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He wrote his first line of code when he was 8 years old. "A long time ago, in the early '90s. It wasn't normal for people to have computers, not at all in Venezuela, where I'm from. My father was an electronic engineer and so we had a computer at home. I played games on it and did kid things. One day my father gave me a book on a code language called "Basic. I did what the exercises said. It was great to see what happened!" That's how it all started.
We spoke with Roberto Marques, Team lead Development at Treams. Roberto is a Microsoft Certified Developer. He has been working at Treams for almost a year now (2018). He is from Venezuela but has been living in the Netherlands for 2 years. "The Netherlands is a nice country to live in. I lived in Venezuela for 28 years. The weather is beautiful there, we have beautiful beaches, mountains, deserts, jungles, everything you could want. Whatever you want, it's there. But it's not about the land, the beauty or the resources. A country is formed by people and Dutch people are very friendly, helpful and they love each other and what they do. "
Almost a year ago, Roberto met Iris and the rest of the Treams team. It was on a Friday afternoon at Microlab, where Roberto had previously worked. He told me there was an immediate click. "We went to eat a hamburger in town after drinks and had tremendous fun. I was working at another company that didn't have the best working environment for me. I wanted to work in a place where what I do really means something and where my opinions and views are listened to. For example, when you bring in an idea. People will talk about it as if it's a possible option and actually factor it into their decision. That's important to me. People listening to you and appreciating your ideas is what I found in Treams."
Today, almost a year later, Roberto is still Team Lead Development at Treams. His work changes from week to week. "I organize meetings to set up the plans and goals for the next quarter; what things we are going to develop, what features we are going to build into our software and what to look out for next. We work with the Tech team in sprints where we set final timelines for specific tasks. But mostly I also do a lot of software development. Our software is made in .NET, which is a very interesting and complete language. In addition to the web version, I develop the mobile apps in Android and iOS, and that's a big challenge. It's a totally different world that changes a lot. I started in mobile years ago when we had Android 2.1 and iOS 5. Right now iOS 12 is almost coming out, so it's quite a journey. You have to keep up with your knowledge, and I like that. At Treams, you don't have to do the same thing every day with the same tools, which makes it really fun."
One of the characteristics of software developers is that they are always looking for new things. It's not for nothing that developers change jobs so often. According to Roberto, you don't get bored easily at Treams. "I don't think I've ever been bored here. Actually, that's weird. I've worked in different companies completely different from Treams. I always see people get bored at some point, and that's something I've never noticed at Treams. At most companies, there is one person telling you what to do. I think boredom comes from not liking what you do or not liking what you are told to do. At Treams, we are not assigned tasks. We come up with the ideas together as a group and implement it. You won't get bored easily by your own ideas. At Treams we also have a nice work environment, driven colleagues, the opportunity to grow, we celebrate achievements and continuously ask for feedback from each other. We have a good balance between working really hard and creating new ideas. We plan well what everything will look like, have scrum meetings and then build and test it. But we also have weeks where we just sit down and think of new things and new features. For example, we have the pressure-cooker weeks where we lock ourselves away for a week. At the end of that week there are a hundred ideas, we narrow them down to one or two and then we work on those right away."
Teamwork is one of the most important things at Treams. "We collaborate with all other people and departments within the organization. Collaborating with the design team or the sales team, for example, makes the work more efficient. The end result is always better when you work together. Since I have been working here, we have released several new features for our web version. We also re-released the entire mobile app. That was quite a challenge, but by working together we get there. How the design should look, the usability, the user experience, it all has to be top notch. Our customers are very happy with it and that's what you work for. There's nothing better than a satisfied customer."
When I asked Roberto to describe working at Treams in one word, his answer was immediate: fun! "Working at Treams is so much fun! We have nerf guns in the office, we have our own internal jokes, we do what we want to do and we have fun while doing it. If we want to go to the Efteling to celebrate our accomplishments, we go to the Efteling. And if we want to go on a picnic because we have a lot of new customers, we do a picnic. It's our company and everyone is welcome. It's a lot of fun to be a part of that!"
"Hopefully in five years I'll still be at Treams. I really enjoy being here and really like what I do. Our team is growing fast, we always have open positions for developers to join the development team. People who enjoy learning new things, and enjoy learning how our software is built. We are looking for people who want to have fun and also bring their ideas to the table and make them happen. What I do for them? I want to teach them to do things in a different way to improve themselves. I want to be a good leader for them. So everyone: come work for Treams! We have peanut butter, free beer and greasy Friday . What more could a developer want?"
"People that listen to you and appreciate your ideas, that's what I found in Treams."
He wrote his first line of code when he was 8 years old. "It was another time, the beginning of the 90's. Having a computer was something weird but my dad was an electronic engineer and he had a computer at home. I used to play games on it and do kids-things. One day my father gave me a book about a language called 'Basic'. Basically what I did was copying the things that were in the exercises and put them on my computer. Running that was great!" That's how it all started.
We talked to Roberto Marques, Development Team Lead at Treams. Roberto is a Microsoft Certified Developer who has been working at Treams for almost a year . He's from Venezuela but has been living in The Netherlands for 2 years now. "The Netherlands is a good country to be in. I lived in Venezuela for 28 years. We have great weather, beautiful beaches, mountains, deserts, jungles, everything you can wish for. Whatever you want, it's there. But a country is not a piece of land, it's not resources. A country is formed by people and Dutch people are really friendly, helpful and they like each other and what they do a lot."
Almost one year ago Roberto met with Iris and the rest of the Treams team. It was on a Friday afternoon at Microlab, where Roberto also worked. He told me that there was a click immediately. "We went for a burger downtown and had a lot of fun together. I was working at another company which did not have the best working environment. I wanted to work in a place where what I do really means something. And where my opinion and points of view are taken into account. If you tell an idea and people will check it and talk about it like it's a possible option and then take a decision based on it, that's important for me. People that listen to you and appreciate your ideas, that's what I found in Treams." A new Treams team member was born.
Today, almost one year later, Roberto is still Lead Software Developer at Treams. His work changes a lot from week to week. "I organize meetings to set up the roadmap for the next quarter; what things we are going to develop, what features we're going to build and what things we need to pay attention to. We also have team meetings with the Tech team to set up definite timelines on specific tasks. But there is also a lot of software development. Our software is made in .NET, which is a really interesting and complete language. I also do the mobile apps in Android and iOS, and that's a big challenge. It's a totally different world that is changing a lot. I started in mobile years ago when we had Android 2.1 and iOS 5. At this point iOS 12 is almost coming, so it's quite a journey. You have to keep up, and I like that. At Treams you don't have to do the same thing everyday with the same tools."
One of the characteristics of software developers is that they are always looking for new things. It is not without reason that software developers change jobs so often. According to Roberto, you don't get bored easily at Treams. "I think I've never been bored here. Actually that's weird. I worked in several companies, totally different from Treams. I always see people get bored at some point and that's something I never heard at Treams. At most of the companies there is one person that tells you what you need to do. I think being bored comes from not liking what you're doing or not liking what you're told to do. But that's the thing, we don't get told what to do. We come up with the ideas as a group and you will never get bored of your own ideas. At Treams we also have a very nice working environment, driven colleagues, the opportunity to grow, we celebrate achievements and give feedback to each other. We also have a good balance between working very hard and creating new ideas. We plan properly how everything is going to look like, have scrum meetings and after that we build it and test it. But we also have weeks when we just sit down and come up with new things and new features. For example we have the pressure cooker weeks where we lock ourselves up for a week and at the end we come up with a lot of great ideas and work it out immediately."
Teamwork is one of the most important things at Treams. "We work together with other people in the organization. Everyone has a very good impact on each other. Working together with, for example, the design team or the sales team makes work more efficient. The end-result is always better when you work together. Since I work here we released a few new modules for web and we did the whole new mobile app. That's quite a challenge, but we got such a good input from everyone. How the design should look like, the usability, the user experience. Our customers are very happy with it and that's where you work for. There's nothing better than a happy customer. They are really happy with how we do things and which decisions we make. But that comes from everyone in the company."
When I asked Roberto to describe working at Treams in one word, his answer was immediately: Fun! "Working at Treams is so much fun! We have nerf-guns in the office, we have our own internal jokes, we do what we want to do and we have fun while doing it. If we want to go to the Efteling to celebrate our achievements, we go to the Efteling. And if we want to go do a picnic because we have a lot of new clients, we do a picnic. It's our company and everyone is welcome. It's very nice to be part of that!"
"Hopefully I'm still at Treams in 5 years. I really enjoy being here and I really like what I do. Our team is growing, we're always looking for software developers that can join the development team. People that like to learn new things, and like to learn how our software is built and understand the reasons why it's built. We are looking for people that want to have fun and also want to bring their ideas to the table and see them grow. What I want to do? I want to teach them to do things in a different way to improve themselves. I want to be a good leader for them. So everyone: come work for Treams! We have peanut butter, free beer and Greasy Friday. What else can a developer ask for?"
