Celonaut Q&A: What was your first line of code?
According to Stack Overflow, coders start young: a survey found that over 50% of respondents wrote their first line of code between the ages of 11 to 17. We did a little digging, and it turns out the same is true for some of Celonis’ Engineering team members.
We spoke with several of our developers to understand how they got their start in coding, what drew them to software engineering, and what they are working on today.
Meet Bharath, Dilara, Luis, and Alex as they share their stories:
What was the first line of code you ever wrote?
When I was 13, a cousin of mine was studying computer science, and he asked if I’d be interested in checking out how a program works. He explained how the syntax works, and I thought to myself, “this is the most sensible thing!” He suggested I write a small program that can calculate our home's monthly electricity bill, and that’s how I got my hands dirty for the first time.
Why did you choose to pursue software engineering as a career? What attracted you to programming?
Once I wrote the C program, I was set on becoming a Software Engineer, and over time, I grew more fond of math. My dad, mom, and other relatives wanted me to become a doctor. But I loved math, and I liked the idea of putting thoughts into a machine, understanding syntax, and getting results. So, in the end, I had to rebel against my family (and 100 other relatives) and study engineering. As I grew older, I also grew as a Software Engineer, and one of the significant learnings for me is that people and culture are much more important than the code in software.
What are you working on currently that you're proud of?
Currently, I am helping my best to build the Engineering team here in Madrid. When I joined Celonis, I felt at home and was given the responsibility of hiring amazing new software engineers in Madrid who fit our culture.
And I am quite proud of what we have achieved so far, and I hope I can continue to support the company in building the tech hub both Celonauts and Celonis deserve.
What was the first line of code you ever wrote?
It was some HTML code when I was around nine years old. I started creating a "Pokédex" website to document all 150 Pokémon with links and descriptions back in that time.
Why did you choose to pursue software engineering as a career? What attracted you to programming?
I was born curious to see how things work "under the hood." When I was a kid, my bedroom looked like a battlefield because I used to disassemble most of my toys to see how they worked inside, but I couldn’t always reassemble them. Also, I had a fascination for robots, which brought me to the programming world.
What are you working on currently that you're proud of?
Personally, I've built many Arduino projects - the latest one was automating my window shades with stepper motors and voice commands.
Additionally, at Celonis, we have “Excellence at Tech” where we spend 10% of our time dedicated to improving our self-development or something for the company. I’m working on an AR project.
What was the first line of code you ever wrote?
At age 20, I wrote my first line of code in language BASIC. I was working on a robot competition project. I wrote my first code to make our robot follow a path, depending on the data received from sensors, e.g., turn left, turn right, etc. It was really satisfying to see our robot complete its journey successfully.
Why did you choose to pursue software engineering as a career? What attracted you to programming?
I was not planning to study computer engineering, honestly. In my first year at university, I had to take a mandatory project course. One of my friends convinced me to join a robot competition project. In this project, we built and implemented a robot that could follow a path and carry small loads. At first, I thought that this would be too hard.
This project was the first time I encountered programming - and I LOVED IT! It also taught me that nothing is hard if you enjoy it. I especially loved constructing algorithms.
Starting from my second year, I took only computer engineering courses. I loved each one of them and got my computer engineering degree.
What are you working on currently that you're proud of?
I love improving myself and helping junior engineers grow in their careers. Writing code is the easiest part of the job. What makes the real difference is writing performant and maintainable code. It is hard to name one single project I am working on, but in general, I am proud of how my approach and skills improved in time. Thanks to our talented colleagues, and the fun, challenging and helpful environment we have in Celonis, I have learned so much:
How to design reliable and robust services.
How to consider resource consumption of the services.
How to do zero downtime deployments.
How to design inter-service communications according to the needs.
how to build a product that users love in terms of usability.
What was the first line of code you ever wrote? At what age and in what programming language?
For me, it was a "hello world" in Pascal. I was around 16, and it was at the school.
Why did you choose to pursue engineering as a career?
I always enjoyed discovering how things work, which is exactly what an engineer does.
What attracted you to programming?
I found that a computer without games or the internet was boring, so I started to investigate how to do both. Building websites was much easier, so I started to develop my own sites with just html and some styles.
What are you working on currently that you're proud of, either professionally or personally?
I am currently leading a team of developers to build the EMS data explorer tool. I am very proud that the team is working so well and all the members enjoy doing their best and helping each other. I am also coding with them - that is something I enjoy too!
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