Life at Sports Tracker – Android developer Steven

During three months we will be bringing you stories of Sports Tracker employees. They are the ones building the products you love from scratch, putting countless hours into them and overcoming challenges just to deliver great user experience and make your life easier.

Last time we brought you an interview with Juan from Technical Operations team.

This time we talked with Steven Zhu, Android Developer at Sports Tracker.

Please tell us your story. Who is Steven and what does he enjoy doing aside from his daily job?

I’m originally from China but I’ve spent last 8 years in Finland. First I was studying in Tampere and working for Nokia. After moving to Espoo I started working at Rovio and now I’m here at Sports Tracker.

In my free time I’m a casual runner and enjoy hiking, mostly in Nuuksio national park, especially around this time of the year.

 

 

What do you do at Sports Tracker and how does your day usually look like?

I’m an Android developer at Sports Tracker which means I’m covering a big amount of interesting tasks.  

Aside from making sure we always have a neat code and no bugs, together with my team we decide on our big plans and next steps and review designs and codes.

There is always one big goal divided into smaller steps and their proper execution is what my day is made of.

What is something that really motivates you to get up every morning and do your job?

Our Sports Tracker team is really great. People are very open even when they disagree and we always have some interesting discussions going on and come up with solutions together.

Our manager puts a lot of trust in us and is very understanding. For me that’s a really great environment to work and grow in.

What kind of technologies are you working with?

I’m mainly working with Android (surprise, surprise!), Google Services and lots of different 3rd party libraries.

What is your favorite thing about your job and working here?

I’m really happy we have a product already released and being used by millions of consumers. Being part of something so useful for end users is really motivating. Yes, we have lots of challenges, especially on the Android side. There are a lot of different screen sizes so we have to be extra careful during testing phase, especially on UI and hardware side. This all makes us grow, learn and develop a better product.

If you were to recommend working here to your friend, what would you say?

Our team is consisted of really nice people who understand and respect each other’s opinion. We also have a very good work-life balance. We’re all using Sports Tracker application on a daily basis and since all of us know the product inside-out, people are passionate to make it even better.

What kind of people do you enjoy working with?

People who I’m working with at the moment are the kind of people I like to work with- respectable, very open to different viewpoints, okay with disagreements and always willing to learn new things.

We would like to encourage people to fail and try better next time and also to prove we’re all humans who make mistakes and learn from them. Therefore, what’s your biggest mistake so far?

Of course, during my time here I’ve contributed to some weird code here and there which resulted in bugs. Luckily, everyone at Sports Tracker uses the app so frequently that they also find issues really fast. In our team mistakes are okay, managers understand and expect people to make mistakes but that’s part of the learning process, especially when working in a fast-paced environment.  

Do you have some questions for our employees or something you would like to know about Sports Tracker? Let us know!

We’re currently looking for a Senior Android Developer, so if you feel inspired by Steven’s story, check this out.