Our bootcamps rely on more than just amazing mentors, up-to-date educational material, and expert code review to help students graduate as job-ready developers. They also need a stable online learning platform, a responsive and functioning website, and reliable internal systems. Our development team is a crucial part of what makes our affordable bootcamps so accessible – and the latest member to join this critical team is Mitso Qalaba.
Mitso is a talented Front-end Web Developer with nearly a decade in professional web development. Tasked with keeping our website looking and working great, turning designs, copy, and wireframes into working sites, and making consistent improvements to our student portal, Mitso has her hands full in making sure our websites are visually appealing, easy to use and load optimally.. This is a critical part of our mission to close the growing global tech skills gap.
We asked her some questions about what it’s like to work at HyperionDev, what her roles and responsibilities are, and how she got to this point in her professional career.
What do you enjoy most about being a HyperionDev employee?
I love working in a small, young collaborative and reliable team of engineers that are flexible to pick frequently changing tasks and quick to jump to resolving bugs. What’s more, Hyperiondev is a diverse and inclusive company, whose leadership comprises many people across the gender and race spectrum. It’s a truly optimistic outlook in the SA tech space in general. I also think HyperionDev is a great place to be because it’s constantly growing. It has a great product that is helping to solve an enormous burden in the country’s skills shortage, The company continually reevaluates itself, and isn’t afraid to change and adopt new ways of working based on the changing business and education landscape.
What’s the heart and soul of your role at HyperionDev?
The core of my role is front end engineering builds and maintaining our software features for the different business projects such as the hyperiondev.com website, the student dashboard, and so on. I work with HTML, django templates and views, Sass and Javascript. Applying a component base approach on the frontend using BEM, SMACSS methodology as well as introducing javascript framework such as node, webpack and Next.js to our technology stack. For example, I maintain our main HyperionDev bootcamp offerings website components, collaborate with the designer to translate visual design to code from Figma and update the various pages with new information or page layouts, create new web pages for campaigns (like our yearly Black Friday specials), and much more. Finally, I assist with the integration of third-party platforms like Intercom and Sendgrid into our platform as well as website optimisations. Of course, all of this comes with the typical version control (we use gitlab), hosting (ssh to a server and deploying the codebase), performance (we use Chrome Lighthouse, Google Analytics, pagespeed insights) and testing processes on Sentry, checking AWS instances and uptime robot status, and the other usual tasks that every developer is familiar with.
What motivates you to come in or log on in the mornings?
Being able to lead and finish off campaigns, and working in a collaborative environment with smart and hard-working stakeholders from almost every team at HyperionDev. I also love our missions of giving people an alternative way to study, up skill and become job-ready developers.
Tell us a bit about your professional development as a HyperionDev employee.
Being at HyperionDev is itself a continuous learning and development experience. I’ve only just scratched the surface of the product components we use, and there are so many moving parts that I discover new software components and new challenges to solve almost every day.
How do you ensure that you keep yourself upskilled & knowledgeable in your field of expertise?
Practice and self-driven learning. I read technology news in the industry from platforms such as Smashing magazine, JS Weekly, CSS Weekly, and various industry blogs I follow, and I pick up new techniques and insights from the learning material I receive on community-based Slack groups, like ZATech. I also keep myself busy with mini projects during weekends and holidays.
Which of HyperionDev’s 4 core values resonates with you most & why
People First! Ideas come organically with people; and solutions, ideas, and hard work come organically when people are able to speak, are listened to, treated well, included, and valued.
What’s a fond memory you have of working at the company?
When Gary and the engineering team threw a surprise birthday party! They all put up cool celebration props at our big team meeting, and this happened just as I had started working here. It was an amazing gesture. I also have countless fond memories of working with the various departments and outside team members on projects over the last few months. It’s been such a pleasure to work with them all. Also, meeting new people and forming new acquaintances – it’s been a pleasure to do so.
How is HyperionDev different from other places you’ve worked?
HyperionDev’s inclusivity and diversity give it an advantage in forming strong teams. The other thing is that HyperionDev cares. It doesn’t just want to close the skills tech gap; it cares a lot about getting more people studying and learning code. It’s also exciting that HyperionDev chases so many different avenues to fund students to enrol with us, for example our partnership with entrepreneur and DJ Black Coffee to create a scholarship fund and spread the word about coding to SA youth.
What makes you feel PROUD to work for HyperionDev?
Hyperiondev works with students with little to no tech skills. This is a hard thing to do and being successful at doing so is an incredible accomplishment. It makes me proud to know that this is something the company is able to do on a daily basis.
At HyperionDev, we’re always looking for talented professionals to join our team. Whether you’re a specialist in project management, a gifted developer, or someone who can code and is passionate about tech education, there’s a place for you in our diverse and international team. As a HyperionDev employee, you’ll enjoy more than just fulfilling and challenging work with a fast-growing, internationally scaling start-up – we provide medical insurance, extensive remote working allowances, a generous leave policy, and real avenues for career growth, experimentation, and promotion.
Do you think you could be our next star HyperionDev employee? Visit our career page to see all our available positions and apply to join our team today!
