He started almost 10 years ago as a student but has grown into the Head of Development. Not only is he an experienced Developer with a talent for programming, but he has also proven to be handy when it comes to home improvement. Of course, I’m talking about… Matthijs! In this blog, I’d like to introduce him to you.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m Matthijs, 29 years old and living in Hengelo. I’ve been working at Shock Media for almost 10 years now. I have a broad interest in everything related to technology, especially IT. Not just professionally, but also as a hobby. For example, just like many of my colleagues, I have several Linux systems running at home for data storage, multimedia consumption, and home automation. I also spend a significant part of my free time renovating and making my 1930s house in Hengelo more sustainable. By the way, that’s almost finished, so I’ll have to look for a new hobby soon.
My adventure at Shock Media started about 10 years ago. As a student, I was looking for an internship and during a get-together with fellow students, I heard enthusiastic stories about the great internship period at Shock. I decided to contact the company and was able to start my internship quickly. It turned out to be a success and I never left! I was given the opportunities and freedom to make great progress and develop myself into Head of Development.
How would you describe your role as Head of Development at Shock Media?
As Head of Development, I’m responsible for the development of all (internal) software products at Shock Media. In this role, I strive to lead my team in a participative way. I value involving my team members in decision-making and try to make decisions that the whole team supports. I seek collaboration and ensure everyone’s input is heard and appreciated. This creates a positive work environment where the team is motivated and engaged in achieving shared goals.
Most of my time is spent on the same tasks as the other Developers. This includes building new features to improve the company’s software, fixing bugs to ensure the stability and performance of the software, and conducting code reviews to maintain code quality. Additionally, I also spend time modernizing existing software.
Who does the Development team develop software and applications for?
The colleagues in System Administration and Sales are actually the main ‘clients’ of Development. We primarily produce software that is used internally within our organization. For instance, we have LARAGRID, our own virtualization platform. We also have an administration system that helps our colleagues manage customer data, streamline sales processes, and keep track of our IT infrastructure. Additionally, we work on My Shock Media, the customer portal, which is, of course, used by clients.
How do you stay up-to-date with user needs?
To stay informed about user needs, we use various communication tools and processes. Besides regular communication on the work floor or via Slack, GitLab plays an important role in communication between Development and other departments. We work with a single Backlog project where everyone can create, view, and follow issues. This makes it easy and accessible for everyone to communicate about bug reports and feature requests.
Additionally, we have two people outside the development team who jointly fulfill the role of Product Owner. These are intentionally people outside the development team and are also end users of the software. This allows them to provide valuable feedback on user needs. There are weekly meetings with these Product Owners about the current backlog and priorities. This enables us to respond directly to user needs and tailor the software accordingly. Furthermore, every release we deliver undergoes an acceptance test before it goes live. This provides the opportunity to adjust based on feedback from end users.
Which programming languages and tools do you use most and why?
For back-end development, we use Java. The tech stack includes Guice, RxJava, jOOQ, and OpenRPC. We use Java partly because it’s a type-safe language, has a huge ecosystem around it, and is a well-established name.
For front-end development, we use Angular. Here too, type safety and the fact that it’s a big name play a role. It can be tempting to use the newest, trendiest technologies, but for large projects that need long-term maintenance, that’s not always wise.
For building (web) APIs, we use OpenRPC combined with an in-house developed framework. This allows us to write a single (YAML) specification for an API and automatically generate code in different languages (Java, TypeScript, Rust, and soon Python). This saves a lot of manual work.
Lastly, we also occasionally use Rust and Python to build CLI tools.
What skills and qualities do you think are important for a good Developer to have?
When it comes to the skills and qualities that are important for a good Developer, there are several things to consider. First, strong analytical skills are very important. As a Developer, you need to be able to identify and solve complex bugs. This often requires deep insight into the code and the ability to reason and troubleshoot.
Perseverance is also an important quality for a Developer. Software development can sometimes take more time than expected, and it’s important to stay patient and keep going, even when challenges pile up.
A good Developer must also be a good listener. It’s crucial to understand the needs and expectations of the end user. This requires listening skills to translate user wishes and needs into effective technical solutions. Good communication is also key to collaborating well with your team members.
And let’s be honest, a bit of tidiness, or even a touch of OCD, doesn’t hurt in the software development profession. Maintaining a clean and structured codebase is essential to ensure the maintainability and readability of the code. An organized approach to developing and maintaining code can save a lot of time and effort in the long run.
What makes working at Shock Media so special?
What really appeals to me about working as a Software Developer at Shock is the ownership of the products we develop. It’s motivating to see that the work of recent years is truly bearing fruit within the organization.
One of the projects that stands out to me, and to which I have contributed a lot, is LARAGRID. This is internally developed software for setting up and managing High Available public and private Clouds. It’s clustered software and uses, among other things, an internally developed distributed database for storing metadata of virtual machines and physical nodes. You can find more info about LARAGRID at https://www.laragrid.com. I am also very proud that recently we have made significant progress towards a more uniform application landscape that is future-proof and maintainable.
Why should people apply for a job at Shock Media?
In this introduction blog and those of my colleagues, you can read that you can really make an impact within our company. Moreover, there are plenty of opportunities to develop yourself.
Would you also like to work at Shock Media? Then check out our vacancies page or send an email to hr@shockmedia.nl. Curious about our other colleagues? Then read our other blogs.
