Nicolás started 5 years ago as a QA at Velocity Partners, a company that joined forces with Endava in 2018. In pursuit of integrating his creative side in his work, he majored in user experience design, and he is now leading the UX/UI community in Buenos Aires. Continue reading his story and find out how being driven and investing in what you love can lead to your dream job.

How did you start in Endava?

My journey started five years ago at Velocity Partners before the company joined forces with Endava.
I've begun as a QA on finance projects, but over time I got involved in projects more related to UX/UI. This allowed me to use my creative side more and to become the "bridge" between designers and programmers in my team, making sure that the designers’ requirements and changes are understood.

Tell us about your studies and how does that relate to what you are doing today.

I've majored in Psychology at the University of Buenos Aires and, among the many sub-areas of this career, my favourite ones were criminology and the people's interaction with technology. So all the optional assignments were related to Social Media, Artificial Intelligence and Informatics. That's how I started to focus on the interaction we humans have with computers.

Drawing has always been part of my life, which is why, while I was studying psychology, I also collaborated ad-honorem for an art-therapy workshop at the Borda mental hospital in Buenos Aires, using art as a medium for psychosis stabilization. After I've finished my studies, I worked at a rehab clinic for addicts, struggling with severe cases: people who were a danger to themselves or others. There I organized several art and drawing workshops, helping patients to put in sketches what was going on inside them.

Over time, I realized that I like art and technology much more than anticipated, and I decided to reshape my career. I started taking web design and programming courses, and I studied system analysis. In college, one colleague referred me to work in a software development company, and that's how my career in this field started.

My first job was as a C# trainee programmer, and I ended up moving to QA. I've always been very meticulous and attentive to detail, so finding mistakes on a system was very interesting for me. But I felt that, as I was growing as a QA, my creative side was not sufficiently challenged.

To compensate that, I decided to start classes at the Escuela Argentina de Historietas (Argentinian School of Comics). I studied narrative, background design, characters design for videogames, digital colour, and I discovered that if I learned more about UX/UI, I was going to be able to join everything I love: technology, design and human behaviour. So, I also majored in UX/UI design.

Today I work in Endava as a Product Designer by day, and by night I draw comic book pages and videogame characters. This way, I don't have to leave anything that I like out, and I apply my passion for technology, design and human behaviour every day at work.

Tell us more about yourself outside of work.

I'm an avid reader. I could end up sleeping only four hours a day because I spend half of the night reading. Books, tutorials, papers, you name it. If it's about psychology, comics, design or technology, it's so much better.

I'm a proud dad. I have an amazing three-year-old kid with whom I have a great connection. We spend a significant amount of time together, and I like to spark his creativity through the games we play. He is a super smart kid.

At the same time, I'm a UX/UI mentor in Acámica (IT institute from Buenos Aires), where I'm in constant research for new trends in technology and design, to be aware of the trends. And I still enjoy creating and drawing characters.

You said you were an avid reader. Can you share with us any book that had an important impact on how did your career developed?

I'd say that the book that impacted me the most, that's related to technology, is "Ready: Player one", by Ernest Cline. It's a science-fiction novel that was published in 2011. I thought it was cool because it combines several areas that I like. It's about a programmer who grows up during the 80s and develops his virtual social network. He gets obsessive creating his software and leaves inside the code different secrets, known in our profession as "easter eggs". When he dies, he leaves a message inviting all his followers to find those easter eggs. Whoever does it, will get all his fortune and his company. I loved it because it has a lot to do with the work of a QA, and the whole story has a lot of references to movies, books and characters from the 80s. I've read this book at the beginning of my QA career, and it got me really excited. This got me intrigued by Virtual Reality and made me study about UX/UI for VR too.

What is your main motivation to be part of Endava today?

First of all, the working environment. I felt very comfortable to be part of Endava from day 1. I've been through several personal situations, and Endava was always very supportive because they care a lot about people. I felt like no matter the personal issues I went through the past few years, I was heard and trusted because I worked hard and well. Things like that, you rarely find in any other company.
I also enjoy the company of my awesome  coworkers.

Another reason I'm still here is that I can develop my career according to my professional goals. There's no competition among colleagues or bosses that prevent you from growing as a professional. Endava wants to generate leaders, pull people out from their comfort zone and make the most of everyone's potential. You can propose different activities and initiatives, and they give you the proper space to develop.

What are your expectations for the UX/UI area as the Community Lead for Buenos Aires?

Over the last year, we worked hard on bringing the community to our location. The mere fact of having it attracted a great deal of attention from my colleagues, who wanted to be part of it, get involved and learn more about the subject.

My wish is to see this community growing, to have more designers, programmers, frontenders and QAs join us. There's more demand every day for this kind of profiles. I am becoming a referent of this area, people emailing me to consult about this, so I see that the need for growth is a fact.

The UX/UI community needs to be a consultation area before every project starts, so we can help ensure everything we do is user-friendly and give our clients more added value every time. And more than a community, I would like UX/UI to be a discipline.

What advice would you give yourself if you were starting work at Endava today?

You should never leave your passions aside, even if you believe it has nothing to do with your career. If you connect the dots, you can get to the point where everything you love will relate somehow. Today I can say that I am one of the lucky ones, and I managed to succeed in my quest of bringing everything that I'm passioned about together.