Meet David, one of our developers here at Turing! In this blog post, David shares insights on how software developers can make the most of their remote setup.
What are the most important skills to master in a remote environment?
One of the most important skills for working remotely is communication. Since we don’t have a place where we get to meet with our managers and customers, we have to communicate everything virtually. If something is not going well in a project, communication is key. And collaboration is equally important. If someone needs help, you have to be proactive.
In addition, if you want to discuss something complicated, it’s better to get on a quick call instead of writing an email. If you talk to the person directly, you gain more time.
What motivates you to collaborate?
It’s nice to see other developers use something I started. It’s also great seeing developers use my architecture. If we have a problem, it’s important to solve it together: bring all the developers, discuss the best approach, and come up with a solution that fits best. When you work together and deliver a solution, you feel amazing.
How do you balance the cultural differences when working remotely?
I’m the only Brazilian on my team. All my teammates come from different cultures. I’m learning from their culture, and they get to learn from my culture as well.
Of course, there are things about their culture that I don’t know, so I have to do some quick research and go like: “Oh, what is this? What’s going on? What are you talking about?” And it’s great!
For example, for naming our sprints, we are using food names! I learned that there’s a noodle called ‘across the bridge noodle’ which is the name of our current sprint. I think it’s a noodle from China. The next sprint’s gonna be Bibimbap. And I also helped my team learn about some Brazilian foods, like Paçoca!
Both in my current team and previous teams where I worked remotely, we had coffee meetings of one hour where we talk about random topics and got to know each other better. We also have one key meeting where everyone eats together at lunch. I’m not in pacific time, but I grab a cup of coffee during this meeting. We sometimes play online games like Gartic!
I think one of the best things about working remotely is that you just have to put on fancy clothes from the belly and up. And you also get to wear slippers!
For the last month, I’ve been a digital nomad. Right now, I’m at my parent’s house, which is 300 km from Curitiba. I’ve come here for the holidays. And so, I get to spend time with my friends and family. I have also been to Fortaleza, a beach in the northeast that looks like paradise! It’s amazing to have this freedom to work from everywhere.
Do you have any tips for a better work-life balance?
I think it’s important to separate our work life from our “real life,” especially when working remotely. Change your clothes and at the end of the day do some retro to separate when you are working and just working. After you stop working, you have to turn off your computer and notifications unless you are in a position where you need to stay online.
It is important to separate things because if you let everything mix, you won’t be that productive, and you won’t get to focus 100 percent.
Do you have any fun story that happened to you at work that wouldn’t have happened to someone working in an office?
My hometown, a small city with about 30,000 inhabitants, has these cars with loudspeakers that pass around and sell things. So, when I’m there working from my parent’s house, a lot of times I’m in a meeting and the eggs car passes selling eggs, and everyone in the meeting goes like: “OMG! What’s happening?” and I tell them: “Give me a sec, it’s just the eggs car or the fruits car.”
We have cars selling juice and ice cream in the summers! And these cars play random funk songs! So, situations like these are hilarious! Everyone goes like, “OMG David, not again!”
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