Juan Delgado is a Software Engineer at Wizeline. He has a passion for coding and has been with Wizeline, working with the team in Colombia, for two years. In this interview, he shares his story about growing up in his childhood immersed in technology and how his love for video games, math, and computers, paved his way to opportunities leading to Wizeline.

Although he grew up around technology, his first semester put him to the test when his studies centered around writing code in C++. Juan found that learning about memory allocation and pointers didn’t come easily. Luckily, for him and Wizeline, in his second semester, he fell in love with working with Java. “My passion grew so much during that time, and I knew that coding was what I wanted to do for life.”

Juan’s first job was with Mayasoft, a company located in his hometown, “I owe them so much because they believed in me when I was still at university. I interned with them, and they offered me to stay.” During his time with Mayasoft, Juan recalled learning about client/server architecture, swing for UI, Oracle, hibernate, and vaadin, among other technologies, while assigned to a complex aviation project.

Although he cherished the experience he gained there, Juan didn’t want to be pigeonholed into the type of work he was doing for the company. Therefore he decided to continue his studies. Juan relocated to Melbourne, Australia, to obtain a master’s degree in Information Technology at RMIT, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Juan landed his first IT job while studying for his master’s degree. It was a company owned by a Colombian entrepreneur living in Melbourne. While there, Juan had the opportunity to build a hybrid mobile app using Xamarin. Upon graduation, he was hired by a company called Shine Solutions.

“Shine Solutions shaped who I am today as an engineer and a person,” Juan said fondly. He was a consultant and worked for the most popular loyalty program with 8+ million members at the time, called flybys, powered by Coles. He also did work for one of the most prestigious banks in Australia, NAB, the National Australia Bank.

“I had the opportunity to work with some of the best engineers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working alongside.” He stated that their knowledge, problem-solving capabilities, and attitude toward teaching others were incredible. However, after two years of working there, Juan felt homesick and took his talents back to Colombia, where he was hired by Prodigious LATAM, a Publicis Groupe agency. 

His time there included working on projects with big-name clients such as McDonald’s, Carnival Cruises, and Nissan. After hearing about his journey until that point, I was even more curious to hear how he made his way to Wizeline. It turns out we have another Wizeliner to thank for getting Wizeline on Juan’s radar.

During the pandemic, a close friend from his time in school, a person Juan believes was the first remote employee in Colombia for Wizeline, informed him about the company’s need for senior java developers. Upon research, Juan was immediately attracted by the benefits, the career opportunities, Wizeline Academy, and the all-around culture at Wizeline. “After almost two years here, I do not regret accepting the offer to work here,” he stated firmly.

For Juan, his time at Wizeline has been all-around rewarding. For him, Wizeline stands out for its willingness to encourage employees to keep learning. Juan is a product of Wizeline Academy, having trained in communication, leadership, mentorship, and small community groups. “I’m currently on a path to become an AWS Associate Developer, with courses paid for by Wizeline,” he openly shared.

Juan knows that meeting his goals requires staying up to date with technologies and frameworks, which can be challenging from time to time. His motto is to keep studying, reading, and learning non-stop. “As we would say in our country, “antes de que nos deje el bus,” sort of like “before the bus leaves us.”

He wasn’t short on advice for Wizeliners interested in growing their careers either; however, he believes that growth is subjective depending on the person. If you are someone who aligns growth with promotions and a bigger salary, Juan believes going through the Wizeline career ladders, getting trained, and showcasing your wins is the right move. 

Regarding engineers, specifically those who want to be outstanding at what they do, it’s about going above and beyond in everything you do while making the most of all the training Wizeline offers. Especially through the academy, he emphasized. “We have almost unlimited access on Udemy and LinkedIn Learning, as well as certifications and mentorship programs.”  

As for what’s next in his career journey, which comes as no surprise after learning about who he is and how he makes his decisions, Juan knows what he does and does not see for himself precisely. “Project management or getting into a role where there is more management than coding, that’s not for me.  But, after going through a few technologies in the coding space, I have two goals set for myself in the near future. I’ve already set myself as a unit testing go-to person, and I would love to become proficient in cloud technologies. Perhaps I will start getting into the blockchain development world.”