Welcome to “DeCoding the Journey,” our exciting blog series focusing on the vibrant experiences of our tech grads at Delivery Hero. In this edition, we’re chatting with Moustafa, Julieta and Marta, recent additions to the Delivery Hero tech team. Let’s dive into their journey, experiences, and some fun bits along the way.
1. Could each of you introduce yourself?
Moustafa: “I’m Moustafa, originally from Egypt, a graduate of the University of Bonn where I studied Life Science Informatics for my Masters, and studied Computer Engineering back in Egypt for my Bachelor’s. For a fun fact, I’ve dived in the deadliest diving site in Egypt about six times, and apparently, it’s not as deadly as they say 😜”
Julieta: “I’m Julieta, originally from Argentina. I attended Plataforma 5 Coding Bootcamp, focusing on front-end development. For a fun fact, I got a tattoo after Argentina won the World Cup.”
Marta: “And I’m Marta, originally from Italy. I attended Bologna University, focusing on Statistical Sciences for both Bachelor’s and Masters, the first focusing on statistics and mathematics, the second on Data Science. For a fun fact, I keep a ranking list of the coffees you can find in Berlin.”
2. What are your favourite Delivery Hero orders? What memes reflect your program experiences?
Moustafa: “I wouldn’t say I have a specific favourite, but I love the variety of Asian restaurants on foodora (they’re all tasty 😀). The meme that best describes my time here is the meme with the smiling little girl in front of a burning building, it’s called “Disaster Girl”, it just represents how I feel every time I “THINK” I finished a task 😀 .”
Julieta: “My favourite order is pizza, especially on a Friday night. The meme for my experience? I would say it’s the meme of this guy putting on sunglasses with the word “tuki” written below. It shows how cool I felt being a part of the program.”
Marta: “There is this pink Bao Burger that has a soft spot in my heart (and stomach). I get it delivered to the office nearly once a week. The meme that best describes my time here is probably the “Salt Bae” (you know, the one with sunglasses putting salt in a weird way on the meat), where the salt represents the contributions I make to Looker, and the guy is me, thinking I’m making it way better .”
3. What are your roles at Delivery Hero, and which teams are you in?
Moustafa: “I’m a Backend Developer in the Product Information Management (PIM) team in the area of Quick Commerce, where I mainly work on providing editors and content teams with flexible data management and enable efficient integrations for internal and external teams.”
Julieta: “I work as a Front-end Developer within the Agent Resolution team, where my primary responsibility is to develop actions and data points. This aims to empower care center agents, allowing them to efficiently resolve customer contacts without the need to switch between multiple tools.”
Marta: “And I work as a Data Engineer within the Data Visualization team. My focus is on managing, monitoring and improving our data visualization tools at a company level so that everyone’s work is up to standard and each team can have the best experience with these tools.”
4. How did each of you decide on your current career path?
Moustafa: “For me, at the age when I had to decide on my “career path”, which was around 18 years old, I had no clue what I wanted to do. Except for the fact that I knew I was kind of into new technologies and computer-related topics, accordingly, I went with Computer Engineering.
Five years later, I finished my Bachelor’s and decided to move to Germany to pursue a Master’s in a relatively new field (because I was kind of bored of pure software development), that being Life Science Informatics. It is essentially a mixture of Biology and Computer Science, so I wasn’t far from software development in the end. The only difference is, that now I’m developing software to aid scientists in analyzing biological data, which means that I have to understand this data at the end of the day.
Fast forward three years, I finished my Masters and landed an internship in Software Development. That was probably around the time I realized that I didn’t want anything to do with Biology and Research ever again, and would love to go back to vanilla software development. And here I am, working as a Backend Developer again (Let’s say that was the happy ending, although it’s just the beginning 😉). So in short, I never actually “DECIDED”… I tried different things and this was what worked for me ”
Julieta: “Before entering the tech industry, I worked as a model from the age of 15. While it was a significant part of my life, I realized that this career was demanding more from me than it was providing in return. Out of curiosity, I explored coding with no specific expectations, and to my surprise, I found an immediate passion for it.
After some time, I managed to save enough money to leave the modelling industry and enrol in a coding boot camp. When the boot camp finished, my real adventure began: I joined Delivery Hero!”
Marta: “As a very confused 18-year-old, I decided to study statistics basically out of an aptitude test that suggested this path. I have never regretted it, I found myself very passionate about data. However, as I progressed in my studies I often found myself wondering about the origins of analytics and data science. What comes before analysis? Where is the data coming from? What type of work precedes analysis? So I opted for a more engineering-oriented career hoping to find answers to my questions.”
5. Can you share your experiences in the program and any learnings?
Moustafa: “To me, the tech grad program was a wonderful opportunity to start a new job alongside a group of other grads. This experience made it a hundred times easier to connect and build my network, especially as someone new to the environment. It’s not usually the case when starting a new job, but starting with the tech grad cohort made me feel as if I’ve been at Delivery Hero for two years, judging by the number of people I know around the office, making it something I’m really grateful for. Regarding learning something new, I don’t know where to start. You learn something new every day here, be it technical, social, insights about yourself, or others. However, if I had to choose one standout lesson, it would be that technical skills make up only 20% of your value as a Software Developer”
Julieta: “I found the program to be really well-crafted and you could tell that a lot of thought went into its design. What I enjoyed the most was never feeling alone in this new adventure. I was part of a group undergoing similar experiences, and we could share our thoughts and feelings in a safe space.
In terms of learning, my experience at Delivery Hero has been incredibly enriching. The program allowed us to dive deep into understanding the company’s operations and refine our skills in navigating its unique work environment. Additionally, I discovered many interesting aspects of different tech fields, such as Data.
I really enjoyed the engaging “Ask me Anything” sessions with company leaders. Additionally, the extensive variety of workshops, covering topics like time management, pair programming, navigating diverse cultures, how to have effective 1:1s, and identifying strengths and weaknesses (among many others) proved to be invaluable for both my personal and professional growth. “
Marta: “I think the program is great for beginners: it introduces a lot of concepts that are normal in the life of an engineer, but that you might not have heard about in university, e.g. working agile, using Jira. I also loved that I was immediately assigned to a team, allowing me to get some hands-on experience from my very first month at the company. Later, being assigned my own project to work on was incredibly valuable.
The program is also super useful for making connections. In such a big company, it can be overwhelming, but having other graduates to share the experience with was comforting. It was also nice to have contact with people who work in totally different verticals and learn about what is happening in other parts of the company. I loved having the opportunity to learn more about backend and frontend engineering, areas previously I knew nothing about. I’ve particularly enjoyed learning technical skills, like the in-depth session we had on BigQuery, and learning how to optimize your queries and tables .”
6. What projects are you currently involved in?
Moustafa: “Currently, I’m participating in the development of a feature called “Variants” on our platforms. It essentially enables the addition of different variants for the same product, instead of creating multiple products that are the same but with minor differences. For example, in selling a bottle of water in different sizes, before the Variants feature, you would have to create multiple products for the various sizes (100ml, 500ml etc).
However, with Variants, you simply create one product and adjust the variant attribute (in this case the size) for different variants. I also contributed to developing the process of creating variants through bulk operations, meaning the user can create multiple variants of a product through a single file uploaded to our portal containing information about these variants.”
Julieta: ” I am currently working on developing a feature designed to streamline the process of resending an order back to the vendor. This functionality is particularly useful in situations where a rider arrives at the vendor’s location and discovers the vendor hasn’t received the order on their device due to technical issues. To solve this, our agents can now an order resend directly from their interface.”
Marta: “And, I’m primarily focused on improving Looker. My tasks include onboarding users in the company with Looker Quick Starts and finding ways to automatically terminate queries that run excessively long on Looker. I’m also refining my previous project, which involved developing a script to remove off-boarded users from Tableau.”
7. Any advice for future grads thinking about applying to the program?
Moustafa: “Starting your career in a big company like Delivery Hero is a great opportunity for what I like to call “relaxed learning”, meaning you’ll be provided with the time and necessary resources to learn everything. So there won’t be any pressure on you during the first few months. It is a very safe learning environment where you’re encouraged to ask questions every day and make mistakes as well because that’s the best way you could possibly learn. So, I would encourage you to go ahead and apply for the tech grad program without having to worry about anything, and remember, the interviewer is always on your side 😉”
Julieta: “I would highly encourage you to seize the opportunity and give it a try! Not even in my wildest dreams did I think I would get in, yet here I am…
Also, relax about the interview process. It may initially seem intimidating, but you’ll discover that your interviewers are supportive and considerate professionals who recognize that you’re at the early stages of your career. Don’t hesitate to ask them any questions you may have; they are there to guide you. “
Marta: “I’d suggest applying even if you do not fulfill all the requirements: I didn’t, and I’m glad I didn’t hold back when considering my application. Also, remember there are no stupid questions – neither before nor during the process, and certainly not after getting the job. Always feel free to ask anything and don’t be afraid; you are just at the beginning of your career!”
Conclusion
It was great getting to know Moustafa, Julieta and Marta and their journeys at Delivery Hero. Stay tuned for more insights and stories from our tech grads in the “DeCoding the Journey” series.
Interested in kickstarting your tech career with us? Check out our Tech Grad Program.
