Meet the NectarOM Team: February Employee Spotlight
Our employees are what make NectarOM a special and diverse place to work. We have many people with different backgrounds and personalities, but each person has a passion for the work that they do. This month we want to highlight Rory McLaughlin who works as a full stack developer at NectarOM! Rory has been with the company for almost 20 months, starting in May 2016. Continue reading to find out first-hand from Rory what it is like to be a NectarOM full stack developer.
1. What is your position at NectarOM?
I am a Full Stack Developer.
2. How did you first learn about NectarOM?
I was mentoring at DevMountain (the Dallas location) and it was getting close to wrapping up the spring cohort when Amrit contacted me through LinkedIn about NectarOM looking to add some developers to the team soon.
3. Before working at NectarOM, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
After graduating I worked a bit for a small fuel cell manufacturer; I ran marketing and sales for their e-commerce store that sold educational products focused on renewable energy. The interesting part was getting to learn about hydrogen fuel cells, how they work, how they are built, etc. Also I got to actually help build some of the parts specifically the membranes for the fuel cells.
4. How has NectarOM helped you in your career/personal development?
I have been able to grow incredibly as a developer in my time here at NectarOM. Largely, in terms of understanding how to diagnose a problem, break it down, and come up with solutions. Beyond development, I have been able to learn a lot about how a small company functions and the business of developing a SAAS product.
5. What are 3 words to describe yourself?
Humble, Awe-inspiring, Liar
Inquisitive, Adventurous, Ambitious (<– serious answer)
6. Describe a typical day at NectarOM for you?
I usually arrive between 8-9am, check emails and any outstanding pull requests on Bitbucket. If there are any tasks I’m already working on from the previous day I finish those up assuming I’m not blocked on them. Otherwise I take a look at Jira and see what task I can start working on next and then I hit the keyboard and start turning coffee into code.
7. What is your favorite part about working for NectarOM?
I really enjoy working with the people here. Everyone is pretty laid-back but also very concerned with providing high-quality work which results in a great environment where no one cares about office politics, or who’s to blame, or other similar issues you may find in other companies. We all want to get quality work done and contribute in any way we can to make that happen.
8. What advice do you have for someone who wants to work at NectarOM?
Be flexible and be humble. Things can change pretty quickly here so you have to be open to those changes. Humility is key because we want to take the best option per current information but we need people who are willing to share their thoughts and ideas and ultimately are cool with being wrong and can learn from that.
9. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Originally I really wanted to be an architect, I really liked drawing and designing buildings, completely ignoring silly things like physics (which I’ve heard from engineers that architects are really good at doing that). I did also have my crazier dream of being a space explorer, I imagined I would love to just be out there finding new planets and exploring them.
10. If you could meet anyone from the past/present who would it be and why?
This is a difficult question. I think that wanting to meet someone past/present is based largely on our own assumptions of what they are/were like which opens up a lot of possibilities for disappointment and possibly not as big of an opportunity to learn as we expected. Of course, there’s always the chance we are pleasantly surprised and learn something we didn’t expect. If I had to choose someone, I would say Rudyard Kipling, I grew up enjoying many of his poems and he led a pretty interesting life. That being said, he and his work have never escaped controversy so I would be interested in learning what he was really like and if possible the messages he intended to convey in his works.
