Read on to see what he enjoys about life at Bondora, what he does in his free time (hint: cute pet pics included), and what he finds most rewarding as a software engineer:<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"Taavi\u2019s](\"https:\/\/investor.wptest.goandgrow.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/01\/Taavi_EN.png\")
The Bondorian Spotlight #39 \u2014 Taavi Kala<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\ud83d\udc66Bondorian<\/strong> since March 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udc68\u200d\ud83d\udcbbRole<\/strong>: Senior Software Engineer<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2699\ufe0fTeam<\/strong>: Product Engineering: Servicing<\/p>\n\n\n\n I joined Bondora in March 2023 as a senior software engineer on the Spend team. Soon after, it was split into Originations and Servicing, and I joined the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been an exciting journey because I\u2019ve never had a chance to work with C# or .NET professionally before. Coming from a large corporation of almost 1,000 employees to Bondora with just under 200, where most people know each other, was very welcoming.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the company\u2019s fast-paced nature, I had to learn to swim from the get-go. But fortunately, everyone was super helpful during my onboarding. Since then, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to work on various topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2615 My typical workday always starts with coffee at 8 AM, followed by catching up on Slack and emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, there will be some coding until the daily standup at 10 AM and more coding until lunch at noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, yes, you guessed it, <\/strong>\ud83d\udda5\ufe0f more coding until around 4 PM when I pack up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I try to split my time between working from home and the office, 60-40, so I spend about 3 days in the office and 2 days at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now, I have a Lenovo Thinkpad P14s. But soon, we\u2019ll move to Macbook Pros as the migration of our services from Windows to Kubernetes is almost done. In addition, I have two monitors, wireless headphones, and a keyboard and mouse. That\u2019s the basic necessity of a developer for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, and an adjustable height desk, which I use for sitting 90% of the time \ud83e\udd2b<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most rewarding part of my job is working on some code for hours and finally getting it to work as intended \ud83d\ude4c<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no better feeling than \u2019 Whoa, nice, it actually works!\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then again, it\u2019s sometimes followed by \u2019darn it, now something else is broken\u2019 \ud83d\ude11 But fortunately, there\u2019s always someone available to help if I\u2019m stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Bondora, I get to work on topics I\u2019ve never worked on before.<\/strong> I had little to no experience in either investing or consumer lending. Still, it\u2019s fascinating to see how it works in the background and how large and complex the system is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, developers are usually given free rein to solve the problems however they see fit, with only a handful of guiding rules to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wrote my first line of code at the beginning of my Bachelor\u2019s degree at the University of Tartu in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of my classmates had already done coding at secondary school or as a hobby, but I had not. I went in completely oblivious. My curiosity about computers and technology in general inspired me to get a degree in Computer Science, but it turns out that software is more interesting than hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026have a vision of what my code needs to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier in my career, I used just to jump in and start coding immediately, which led to rewriting my code several times\ud83d\ude48<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nowadays, I first look at the big picture to understand the expected outcome and find the best way to achieve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout my career of 11+ years, I\u2019ve worked with several programming languages, such as Ruby, Java\/Kotlin, Javascript\/Typescript, and C#.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While all of them are great and serve a purpose in their respective domain, I\u2019d say the one I keep returning to for my projects or a quick script is Ruby \ud83d\udc96<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t do much investing but rather save up for rainy days \u2614<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if I were to begin investing in earnest, I would start from the 3rd pension pillar (in Estonia), which seems like a low-risk and low-maintenance option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\uded1 Don\u2019t click on random links<\/strong> \u2013 even if it\u2019s from a friend or otherwise seemingly trusted source. Always be in doubt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n My hobbies include hiking, photography\/videography, and playing video games \ud83c\udf33\ud83c\udfae<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my free time, I usually watch movies or TV shows with my wife, go on nature trips with our dog, and take a lot of pictures and videos with my phone and mirrorless Nikon camera \ud83d\udcf8<\/p>\n\n\n My current taste in video games is specific: competitive online multiplayer games with a ranking system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve always preferred first-person shooters, but I\u2019ve also dabbled with massively online battle arenas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83c\udfae When I was younger, I also played many single-player adventure games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My top 3 games on Steam by playtime are Apex Legends (660 hours on Steam + 500 hours on Origin), Dota 2 (776 hours), and Counter-Strike: Source (704 hours) \ud83d\ude2e\ud83e\udd29<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83e\udd53Definitely yay \u2013 the crispier, the better<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udcfa The Office<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83c\udfa7 Distractible<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t listen to music during programming because I find it distracting rather than helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was younger, I liked drum & bass, then mostly pop for a long time. But recently I got tired of regular radio music, so I started listening to hard rock and metal \ud83e\udd18<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a 9-year-old domesticated cat named Hellu and a 3-year-old English Springer Spaniel dog named Bella.<\/p>\n\n\n Hellu is a silly rascal and loves to mess with us all the time. In contrast, Bella is super sweet, smart, and the bestest girl. They have a love\/hate relationship where Bella loves Hellu, but not so much the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One time, when Bella was still only a few months old, my wife went on a walk with her in the forest near our house. About 10 minutes later, I got a phone call from her that a bunch of cyclists had come out of nowhere, and Bella got scared, so she ran into the woods and didn\u2019t return when called. I told her I\u2019d be right there to help her look. I had just stepped outside the house to go to the forest too, and who do I see in front of the fence \u2013 Bella, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It turns out she had already learned the route to our house from all the visits to the forest, so she ran back home. We were both relieved that everything went better than expected, and she got a lot of snacks for her smart choice \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n Teleportation, obviously, because free travel! \ud83d\uddfa\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d love to go to Australia and New Zealand, but taking several flights for over 24 hours feels exhausting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, we wouldn\u2019t be able to take our dog with us, which would be a shame as she likes exploring just as much as we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTaavi\u2019s journey at Bondora:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Taavi\u2019s typical workday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s the most rewarding part of your job?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
And what makes being a developer at Bondora awesome?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Best meme that sums up being a developer?<\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/investor.wptest.goandgrow.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/01\/Taavi-meme.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nHow did you find your way into the world of programming? What has the experience been like so far?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I can\u2019t start programming before I \u2026\u2019 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What programming language is your favorite and why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is your best investment advice?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Best cybersecurity\/IT tip?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
And now, let\u2019s get to know Taavi on a personal level!<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
What are some of your hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Like](\"https:\/\/www.goandgrow.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Taavi-dog-1024x684.jpg\")
What are your favorite games to play?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Which game have you clocked the most hours with on Steam?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bacon: yay or nay? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s your favorite TV show\/podcast?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s your favorite kind of music (to listen to while programming)?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You mentioned you have a dog\u2026 tell us more about your pets! \ud83d\ude0d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Hellu](\"https:\/\/investor.wptest.goandgrow.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/01\/Taavi-dog-and-cat-1024x768.jpeg\")
![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/www.goandgrow.eu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Taavi-cat-1024x683.jpg\")
What superpower would you like to have and why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s something that you want to do but scares you?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Thank you for following Taavi on his Bondorian Spotlight journey! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n