Last month, we kicked off a new blog series to share stories from our team about their career path, a typical day, their favorite Rocket memory, and any interesting hobbies or side projects they have in the works. We hope you enjoyed learning more about Kat and Brian.
And now, on to this month's featured employees.
First up is Jake Rainis, Principal Software Engineer.
When did you join Rocket?
I joined in April 2019.
What is your career origin story?
Throughout all of my early education, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I "grew up". All I really knew is that I didn't want it to involve wearing a suit and tie for 40+ hours a week. There's certainly nothing wrong with those sorts of careers — they just weren't for me. When I was in high-school, I really enjoyed art classes and I ended up taking every single one the curriculum had to offer. During these years, my art teacher encouraged me to explore graphic design as a potential career option. So for my senior project, I taught myself Flash and compiled all my artwork into an online portfolio. Coincidentally, I also really enjoyed writing code during that time even though I had very little awareness of how much it would play into my future.
I attended college and majored in graphic design. I interned for an awesome boutique firm in Boston that specialized in both print and web design. I learned so much in these couple years, but inevitably became a little discouraged. Seeing the work other designers on the team were outputting was making me realize I simply wasn't that good at design! While I had a good attention to detail, I just couldn't design at the same speed or caliber. In addition to designing, I was given the opportunity to code and make website updates for our clients. It was at this point I really started feeling more "at home" in a code-editor than I did in Photoshop (we didn't have Figma back then!).
Once I made the decision to pursue development exclusively, I took another job as a web developer specializing in front-end development for experiential JS projects and enterprise CMS builds. That was nearly 8 years ago and much has happened since. But overall, I've been fortunate enough to work alongside some amazing team members from all sorts of disciplines, build rapports with a variety of clients in different industries, and write code for some of the best and most difficult projects ever (it's a mix of both that makes you stronger!).
Two years ago, I joined Rocket Insights because I had never worked in the software realm. Quite honestly, I had no idea what to expect — or if I was even cut out for the job. Ironically, it's been the best career decision I've made yet. It's amazing to work with such an incredible and diverse group. And I love being able to work directly with our clients and their teams too. Agency life has been the best mix of working in product while still experiencing the project variety that you'd find in agency-life. The biggest difference being that when I work with a client at Rocket, I truly feel like part of their team, not some far-removed vendor.
What does a typical day look like?
Oooh! A tough question to answer since no two days are the same here at Rocket, and that's one of the aspects I love about my role. This whole Covid thing has made obligatory WFH life a little bit difficult, but I still feel connected to my teammates, even though they're all over the world. Zoom is just a way of life (at least for now).
My days normally start at a reasonable time. One of the first orders of business (after coffee, of course) is to check my Github notifications. Sometimes, team members in different timezones have pull requests sitting in the queue, so I do my best to unblock them in a timely manner. I can generally expect a routine standup meeting in the first half of the day where our project team catches up. If I'm a technical lead, I tend to spend the majority of my mornings ensuring no progress is being hindered and that sprint work is moving along as predictably as possible. Given the nature of timezones, a lot of our other meetings happen in the first half of the day as well. So in general, my priority is to be present and facilitate all the communication that needs to take place.
The afternoons tend to be quieter, so after lunch is when I like to get into "the zone" and focus on the code. I've found that the more time I spend eliminating potential distractions earlier in the day, the more I can get done in a short and uninterrupted timeframe.
But that's just an example of my most recent project. The project I'm working on now is completely different. I'm doing an architecture sprint (my first one!) and it's been a whole different ballgame. The goal of an architecture sprint is to work directly with the client and their organization to understand the technical feat they need to overcome, with the ultimate goal being a deliverable blueprint/roadmap for how they get there. This involves interviewing members of their technical team and researching infrastructural solutions, libraries, and other tooling. It's been a very organic engagement and I'm loving it.
What is your favorite thing about Rocket and/or your favorite Rocket memory?
My favorite thing about Rocket is that I'm truly treated like an adult. Rocket empowers our team members to build a relationship of trust and communication with our clients and other team members. This enables everyone to move fast and do their best work without being bogged down by the logistical bureaucracy that many client <> vendor relationships often suffer from. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? I thought so too until I experienced it first hand.
Do you have any side projects / side hustles or hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time?
I'm a serial hobbyist and love to keep busy when I'm not writing code. My biggest hobby and side hustle is calligraphy. I've been writing for about 10 years, giving lessons, offer learning materials, and selling digital products through my site.
Most importantly, what is your favorite GIF?
Next up is Keegan Sands, Principal Engineer.
When did you join Rocket?
I joined in June 2019.
What is your career origin story?
I started my career as a mutual fund accountant at State Street and I ended up automating my job using Excel and Visual Basic for Applications. They moved me to a more technical position where I helped automate other accounting tasks for the group and that is what kicked off my software development career.
What does a typical day look like?
My homebound pandemic work day always starts the same way. I make an espresso, do a walk around the neighborhood, shower and then open up the shutters in my "office".
At my desk I start everyday by beginning my Harvest timer and then reviewing what I did the previous day and planning out a list of things I have to do in the current day. As a lead developer it is rare for me to just work on a single coding task for a day, so creating a list of all the various tasks and meetings really helps me stay focused. The to do list also helps me see all of the little things I end up doing over the course of the day.
Next up is getting up to speed on any messages I might have missed after logging off the night before and then I will try to update my local environment with all the latest code. My current client has all of the sprint ceremony meetings in the mornings so usually the next thing is some squad meeting to talk about what we are working on. Once in a while an extra meeting or conversation will follow this meeting where a few of us will hop on a call to work out an issue. The rest of the morning is usually wide open and I can get to work on my to do list.
At 12:30 I will go downstairs, make some lunch and hopefully eat it outside in the sun.
A couple days a week the development team meets with the architect on the project and it is a great time to ask questions about best practices and any technical issues. I think this is one of my favorite parts of my day, even if it sometimes just involves watching somebody troubleshoot a technical issue over Zoom.
The rest of the day is hopefully spent finishing up the to do list and also reviewing pull requests from other developers. Sprinkled throughout the day are always impromptu conversations with other people on the team as we run into issues or questions. In some cases a text chat will do the trick, but it is usually just faster to hop on a quick video call as we try to work through the problem.
I usually end my day by reviewing my to do list and moving things into the future if I didn't complete them and also adding any new items that I want to remember to work on the next day. The day is then over and I stop my harvest timer, lock my computer and close the shutters in my "office".
What is your favorite thing about Rocket and/or your favorite Rocket memory?
My favorite thing about Rocket is the banter and shenanigans that occur in the office.
Do you have any side projects / side hustles or hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time?
I fly drones. I also listen to way too many Apple-focused podcasts. I love hearing all the speculation about upcoming products and trying to piece together why they have introduced or change certain things. I also like that some of these podcasters are very critical of Apple, which I think a lot of people might not expect. They do love the products, but they are also the first people to continuously pile on when they see something they don't like.
