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SheCanCode's Spilling The T
SheCanCode's Spilling The T
Behind the Blooms: Catalina's Journey as a Senior iOS Engineer at Bloom & Wild
In this episode, we delve into the fascinating world of app development with Catalina Ionela, Senior iOS Engineer at Bloom and Wild.
Catalina shares her journey from budding coder to leading the iOS engineering team. We explore the unique challenges and rewards of developing mobile applications for a company like Bloom and Wild, where creativity meets cutting-edge technology.
From cultivating user experiences to navigating the ever-changing landscape of iOS development, Catalina offers invaluable insights and behind-the-scenes stories that shed light on her role in bringing the Bloom and Wild experience to life on your smartphone.
SheCanCode is a collaborative community of women in tech working together to tackle the tech gender gap.
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Hello everyone. Thank you for tuning in Again. I am Kayleigh Batesman, the Content Director at she Can Code, and today we are discussing Behind the Blooms, catalina's journey as a Senior IOS Engineer at Bloomin' Wild. In this episode, we'll delve into the fascinating world of app development with Catalina Yonella Opera Cornett-Jones, senior IOS Engineer at Bloomin' Wild. From cultivating user experiences to navigating the ever-changing landscape of IOS development, Catalina is here to share her invaluable insights and behind-the-scenes stories that shed light on her role in bringing the Bloom and Wild experience to life on your smartphone. Welcome, catalina. Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:It's a pleasure to have you on. We haven't had this on the podcast yet and I know a lot of our ladies are going to be so interested in what your day-to-day life is like at Blooming Wild, so we're going to set the scene a little bit to start. If that's okay, Can we hear a little bit about you and your background?
Speaker 2:Yes, I studied cybernetics in university and back in my home country, which is Romania, after I finished, I actually applied for an unpaid internship in marketing for a company because my degree had a. It was a double degree in economics as well, and when I arrived at the interview, the interviewer said to me that I'll be more suitable for a tech job, and they had two open internships in tech. One was web development and the other one was iOS development. Was iOS development? So I decided I was going to apply for the iOS development internship with no background in mobile applications whatsoever and, yeah, I got the job. The internship lasted about three months and those three months I studied Swift, which is the programming language that we use to develop the apps, and at the end of the internship I had to present my app, which was a three screen app, and then, based on that, I would get a job or not, full time job. So I got the job, which was great, and then I was with them for a year and a half and after that I decided to move to the UK.
Speaker 2:In the UK I didn't have many jobs, it was just two. I started at Travel Republic. When I first arrived in the UK. I was there for almost two years and then I joined Blooming Wild and I've been with them for almost six years now. Oh wow, crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, but lovely to hear that you we have so many ladies on here that we absolutely love to hear that they fall in tech and they take the strangest route into tech, and that we love to hear that.
Speaker 1:But we also love to hear that you studied, that you took an internship and that your your career journey was a bit more traditional, but you life changing decision as well to to move countries and to go somewhere new and to to find another role. So quite a courageous journey so far and now find yourself in a great role at Blim and Wild, which I know our community are all going to be thinking the same thing. It sounds like it's an incredibly creative, fun role, and I can tell that it already is, because you've been there six years. So they must be doing something great to keep you in a role for six years already. So great to keep you in a role for six years already. So I wanted to ask you a little bit about iOS development. We haven't had that on this podcast yet, so can you share a little bit about your background, how you got started in iOS development, or also, why did you choose iOS development? Was there something about that?
Speaker 2:somebody inspired you in that area, or teachers, something about that somebody inspire you in that area, or um teachers, for instance, that were were training you in that area. Um, I started in iOS because I was very drawn to the um UX, the user experience on an iPhone. So I was previously an Android user, um, and I took iOS development because it was something new for me and I thought, thought, oh, wow, this is so cool, I want to learn how this is done. And I found iOS user experience more swift and more pun intended swift and nicer to work in. But, yeah, it was at the time felt like a random decision. Um, and now I think about it, it's like it was the best decision that I could have made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then yeah, it's nice to hear that you uh, it's not something a decision that you look back on and think I wish I'd done something else, um, but it was the best decision you ever made, and on that note as well about making great decisions. What drew you to Blooming World and what excites you most about working as a senior IOS engineer there?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when I was doing my research about Blooming World and applied for them, I was surprised to find out that they were the pioneers of delivering the flowers through the letterbox, which I didn't think it was possible because the letterbox is really small, so how could something like that fit in there? And what excites me the most? It might sound cheesy, but it's the people that I work at Blooming World, and that's the reason why I stayed there for so long, because in my previous roles I had other things that fulfill me, and in tech I think not just in tech, but in every job I found that there are three things that matter for me.
Speaker 2:One is obviously the salary. The other one is am I doing what I'm enjoying doing? And the third is the culture and the people I work with. And in most of my jobs I've never had all three of them, but in Blue man Wild I do. So, yeah, that's basically the reason why I stay so long as well, and every time I open my computer, it's a pleasure. Every morning that I get to open my computer and start working, I'm just getting very excited and thinking, oh, what do I have to do today? And it's something that most people don't have, but I do and I appreciate it a lot.
Speaker 1:Yes, I couldn't agree more with you and as I think as well. Once you've been through a few workplaces you start to realize what is very important, and obviously you know the importance of salary. It never goes away. We still need that and you still need to progress.
Speaker 1:But there are lots of other things that really just add to your day and add to thinking that that thought of whether or not you want to stay somewhere, whether or not you want to develop your career there and you're right, the culture and the people are so, so important that you work with them every day and you have so much contact with those people sometimes more than you do. You know your own friends and family, so you have to really enjoy being part of that culture. And something we repeat a lot on this podcast is that that culture is not built overnight and that takes a very long time to grow and be a part of. And you must have seen quite a few changes there as well in your six years as the company has grown. But it sounds sounds like that the DNA of the culture and the diversity in the workforce was kind of there from the start. It just sounds like you've just seen it progress, as in your time there, I take it, things have just progressed quite naturally for you.
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember when I started at Blooming World, there were only maybe 20 people in tech, and now there's so much more ever since Blooming World acquired two other brands, so it's just grown massively, not just in tech but in the company.
Speaker 1:Great, yeah, brilliant story to be a part of your day. You said which was lovely to hear that you open your laptop every day and you just enjoy what you do and look forward to opening your laptop every day. Can you walk us through a typical day in your role at bloom and wild? I'm assuming you have lots of different things and probably no day is the same, but do you have anything about your day?
Speaker 2:that is quite typical for you yeah, um, I start a bit earlier than usual, around 8 30 um, because I have to drop off my son at the nursery um, and that gives me more time to um. That gives me time to come home and start my day a bit earlier. Um, I usually um between 8 30 and 9 30. I finish the tasks that I haven't finished the day before, which happens a lot, because in iOS development you don't finish a task in one day. It might take a few days. So I start working on that.
Speaker 2:Then 9.30, we have the stand-up meeting where we go through the work in progress and give updates. The stand-up meeting where we go through the work in progress and give updates, um, and after that it's all dependent on the day. Basically, that's that's my only routine. During the day. It's the stand-up, but sometimes we have refinement, where we refine the work that's coming up. We have planning um again, where we plan the next sprint that we work on. But most of the time what I do on a daily basis is coding, working on features and code reviews, which is reviewing other people's work, adding my comments there and all of that, and then a lot that I'm doing on a daily basis is I talk to my team. So currently in my team it's just another iOS developer and we've just hired another one that she'll be joining later. But because now it's just the two of us, we talk a lot on a day to day and that communication usually evolves around, revolves around, helping each other. Yeah and yeah, I think that's the. Those are the only constants.
Speaker 1:Let's say, um, on my day-to-day yeah, which is nice is that, as you said, it's a joy to to open your laptop every day and suppose, not really know what's going to happen, but to know that you have that support and you figure things out together. Um, do you work remotely or hybrid, or what? How does that work for you?
Speaker 2:um, hybrid, I mean, um, bloom and wall hasn't yet requested people to go into the office, which is great. So, as part of our team, we mostly work remotely. I go into the office once every three months, which is great, and when we do, we have a team assemble where we have a plan for the day. It's usually brainstorming an idea in the first part, and then in the second is we put together a demo, and then at the end we decide if we're going to do it, how long it will take, how are we going to integrate it with the objective key results that we have for that quarter. And it's great. It's a great time to socialize with your, with your team, face to face as well.
Speaker 2:Um, and that's the thing that I enjoy the most, again, it's the flexibility that Bloomin' Wild gives me to be working remotely and still be a mom, um, and be here for my son in case he needs me. He goes to the nursery full time, but being close to home into the nursery and being able to answer the phone whenever needed, it's something, again, very invaluable for me and, again, that's another reason why I stayed at Bloomingdale. There's so many benefits in joining. Besides the culture. It's, yeah, I think, compared to other companies, I think they do they do it the best. Yeah, my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely by the sounds of it, I mean really good companies. They know how to retain talent and if you need that, that flexibility, they'll give you that flexibility. Um, it's great that you meet regularly as well, every few months, because, um, I have found, after covid, it was great being remote for you know a a short while, but when you're in a team, sometimes you need that contact every now and then, because if you you're for us, for instance, we hold events, and I find that if we weren't together regularly, you almost don't bond properly as a team and it's harder to work together and to know each other's strengths and how you like to work. So it's great that you get that flexibility, but also you do get to meet up with people. That makes you stronger as a team and that you do have that contact with people every day as well, because sometimes that's not healthy either.
Speaker 1:If you spend your whole day and you don't really connect with your team, then that could be quite a lonely place as well, can't it? So it sounds like you have a really nice balance there, that you sound like you won't be leaving anytime soon. So it sounds like, um, you, you have a very varied day, um and uh. You mentioned that you have a great team, that you love working with um. I'd love to know about some of those challenges and, um, how you work together and overcome them. So can you tell us a little bit about a particularly challenging project that you've worked on at bloom and wild and how you overcome the obstacles along the way?
Speaker 2:yes, um, I think the most challenging project that I've done is right after returning from maternity leave. So that was was around last year in August, and the project was to redesign the basket screen to look better, and that is, providing the breakdown of what the basket is containing, and that is whilst using the new technologies and architectural patterns. And the reason why this was challenging for me it's because I took nine months off and in those nine months, a lot has changed. I came back to work confused, yeah. So yeah, when I embarked in this project, I started working on a spike, which is what we called an investigation of how do we want to approach the work and the areas that will cause problems. So I put together that document and I proposed my solution. I then presented to the product manager and my team and we've decided to which, with what proposal we want to go, because there were two proposals, I believe.
Speaker 2:There, I think what helped me the most is I took two learning and development days, which is something, again that Blue man Wild offers. So every three, three months, you get a learning and development day where you can spend it on whatever you want, whatever you feel like you're lacking on your day-to-day job and my two. My two things that I was lacking was a swift ui, which is how we build our ui the new way of building the ui in the ios development, and the second one was clean architecture, which is an architectural pattern that we use in our app, and I believe those were crucial in releasing the project and because of it, we were able to release the project with little to no bugs found, but also made the code look better and not adding tech debt. So, yeah, I think my learnings from this was that you need to take time to understand, like if you know that you're lacking knowledge somewhere. Just take the time understand, take learning and development days if the company allows you, and communicate a lot with your team to manage their expectations.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, it's um. You saying you came back confused. That's we. We hear that on this um podcast regularly from ladies, but not everybody shares that it was um, you know their company, uh, allowed them to do that and to get up to speed and kind of said to you you know, if you need to bridge a gap, now you're back, here's some time to be able to do that, some resources to be able to do that, thinking actually I might have to go somewhere else at this point because you know I've had a slight gap in my career and I'm not going to be able to catch up at this company now. But they must really think that through for ladies that are coming back from mat leave again as a way to to try and keep you.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming if you were at one of your previous companies and that had happened, you probably wouldn't have got that same support no, that's true, which I was grateful for, because even without the learning and development days, I've also had the keep in touch days at the end of my maternity, which helped me a lot to read all of the documents that were created. Look at the code that has changed. But that did not prepare me for actually doing like writing code again. So when I actually started doing it I realized, oh no, I need to take those learning and development days because just reading the code and reading documents is not enough to get back to speed.
Speaker 1:Actually doing it? Yeah, yeah, and the tech industry obviously moves so so fast and it's important to keep up with things. So I wanted to ask you about that in terms of the field of iOS development. So what are some key trends or innovations you're seeing in the field of iOS development and how do you incorporate them in your work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think SwiftUI started to gain more popularity, which is great, and we're trying to use as much of that in our code base as we can, and the reason we're doing that is because it's so much easier to use, to write the code, the syntax. It's so much simpler and it also provides us with the capability of preview a UI, a screen, without having to build the app all the time, which is great. And another thing that I've noticed is that, coming up to trends speaking about trends, is that Swift is now more used, not just in iOS development, but in web development, for instance, or backend development, and it's again because of the clean syntax that it's used and because of the high performance compiler. It still has some disadvantages because it was not like when it was first built, swift, it was not meant to be used by other platforms, uh, so there are some disadvantages in terms of compatibility with certain libraries that you might want to use, but, uh, it's gaining popularity as well to uh to write, uh, to write your web app or backend app in swift, which is great.
Speaker 2:Um, another trend I would say is which is the augmented reality. I've noticed that more and more apps are using it to create an engaging experience, and I've noticed that in shopping apps. I haven't yet integrated it in our app, but I found interesting how Amazon is doing it, for instance, or Ikea, and I thought, wow, wow, this is cool. Yeah, maybe we should use this of like in our app for the users to envision their bouquet on a table on their table rather than on a table in a photo yeah, very cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like. I mean, obviously, tech does move incredibly fast, but there's always something else to learn, and I mean you just mentioned their augmented reality. There's always something for you to develop and move forward, and it sounds like as well that Bloom and Wild allow you to do that as a company. It's not like you saw that on somebody else's shopping app and thought we would never be able to use AR at Bloom and Wild. You naturally had the thought of how could we get to that point at some point in the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great. We get to give our input, and if we build a strong case, then we get to build it as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, if we build a strong case, then we get to build it as well. Yeah, yeah and um, so that sounds like uh. It moves nicely on to my next point about collaborating with other teams. How do you collaborate with other teams, such as designers or product managers, to bring the bloom and wild app?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, our team is built um with um, four developers to android, to ios, um, and with another ios joining and we're hiring for an android developer. So, android developers who are listening. If you want to join bloom and wild, this is a great opportunity. Um, but in our team there there's also two testers, one product manager and one designer, so we have people just allocated for our team, which is great, and we do have every other week, a meeting called product and design show and tell, where product and design show us what's coming up next in the sprint, and that is our opportunity to ask questions, raise concerns, bring our input if we want to. And yeah, that's about iOS collaborating with product and design. Yeah, that's about iOS collaborating with product and design.
Speaker 2:We also have a Slack channel where we asynchronously ask questions about work that's coming up and with other teams we do actually get to interact a lot because we don't have a backend developer in our team, because our team is the mobile apps are across all of the domains, whereas the other team are more split into checkout and payment, in which they have a web developer, a backend developer, another project manager. So whenever we need backend work, we need to interact with all of the other teams in the company, which is great, um, but also, as part of that, one person from our team, um, is attending their stand-up, so we know what's coming up for them. If they're doing what that might affect us, we're there to to flag it and say oh, this might affect the app. Um, should we like test your um? Should we test your work in the app and see if it works? Um, so that's great because it's like trying to close the gap between the apps and the other teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, because we're like quite isolated yeah, yeah, you know there is a misconception about working in technology that you do work on your own, you probably don't talk to anyone all day and that you don't collaborate with other people, that you collaborate with lots, lots of teams, and not just people across your own team, but lots of other teams throughout the company as well. It sounds like that you get a pretty wide picture of everything that's going on, and that you have to, because, as you said, if somebody was doing something that was affecting the app, you know everybody. You have to have clear communication about what's happening. Did you think that, when you went into tech, though, did you have that misconception that, perhaps, working in tech, you worked on your own and you work quite siloed, and were you pleasantly surprised when you went in and thought, actually, this is great, I get to work with everybody?
Speaker 2:yeah, I did have that misconception that, oh, it's just gonna be me there in a corner coding, but that was actually not true. I mean, it did happen in my first job and that's because there were not many people in the company. But now we get to collaborate with the retention team, we get to collaborate with the data team, we get to collaborate with the platform team if needed to be so. There's so many things that we get to do on a day-to-day that it's not actually about the coding itself. Um, yeah, I was. I was pleasantly surprised, um, that that was the case yeah, um, we are almost out of time.
Speaker 1:I could keep talking to you about your day job at Bloomer Mild for a lot longer, but we're nearly out of time. I could keep talking to you about your day job at Bloomer Mild for a lot longer, but we're nearly out of time and I wanted to ask you I know our ladies are going to want to pick your brains on this question so what advice would you give to aspiring iOS engineers who are looking to break into the industry? Anything you wish somebody had told you.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think if you have an idea for an app, start doing it. There's so many courses that are free, but also paid if you want to. When I did my internship, I just basically Googled and you watch youtube videos that are free, um, and then the way I learned the syntax was just doing it. It takes long, uh, it takes a long time, but, um, you, you, you'll learn it. It's just if you keep in mind apple's guidelines and, um, yeah, and best, then you'll get there. I would say, if you can get an internship, even though it's unpaid, it's a really good opportunity to get you started. And, yeah, don't be afraid to try to apply the job, even though you don't have any experience. Just apply and, yeah, see how it goes, give it a try, try.
Speaker 1:Yes, I couldn't agree more. Um, did you find any networks or communities at the time that helped you? I mean, you were lucky enough to find an internship where you could apply some of those skills and start working on some um real world projects. But did you have any networks or um communities that kind of you you dipped into at the time to help you with that?
Speaker 2:when I first started, no, um, but then, as I was moving throughout my career, I started um, uh, going to conferences. So I remember when I first started Blooming Wild, I went to the Aberystwyth conference and there I've met a lot of people and we kept in touch and we built connections and, yeah, either they recommend me or I recommend them for the job, if there's an opportunity, which is great, which is great. Also, I've kept in touch with some people from Traveller Republic and they've moved on with their career, but then they put me in touch with other people. So, yeah, you build up this community and yeah, it's great once you're in there, but before you actually get in there again, another suggestion that I would have is go to conferences. It will help you a lot, not just understanding what's coming up next for iOS development, but also it will help you have those connections.
Speaker 1:Yes, and ready as well for where you'd like to go next in your career, whether you do decide in the future to move companies. That kind of helps with all of that. But it doesn't sound like you will be going anywhere anytime soon, because you absolutely love your day job at Blooming World and love the team there. So, catalina, we're already out of time. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing a little bit about your day to day at Blooming World. It's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you, and I know our ladies in our community are going to absolutely love what it is like being an iOS engineer at Blooming World. So thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure to talk to you and share my experience.
Speaker 1:Thank you and for everybody listening, as always. Thank you so much for joining us and we hope to see you again next time.
