Say hello to full stack developer Jose Perdomo. Jose lives in Honduras and has been working with X-Team for almost one and a half years. Get a glimpse into his Honduran life:
What made you walk the developer path? When did it start, and what was the motivation?
I’ve been into computers since I was little. From elementary school, I knew I wanted to study Computer Science. Actually, I’m part of the first generation that graduated CS at my university 🙂.
After graduating, I worked for a local government bank for 8 years. I learned a lot in my time there, growing from intern to database admin. We used some old technologies, for example, PL/SQL with Oracle Forms 5.0, Oracle 9i, mounted on an HP 9000 Server.
In my home country Honduras, people overvalue the economic safety that a “stable” job gives you, and although I knew for a long time that I needed a change, it took me a couple of years to cancel out the noise my family and friends were making about how risky it was to leave my current job.
Eventually, in 2016, I silenced all that noise, decided to be the master of my destiny and took the leap to leave that job and work as a Full Stack Developer at another company. Since then, things have changed a lot for me. I worked with amazing professionals on several projects, had the opportunity to travel to Europe, worked with new technology, moved to Canada, well a lot.
Wow, that’s an amazing story! Congratulations on not only graduating in Computer Science but also for overcoming that social pressure and breaking the status quo!
What would you say are the most important aspects of your “new” life that the “old” one lacked? You’ve already mentioned a few in your answer, but perhaps there’s something you’d like to elaborate on?
I think it boils down to two aspects:
- Freedom: To be able to choose the best time and place for me to work. To not be attached to a single place but have the liberty to travel whenever and wherever I want. To not have my life dictated by my job, but to have my job as a companion to the goals I want to achieve. For example, I’ve been staying in Canada for the last six months, learning French, reconnecting with my wife, something that would’ve been impossible before.
- Growth: Being around such extraordinary people makes me want to get better. Working on different projects with new ideas, technologies, makes me learn constantly and at a rapid pace (just last year, I worked on and learned so many new things: React, Graphql, Knex, CSS Modules, ImmutableJS, Functional Programming, and the list goes on).
Last year, I gave my first talk at a conference at UnleashConf. It was challenging and scary, but it felt great. All of this keeps me away from my comfort zone and constantly growing.
What an inspiring answer! So have you planned some big goals for this year? Is there a certain milestone that you would like to pass in 2018?
Yeah, I got some for this year. This freedom I gained gave me a lot of things to do 😄. I want to travel more - Uruguay is in the top of the list of countries I want to visit. I already went to X-Outpost Scotland. Such an amazing experience. I had the change to meet some of the guys from UnleashConf again, and I made new friends. We did a ton of activities: roadtrips, camping, sightseeing, etc... It was so good I'm already enrolled for XO-Costa Rica!
I also want to start blogging. I realized that blogs are not only good for readers, who may be interested in your topic, but also for yourself as a future reference and even to showcase your knowledge to possible clients (the writing quest has been a good motivation to put my first blog post out there).
I’ve been playing around a lot with React Native lately so I want to launch at least 3 apps. I also started French classes so I hope to get fluent enough in it to at least be able to have a conversation 🙂.
Very ambitious goals, I’ll keep my fingers crossed! What do you enjoy outside of the world of web development (or “computers” in general)?
I’m a family person. I come from a big family so I love to have big family reunions with my mother, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, well, the whole gang. We like to joke a lot so we always have a lot of fun. I enjoy hanging around with my wife, trying new restaurants, visiting new places and just chilling and relaxing in the house.
I’m also into Trading Card Games, specifically Yugioh. I like the strategy/luck factors and the community around it. And there is also tennis. I can’t play it at all, but I find it very entertaining to watch. It just amazes me, what the players are capable of doing.
Make sure to bring Yugioh to one of the X-Outposts 😀! Now, last but not least — what dent do you wish to make in the universe?
I never leave the house without them 😄.
Regarding your question: I have seen a pattern, especially in my country, where there is a lot of corruption and crime in a country where most of us are good, humble and joyous people. A few bad but determined people dominate and ruin the lives of the good majority.
I think about this a lot, and I haven’t figured out how, yet, but I hope to help find a way to change this pattern, to empower the good ones. A dent in the universe is a tough thing to achieve, but I’d be more than satisfied if I could help my country become a better place 🙂.
A very worthy goal. Thank you so much for your time, and best of luck with your projects!