You might have noticed that we have a lot of developers on our team at Hangar57. A huge part of our company is IT based, so we need a ton of technical experts on board to help us develop new features and maintain our system. We sat down with Catherine Ojok, a .NET Developer at Retail inMotion, to learn more about what it’s like to work on our IT team.
A lot of people only have a basic understanding of what .NET developers do. What does a typical work day look like for a .NET developer at Retail inMotion?
Catherine: That’s a difficult question to answer. A typical day for a developer can be completely different depending on which project they’re working on and which role they play within that project. Personally, I am currently working on implementing the vPay test suite. vPay is an element of our Vector suite that handles millions of dollars’ worth of onboard payments each year. My job is to make sure that the code that our team writes is working correctly. So, for me, a normal day involves starting with a team meeting to touch base and align with the rest of the team. Then for the rest of the day, I work at the computer implementing test scenarios in Visual Studio.
Technically speaking, how do you do this? You go line by line? Or test the system?
Catherine: I test behaviors by using a software tool called Specflow, which uses the Gherkin language to define scenarios in a human readable way. These scenarios are then translated into C# code using NUnit as the testing framework. Then, I implement the different scenario steps by writing C# code to set up each scenario, test it and make some assertions about the results. These tests are run by all the developers each time they commit their code to ensure code quality and to prevent regression errors.
Wow. That sounds complex! It seems like a lot of your time is spent working on the computer. If you’ve been to Hangar57, you can see that we have a really strong, vibrant culture. How does this work together? Can you really enjoy your time if you’re always working on test scenarios?
Catherine: The culture is mostly left to the time when you are not on the computer, but that’s just like most jobs these days. I will say that with my job, it helps to work in a friendly environment where you can just ask anyone a question at any time, even if they are on the computer.
The Hangar57 office is also funky and a nice environment that enables me to relax and enjoy my work. Lunch is provided at work and we have a communal lunch room where everyone eats together. It’s a great place to get to know our colleagues better.
I like that Retail inMotion treats us like people, not numbers, and does a lot to make us happy, for example, helping with settling in Ireland, Easter egg presents, free pick ‘n’ mix, and HR listening to our feedback. I also have the chance to take breaks throughout the day to allow me to continue breastfeeding my 9-month-old daughter.
In one or two sentences, what makes you passionate about your job? What attracted you to become a .NET Developer?
Catherine: I like to solve problems using logic, creativity, and best practices. I love it when a solution comes together, and more so when it solves a problem that somebody else has.
Catherine Ojok has worked as a .NET Developer at Retail inMotion since February 2017. At the moment, she’s working on a project with our vPay solution. She spends her days working on the back end of our software suite to make sure that it always works correctly for our customers and their passengers. vPay correctly processes millions of dollars’ worth of purchases each year – in no small part, thanks to Catherine and our vPay Developers.
