Michele Nasti, Software Developer @Bemind Interactive

This week we interviewed Michele Nasti, Software Developer @Bemind Interactive. He explained us why he defines himself as a “Rock n’ Roll developer” and how he made up his mind to work remotely. Read the full interview below!

 

1. I read that you defined yourself as a “Rock n’ Roll developer”, where does this definition comes from?

To be sincere, I fell in love with Rock n’ Roll before I started programming. When I was a young boy, I played in several musical groups; I was aware it was a waste of time, but it was the best waste of time in my life. Simultaneously I had a professional life – things kept moving very fast as I held many different jobs in a short time: backend developer, scrum master, system designer, team leader, frontend developer, etc. Ironically this was synonymous to my musical path; officially I learned how to play guitar, afterwards I also learned how to play many other instruments (piano, drums…)

As for present-day, even though I realized that I am more passionate about frontend, I’ve continued working both as a frontend and as a backend developer. Programming (like music) should be a bit fun because you can’t survive for very long when you do things you don’t like at all. My personal motto is: working means 33% doing things well, 33% on time and 34% having fun!

 

2. What aspects of your job do you like the most? What aspects do you like the least?

One aspect I like about my job is working on projects whose domain is public; anyone can surf websites I created and I feel satisfied because I can show my projects to friends and relatives. This is a strong motivator for me as it enables me to work on projects with higher awareness and deeper satisfaction. Another aspect of my job that I love is the chance it gives me to meet knowledgeable, competent and inspiring people which actually prompted me in 2015 to launch a programming-related meetup that now gathers 500 subscribers. The third aspect I love about my job is the possibility it provides me to dive deep on many topics. If you like to learn how things work then informatics is the right sector for you to work in – the best programmers are those who are driven by curiosity!

Moving to what I consider the negatives sides of my job, these are primarily related to the business bureaucracy (sometimes it can take up to 2 months to get access to a server!) and to bad management. Sometimes it’s possible that Management does not listen to your problems properly nor do they understand the needs of those employees who are programming daily. Luckily it is possible to overcome these problems!

 

3. What are the main tools you find indispensable in your job?

In this sector tools change very fast. Inevitably, I am a computer-addict so I couldn’t do my job without Bash. No programmer can define themselves well if they are not familiar with a code-editor; Visual Studio Code is my favorite without a doubt.

Frontend Developers who don’t have an innate connection to aesthetics, should work with designers for their projects and to sync design and development (Invision is the must-have tool). Furthermore, if you simultaneously work on 5-6 projects, having a task manager is essential. Besides the traditional square notebook on which I take down notes, depending on the project type, I frequently use tools such as Asana, Flow, Trello and Jira. Nevertheless, books are another “tool” I frequently use because you can never stop studying and staying updated is fundamental in my job. I read online articles and attend various online courses as I believe books allow an individual to follow a more linear course of studies and are much more thorough compared to other media.

 

4. I read you work remotely, what influenced this choice? Do you think it’s more difficult to coordinate a team project whilst working remotely?

On my blog, I don’t only write about what I do but also, about what I have learned. I decided I wanted to work remotely because I could no longer stand traveling for 45 minutes by bus twice a day. Furthermore, I thought I was culturally and personally “ready” for this mindset. After 2 years of working on various projects with different people, these are my final thoughts:

• Organizing the work remotely is far more complicated. Working individually on my own tasks is simpler.
• Sophisticated tools to control whether employees are doing their job are not essential; if they are not meeting their objectives, it’s relatively easy to spot that.
• The company should be predisposed to let its employees work remotely
• Not everyone can work remotely. If you like to solve his/her problems autonomously then it’s okay but, you have to be ready to solve virtually any kind of problem, even those you didn’t have the faintest idea could actually occur.
• If you enjoy spending time and interacting with other colleagues, working remotely is dangerous. If you don’t work in a crowded co-working space, loneliness may harm you.
• Between in-office and remote working, I would have chosen smart working: working 2 days per week in the office and the remaining ones at home.

 

 

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