SOUTHIE Stories: How a musician-turned-programmer built his career on a love of learning

Meet Andrés Rodriguez Schiller… a lead software engineer who began coding at the age of 13 by creating his own video games.

‍He’s also an avid musician, so when it was time togo to college, Andrés enrolled at the Conservatorio de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires to study music. At the same time, he started a computer programming degree at the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional.

“My idea was to work as a programmer to support my music career,” Andrés said, “but I ended up being a full-time developer.”

But, after nearly a decade asa developer, Andrés was ready for a new challenge.

‍His work had involved all kinds of industries and skill sets — from developing financial software to building a database for a steel manufacturer — and he ended up at a software factory. “I was at that company for about three years,” he said. “I did all kinds of stuff there, including medical software and a parking lot management system.”

Despite the range of project she got to work on, Andrés was eager to learn more. “I was always working in a small firm where it was a little bit disorganized and there weren’t that many challenges.” For his next job, he wanted to work at a bigger company.

“I wanted to see how they lead their projects and how they manage to create software that handles hundreds of thousands of users.”

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Then, he got a call from SOUTHWORKS.

‍Andrés had first encountered SOUTHWORKS as a computer programming student when his friend took a job as a developer there. The friend told him there were other open positions, but Andrés was still a student and couldn’t work full-time. However,Andrés was impressed by what he heard about SOUTHWORKS.

So, when SOUTHWORKS reached out to him about an open position in 2018, Andrés was already interested.

“What attracted me to SOUTHWORKS,” he said, “was the fact that they were with high-profile customers like Microsoft and Discovery.”

He also felt like SOUTHWORKS would provide more opportunities to learn. “My dream job is anywhere where I can learn new stuff and grow as a developer,” he said.

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At SOUTHWORKS, Andrés has gained the big-scale project experience he was looking for.

‍“If you work here, you’re not going to get bored. That’s for sure,” he says. “I’ve learned how to deal with very large projects with a lot of teams involved. And I’ve learned how to build software automation to make sure that all that works as expected.”

Andrés enjoys working with fellow learners and feels like his team encourages him to do his best work.

“It’s a great working environment,” he says.

“There are a lot of people that are very knowledgeable and that you can learn from.” And that’s exactly what Andrés wanted. “I think there’s a lot of room for growth here,” he said.

Andrés’s tips for success at SOUTHWORKS? There’s always more to discover.

‍Andrés says that SOUTHWORKS is a great place for people who like to think outside the box.

“I think it’s very important to have the motivation to learn by yourself,” he says, “And to be interested in growing and developing your technical skills.”

It’s that “own it” attitude and the creative solutions that make it possible for SOUTHWORKS to Make Everything Right™.

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The contents of this article are an extract from an interview conducted by Autumn Privett from Pitchmaps with Andrés Rodriguez Schiller, a Lead Software Engineer with SOUTHWORKS.

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