25. October 2021

#TechABreak with Riain, Professional Backend Engineer

Riain with colleagues

Let’s #TechABreak with Riain Condon, Professional Backend Engineer on our Developer Experience team. We sat down with him to learn more about his team, recent challenges he’s faced, and what his day-to-day looks like here at Personio.

A Tipperary native now based in Dublin, Riain and his teammates are responsible for creating a quality developer experience, a.k.a. ensuring our engineers have everything they need to succeed as they work on the Personio product. Read on to learn more about Riain, his journey to becoming an engineer, and why Personio is the right place for him.

Riain in the Munich office during All Company Culture Week.
Riain in the Munich office during All Company Culture Week.

Why did you decide to become an engineer?

I was first exposed to programming as a teenager when I helped a friend create gaming mods. I ended up enjoying it a lot and took it on as a hobby over the years, teaching myself with whatever material I could get my hands on. But it wasn’t until I started working in a restaurant – following my childhood dream of being a chef – that I realized I was actually much happier behind a computer!

So I went to Dublin City University to study Computer Science, where I was lucky enough to do two internships – one focused on academic research and the other more focused on industry experience. After graduation, I worked two years as an engineer in financial services before finding my way to Personio in July!

Why did you join the Personio team?

One of the reasons I decided to join Personio was because my candidate experience was so smooth. The interviews were a great opportunity to learn more about the role, team, and company, and the conversations with my recruiter made it so easy to choose Personio.

Another reason I chose Personio is because I’m passionate about building services and platforms to enable engineers and remove barriers to their growth. And I believe that investing in engineers – and a platform to support them – is integral to building a good product. Knowing that Personio shared this philosophy was a huge selling point from the start.

And last but not least, the culture and core values really drew me in. They strongly aligned with my own, and I could tell that I would be proud to work at Personio. The value that particularly stuck out to me was #SocialResponsibility, and seeing how that value was lived out by the people and in the product made Personio the right place for me.

Riain heading into a team-building event in Munich!
Riain heading into a team-building event in Munich!

What does your typical day as a Backend Engineer look like?

My day usually starts with a team stand-up, where we discuss our progress on various projects, whether we need any support, and ensure we’re aligned before diving into work. Most recently I’ve been focused on full-stack tasks across Kotlin and Spring microservices, as well as React and TypeScript frontends.

When I’m not working on my development responsibilities, I research solutions for projects, initiatives, and proofs-of-concept. That balance between research and development is one of my favorite things about this job! I also get the chance to not only do front or backend but to have that vertical slice and explore both sides.

P&E Team in Munich
Heading into a team-building event in Munich!

Do you have a passion for the developer experience or want to join another engineering team at Personio? We’re looking for driven, intelligent people that want to collaborate and make an impact at Europe’s most valuable HR software company. If that sounds like you, then head over to our careers page and apply today!

Interested in joining Personio? Explore our open roles and find the right job for you!

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