Consultant Spotlight Series: Alex Dobre

Thank you very much, Alex, for agreeing to do this with us today, how would you describe what you do at Digiterre?

I provide consultancy and technical expertise, where I architect, write code and do technical research such as breaking new ground for the team.

I also provide consulting services, which has to do with business analysis. Listening to the clients’ concerns and translating that into technical requirements. I see my role as providing accurate technical information so that businesses can make informed decisions.

Could you describe a typical day at Digiterre?

On a typical day, I split my time as follows:

I set aside focus time in the morning where I hunker down and code, it’s important to be uninterrupted for at least an hour for me to get the greatest traction.

Then, I have collaborative time for all the meetings and interviews. I take the time to review a candidate, prepare the interview itself, execute the interview, do the debrief afterwards and write the review.

What are you working on at the moment that inspires or excites you?

I’m currently working on a client project where the mathematical model is written in Python that tries to predict the profitability of a power plant. I find this particularly interesting because I get to tug at the corners of the math involved.

There is also the idea of simulating a market and trying to make predictions and it’s the beginning of machine learning and data science projects. So I would see this client, maybe not necessarily now but in the short or medium future, dipping their toes in machine learning for some of the problems they have now which I find exciting.

What has been the highlight for you so far about working at Digiterre?

My greatest highlight was a time our CEO, Ian, reached out to me with feedback from the client on a project I was working on. He had words of praise, mentioning the client was particularly pleased with my services, which he mentioned was very rare.

Throughout my career, there have been instances where my work has been recognised but none as clear and as nice as this one, so that was a particularly nice highlight.

That’s lovely, how would you describe the culture at Digiterre?

I admire the fact that people at Digiterre make an effort to make you feel like you’re part of the Digiterre family. I joined Digiterre as the first person to be onboarded completely remotely which was at the start of the pandemic. I was faced with issues adapting to a new situation but the people at Digiterre were very welcoming and very accommodating and that struck me as something worth cherishing.

Unlike other consultancies I have worked with, there’s a sense of community at Digiterre. The frequent remote social events allow us to keep in touch and get to know each other better.

Digiterre is also an organisation that makes an effort to be a place where good developers gather. We conduct numerous interviews and go through the necessary and difficult process of trying to choose good people from different angles, not just their technical expertise but also their attitude and their capacity to consult.

Another point worth mentioning is the agile mentality at Digiterre. I was impressed when I was researching Digiterre before joining, I came across a podcast by Ian, the CEO, where he discussed, the topic of agility and on the one hand, he had a pragmatic, realistic view of what can be achieved with the current state of the industry and current clients but also what the ideal would be. I found that interesting and so far, I can say that the way we try to teach agility to clients is the best I’ve experienced so far in my career.

Thank you very much for also participating in our selection processes. Your opinions on selecting your future colleagues are very important to us. What do you think Digiterre values in individuals that they bring onboard?

Digiterre looks for above-average technical skills and consultancy skills. Beyond that, there’s also a focus on attitude, one has to work well with a wide array of people and in a wide range of circumstances.

The ideal candidate will be in the frontline, representing Digiterre as well as themselves in front of the client. This entails good negotiation and communication skills to translate technical issues to non-technical people. Being able to listen, build a rapport, and assure the client you care about their problem and that you’re doing your best to solve it.

You have alluded to this quite a bit but is there anything that you would like to add in terms of your thoughts around what the clients gain from collaborating with us?

The most important thing our clients gain is that we genuinely listen to their problems and genuinely care about solving them.

We also provide high quality technical expertise which cannot be understated. This is very difficult to obtain in the market and the competition for it is fierce. Because a lot of software development is unclear for non-technical people, it can be difficult to ascertain beforehand, if the development team contracted have the skills to deliver.

Another point worth mentioning is that Digiterre tends to share, teach and help. We not only help solve our clients’ issues but also share our technical expertise, assist their on-site team and get them up to speed. We share agility, to the extent that the client is teachable, we share our values and try to influence the client positively.

You’ve spoken about the environment you work in, what types of people or what teams of people do you interact with on the most regular basis?

I interact regularly with agile personas – from other developers to the QAs, Business analyst, scrum master, product owner, project and delivery managers all within the team.

Also regularly but not necessarily day to day, are interested parties on the client side, every Sprint, which in our case is every two weeks, we have a demo of what has been achieved. We also run workshops and other informative sessions where we share our experience with the client.