days, you have to try and communicate all your questions and worries through messages. It can turn even the smallest problems much larger and your communication skills are tested.It’s not all bad though, as these times also teach you to be more independent. In the end, I also love working remotely for the most part as you end up saving your time and energy as you can just hop on to your work computer as soon as you’ve brewed up that morning coffee.

You want to recommend some books & other sources for learning new stuff about tech etc.?

What worked for me was just trying to copy websites. I never had too much time or energy to read and watch tutorials or such and I ended up just looking at some nice websites and trying to make them myself. That is also how I managed to impress the recruiting engineers at Wolt by making a copy (not fully functional, don’t worry) of wolt.com. Just get your hands dirty and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.