Clémentine joined Kabaun's Tech team over a year ago, initially as an intern and later transitioning to a permanent position. This is an opportunity to delve into her somewhat unconventional professional journey and explore the challenges she faces in her role as a full stack developer.
Can you tell us more about your professional journey, particularly the transition from management control to web development?
My professional journey underwent a two-step transition. I started my career in management control, working successively in the telecommunications sector and then in a Vinci concession. Over time, the desire to imbue more meaning into my work became apparent, prompting my move to a socially impactful company, an HLM (social housing) company, with the aim of contributing positively to society.
Despite transitioning to a sector more aligned with my values, I still yearned to add more significance to my work by joining a smaller and more agile structure.
It was at this point that I decided to undergo a skills assessment, which confirmed my desire to pivot to a new profession: web development.
During my experience as a management controller, I noticed a natural inclination in my tasks toward the creation of IT tools. Developing management tools, participating in various IT projects, and undertaking programming courses reinforced my belief that web development was the logical next step in my professional journey.
What were the main challenges you had to face during your transition to web development?
My professional transition was marked by two major challenges. Firstly, I had to maintain an income while acquiring new skills. The Transition Pro PACA program (an organization that supports employees in their professional transitions) and a mutually agreed termination with my former employer facilitated this transition.
Subsequently, I had to find a role that aligned with my expectations and my new field of expertise. Fortunately, I came across a job opening at Kabaun on LinkedIn that perfectly matched what I was looking for.
What is your role as a full-stack developer at Kabaun?
My role is focused on backend development, handling everything behind the scenes such as data storage, query processing and application security. I work closely with my colleagues to design and implement various features. A thorough understanding of the application, comprehension of existing code, and comprehensive documentation are crucial to maintain quality and ensure continuous and coherent development.
How do front-end and back-end developers collaborate and share responsibilities at Kabaun?
Our team operates collaboratively, sharing skills and intervening in areas such as the frontend (the user-visible part) or APIs when necessary. This collaborative spirit extends within the technical team as well, where flexibility is key. When new features need development, we break them down into tasks, estimate the required time, and each team member selects tasks based on their skills and preferences. This approach promotes seamless collaboration, with everyone contributing to achieving our common goals: delivering an innovative, robust, and secure platform for all our users..
What were the main challenges you faced in recent months?
I would say I encountered two primary challenges. The first was undertaking a data science training concurrently with my internship at Kabaun, requiring meticulous time management and balancing the demands between training and daily work.
The second challenge was transitioning from backend to an architecture entirely based on TypeScript. This migration demanded a thorough understanding of the existing code, as well as skill upgrades to ensure a smooth transition while preserving the stability and performance of the platform.
Both of these challenges provided enriching learning opportunities, strengthening my ability to overcome varied obstacles in a constantly evolving technical environment.
On which projects are you currently working?
Currently, we are collectively focused on enhancing the code quality of the backend to ensure a robust and high-performance foundation. This initiative aims not only to improve the stability of the current system but also to streamline maintenance processes in the long term.
I am also working on deploying a new feature: the creation of connectors that will enable automatic generation or retrieval of data from other tools, such as Google Sheets, for example. This enhancement aims to strengthen the interoperability of our platform and provide extended features to our users.
One final note
I am delighted to affirm that my transition to web development is a success, and Kabaun has played a significant role in it. I am fortunate to work at 80%, providing me with increased flexibility to balance my professional and personal life and allowing me more time to take care of my children.