Life as an Android Engineer

Originally from mountains somewhere in Russia, Mike has been living in Stockholm for almost 1 year, and moved to Sweden for the weather – just joking, he moved to Stockholm to work with us!

We work in-between two worlds of bringing new features to the application. We are always working on something new, something fresh. Besides bringing in new features, which is always fun, we also have legacy code that we continuously improve.

What’s a normal workday?

I usually wake up around seven in the morning. I cook oats with milk to my kid for breakfast and then I take him to day-care. After I leave my son, I go to work and have breakfast at the office, and then the fun begins.

As a developer, you usually have at least one meeting a day. The daily stand-up is when we discuss what we did yesterday and what we are planning to do today. Right now, when I am taking on a role more than development, I do have a lot of other meetings, and thing to synchronize with different teams. I have to manage how things work in different parts of the company to be able to deliver the product in the best way we can.

If it’s a Friday, I’ll have a beer at the office before I go home. When I get home, I cook dinner for my family, take a walk with my kid, maybe watch a movie and then I go to sleep. Great work-life balance!

Do you have any tips for someone who wants to become an Android Developer?

The most obvious answer is that you need to passionate about what you’re doing. The only reason why I’m doing what I’m doing is because I love it and I’m still passionate about it. You’ll do a good job if you find it fun and interesting. If I am to answer it in a more practical way, then you should learn why things work the way they do. For example, the tools you work with, why do they work the way they do? The difference between a strong and weak developer is that a weak developer can use the tools, and the strong developer understands why and how the tools work.

I was very passionate about computers as a child. I was the first one in my class to get a computer at age seven. Everyone in my class wanted to come to my place and try it. Since that time, I became kind of a computer geek and I knew when I was eight or nine that I wanted to work with computers. I studied cybersecurity at the university but I knew when I graduated that I did not want to work within that field. I started a job as a mobile developer in 2010 and it was tough for me. We used different technologies back then, but it was during that time that I realized I want to be a developer. And here I am, eight years later still working with mobile development. I have worked with different platforms but I realized that it is not possible to be a professional in all platforms, and then is when I decided to become a specialist in Android.

What do you like about your job?

First of all, it’s the Truecaller product. I find it interesting to improve the product and bring new features to it. I am using it myself on a daily basis and I wouldn’t do that if I wasn’t passionate about the product. The second part would be the people. We have very nice and friendly office atmosphere, no matter which team you go to you will always be welcomed and everyone is helpful. In my team, I feel like there are other professionals I can learn from, and I sometimes teach them something. It is really cool that we can transfer knowledge between each other.

My biggest hobby is cooking. I cook every day for my family and my favorite food is the Indian dish, Khichri. Indians do not understand why I like it so much. It is a vegetarian dish and the Indians do not eat it on regular bases. I don’t really cook any Swedish food except for meatballs, and I usually cook the meatballs Italian style.

I also like hiking. My family and I went hiking in Abisko last summer, which is in the north of Sweden and it was so beautiful with all the mountains.