Francesco Ronchieri - 2 Marzo, 2020 - 4 ’ read

Being an Imagicle student.

Agile Software Development, Happy People, Imagicle People, Onboarding, R&D

Hi all, my name is Francesco, and I'm a 23-year old student in Computer Science Engineering at the University of Pisa. In this post, I'd like to tell you my experience as a student worker and how the opportunity to find myself in a cutting-edge company in the UC field has revolutionized my prospects and my desire to be immersed in continuous innovation.

A new Agile routine.

The first time I faced up with Imagicle was in November 2018 for my curricular internship.

The meeting was scheduled in one of the Italian offices of the company, the Tuscan one, and so I entered the large open space brightened by large windows for the first time. The first thing I saw was the lettering on the glass running all over the room: It’s always a matter of happy people.

It was the first of a long series of surprises.

Soon after, I started developing a new prototype for the Imagicle Digital Fax mobile app. At the time, I was a third-year student: I didn’t have much work experience yet, but I already had a great desire to succeed in my endeavors.

This first experience immediately allowed me to get in close contact with the R&D team. Since day one, the team has done their utmost to put me at ease, introducing me to the business routines (Stand-up meetings, PBR, Sprint Reviews, etc.) that were completely new to me.

On top of that, I discovered the AGILE approach to software development.

It didn’t take me long to understand how much this framework can increase team productivity (I strongly recommend reading our Agile pt 1 free handbook and other related blog articles)—as well as the test-driven development (TDD), which allow manufacturing excellent and error-free software.

But the great thing about being in an open space of such a composite company is to work side by side (physically or virtually through tools like WebEx Boards or WebEx rooms) with many other departments such as Marketing, Sales, Solution Specialists, Advanced Services, and Support, thus having the opportunity to attend all the phases of development, release, installation, and communication of the product, sharing real-time challenges and successes.

Back to school.

At the end of my internship, I sadly went back to my regular student life, but I made sure to stay in touch with Imagicle until my graduation thesis. I wanted to develop it within the company, and I did it, working on some REST API for Imagicle StoneFax.

Once I graduated (in February 2019), another great news has arrived: I received an offer to work with the company while studying for my Master Course in Computer Engineering.

Well, of course, I accepted!

It’s not every day that you start working in your field of study even before you finish them.

Real life scenarios.

Currently, I’m working full time in the R&D team, where we continuously improve all the products of the Imagicle UCX Suite.

Every day is a challenge that tests the knowledge acquired during the years of University. In fact, although I was so lucky to do a lot of projects during my studies, most of them were short-range or involved limited scenarios.

Here I deal every day with real scenarios applying solutions to real problems, and I like the idea that people find their job simplified thanks to solutions to which I have contributed.

Working at Imagicle it’s been amazing so far (I know I’m young and this can be considered my first work experience, but you don’t have to be an expert to see that something is working well!).

In this short period of years, I had the opportunity to observe growth in terms of staff – lots of new people joined this family since I’m here, I know because I have tested all of them at foosball – and in terms of technological and organizational innovation.

What I have found is a family where everyone has a wealth of knowledge that is not only used to work on solutions, but also to help others to do the same.

Fun included.

I already mentioned the fact that I’m 23, right?

Well, I like fun, of course!

And I must say there is plenty here.

During the breaks, we enjoy playing foosball (jokes included, of course), but there are also people with some music skills who entertain us with good singing performances and musical jam.

When I’m not working, I have to study for the ongoing Master and revision my notes in the library, but I’m really happy to be able to do it.

Studying is really important to me, and even when I’ll finish my Master’s course I hope to continue expanding my knowledge on different topics and keep my mind open and active, always ready to catch new things.

Studying and working hard are prerequisites to gain high qualifications in your academic field, so that both your health and wealth will be generous.

And if everything is made pleasant by a motivating and positive environment, then it will be really worth it.

#stayimagicle