Sophilabers Explain Our Values: Love Your Craft

Our values shape our company culture, informing the way we work and the decisions we make on a daily basis. Our Playbook opens with these guiding principles:

• Be a team player
• Love your craft
• Aim high
• Work hard

Today we'll unpack what it means to Love your craft and why we think it's important to be passionate about what you do.

Why do we love our craft?

Sophilabers shared the many reasons they love software development, ranging from the joy of creating something new to the satisfaction of figuring out a tough problem to the excitement of constant learning.

What I like most about software development is that I can develop and implement ideas without needing a lot of infrastructure or materials (only a computer and time are necessary). I always liked the concept of "making new things," and I found in software development a very efficient way to do that.
– Pablo Grill, CTO

I think the most exciting part is solving problems. It feels very good to be able to solve a problem or overcome an obstacle, it's a feeling that I think is the most gratifying part of the job. Researching and learning new tools and techniques is another exciting aspect because you feel that you're growing as a professional and even as a person when you incorporate new perspectives and knowledge.
– Rodrigo Lastra, Software Engineer

Software development gives me the chance to rotate my interests more freely than other fields of study and learn different things along the way.
– Gabriela Golmar, Software Engineer

If you appreciate the beauty of the exact and of problem solving, software development is the best place to be nowadays. Computers are everywhere, so it's approachable, and computers are all connected, so it's global. If you make something, you can share it with the world in a matter of seconds.
–Javier Ayres, Data Engineer

Our team members love what they do for a range of reasons, and this passion is part of what allows us to innovate and develop excellent solutions.

How does loving our craft help us do great work?

Our enthusiasm for software development enables us to take pride in finding robust solutions that users love.

Feeling passionate about what you do allows you to improve the quality of your work. Each time you start a task, it's about developing it in the best possible way, not just thinking of the required functionality. This allows the products developed to not only be functional, but also maintainable and stable.
– Pablo Grill, CTO

Our love of software also helps us see the big picture, keeping us motivated when we work on difficult problems and mundane assignments alike.

In the tasks you work on, you not only encounter many interesting challenges, but also less attractive or interesting tasks. I think in those cases, passion for what you do really helps you find a more interesting and motivating side to each of those tasks.
– Rodrigo Lastra, Software Engineer

In addition, our passion drives us to improve our skills and learn constantly.

If you are passionate about something, becoming better at that something is much easier. You won't just dedicate your working time to it, you'll dedicate your leisure time, your lunch time, and probably your sleep time. You will enjoy getting better at it, so you will do it regardless of whether you're getting paid for it or not.
– Javier Ayres, Data Engineer

In short, loving what we do is fundamental to our professional growth, to our commitment to our work, and to our ability to create high-quality software.

Sharing Our Knowledge

Passion for development isn't just about our day-to-day work as software engineers. Nurturing our love for our field involves connecting with other developers and staying active in the community.

More than anything, I exchange knowledge with my coworkers. I think exchanging expertise is very important in our field. I have learned a lot from people that I've worked with, and I hope I've helped others learn, too.
– Rodrigo Lastra, Software Engineer

Whenever I can, I go to conferences and meetups. It's a good way to stay up to date and see what the community is doing or looking for. I think passing on your knowledge and experience to the rest of the community is important since it allows developers to have a voice and decision-making power in the industry.
– Pablo Grill, CTO

The world of software has a very distinctive quality that's hard to find in other industries: knowledge is encouraged to be open. The internet is built on this premise. Developers share their work for free, their tools, their ideas. Of course this doesn't apply to all developers nor all knowledge, but it's only getting stronger. In my case, I have a lot of work licensed under permissive licenses, I go to meetups and conferences, I contribute work to other people's projects, and I am active in several communities.
– Javier Ayres, Data Engineer

The ongoing exchange of knowledge and ideas is part of what makes software development such an exciting field, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate, both within the confines of our office and beyond.

Love your craft is a defining principle of sophilabs' culture, and it impacts how we help our team members grow as software developers. We support our developers in honing their craft by providing access to online courses and books about programming. Our team members give tech talks during lunch on Fridays, and we sometimes host meetups at our office after working hours. We also encourage team members to become experts in the technologies that interest them so they can mentor their peers. We call these experts "gurus," and we even developed a /guru command on Slack so that team members can easily reach out to each other for help on technical challenges.

At sophilabs, Love your craft is the foundation of so much of what we do. We think loving our work makes us better developers, better teammates, and better members of the tech community. In our next two posts in this series, we'll talk about why we Aim high and Work hard. If you identify with our passion for software development, consider joining our team!