A day in the life of Level Level – Feeding butterflAPI’s with Menno.

Of course, we would love to see this tile for sale at Xenos, but you can’t have it all. A job with us, on the other hand, you can! What is life like at Level Level? In more serious language: what is it like to work at Level Level?

To find this out, this week I’m interviewing Menno, one of our back-end developer beasts! 🐗

Hi Menno! How are you doing today? What are you up to?

I’m doing good. I’m on a roll! 🙂

I am finishing up one of our bigger projects today. There are a few functionalities that still have to be added. For example, an extra block needs to be created within the Gutenberg Editor. This block must be able to be filled by the customer’s software so that the customer can automatically keep all systems up-to-date in terms of content. There are also a number of bugs to solve, including that something is going wrong when changing the language of the site. As a result, somebody could end up on a 404 error page. We wouldn’t want that, would we?

What’s so great about being a back-end developer at Level Level?

I have been working at Level Level for a year and a half now. Working together with various colleagues with different qualities is one of the things I think is great. I came from a smaller company with only a few developers, where I had a lot less contact with my colleagues. Now that I work at Level Level, I notice that that contact with colleagues really makes my day a lot more fun!

It is also nice that your ambitions and wishes are taken seriously. For example, I have indicated that I like to work on API connections. Some time later we were allowed to work for Nature Today, for whom we made a web app. We retrieve all the data of animal species, plants, ticks and more from many different sources, via APIs. And now I am working on a specific project, because I had indicated that I wanted to build a database migration.

Another thing that makes me very happy: we are working with consistent code. This means that we have our own code standard, to which all developers working on that project must adhere. We also have automatic tests for this, so that we can be sure that the code is consistent and contains no errors. During a PR review, these tests are carried out and it should not be merged until all tests are passed.

And a part that should not be overlooked is that you are provided with all the equipment you need. You get your own laptop, mouse and keyboard, there are extra screens everywhere in the office and you can use a test phone when you want to test something on a phone in several browsers.

“At Level Level you’re not just a back-end developer. You are way more than that!”, you said last week. Tell us about that!

Yes, that’s right! Of course, back-end development is your main task, but sometimes you also do some other things. I am currently working on a Gutenberg block for example. Essentially that’s a front-end task, but in this case, a lot of work was already done anyway. And yes, then I might as well finish this task myself!

Apart from development, there are plenty of other tasks you can take care of as a developer. For example, when an article is written for our website, I can always give feedback on it. Or when a designer has made something that I think could be done better, I can think along and suggest an alternative. This way, you are aware of what other disciplines within the company are doing and you can contribute to this yourself.

In addition, if you have a hobby, you also get the opportunity to incorporate that into your work. Last year, for example, we went to WordCamp Europe. Everyone was allowed to carry out a task. I edited a video a number of times and that’s why I was allowed to edit the aftermovie we made.

Which case really stood out for you up until now? And why?

Then I have no choice but to go for the web app of Nature Today! That was the project in which I could really go wild with making API connections. The way in which we process the enormous amounts of data we receive is what I am most proud of. Within the project, we set a super-fine standard, so that building an extra connection is no longer a problem at all.

This also was a special project, because this was the first project for me in which we held development sessions together with the client. We sat down with everyone working on the project, including the client, and worked on the project full throttle. This gave us direct feedback from the client and allowed us to work together with design, front-end and back-end very quickly.

What would you say to someone who wants to apply as a back-end developer at Level Level?

Just this: “Do it! It has given me a lot of knowledge and pleasure in my work and I expect it will be the same for you!”.