Did you know that playing badminton can lead to a new hire? In today's #EmployeeVoices our Backend Developer Jun Zhangs shares her passion for coding and sports, and how she brought her friend from the badminton court to join the Voiage.

Tell us about your background and how did you end up at Voi? 

I have been interested in logic and science since my school days. Early, I had the opportunity to do easy programming in graphics and we downloaded the program to our own small cars or robots, which was really fun. This experience shifted me a bit towards computer science at the University.After completing my master's program in computer science at KTH, Sweden, I worked as a Backend Developer. During that time, I was approached by my former colleague Ronan Barrett, who asked me to join Voi. Soon it’s my 2-year anniversary here :)

What is your favorite programming language, and why?

Among the most common languages, I like Golang the most. Its syntax is simple and structured, and it has excellent performance on multi-processing with built-in goroutines. Additionally, there's no need to think about memory and garbage collection while writing in Golang. At Voi, we leverage a modern tech stack, including Postgres, GCP, IoT development, microservices, and more.

Coding seems hard - is that right?

Coding can seem difficult, but it's also rewarding. Once you have an idea of how the logic or algorithm works, it’s relatively easy to code it. Half of the time I feel I can solve any challenge, while the other half I feel there are still too many things I don't know yet. That's also the exciting part of coding - in the coding world, you can constantly improve yourself, and you won’t get bored with the same daily routine at work.

What advice would you give to those that would want to start learning to code?

My advice would be to be curious and patient. At the beginning stage of learning, there might be many concepts that are hard to understand, such as pointers and data structures, which can be challenging to apply to the real world straightforwardly. But with more knowledge, you'll find that these concepts are connected, and it's much easier to understand than a single isolated concept.

Can you share how your love for badminton has played a role in your career and the unexpected ways it has led to new opportunities for others?

That’s true! I play badminton twice a week, sometimes with VOI colleagues. Badminton is a sport that requires you to think about your strategy while playing, apart from just hitting the shuttlecock. You won't get bored even if you play a lot. One fun thing is that, similar to what Ronan did with me, I recommended my badminton friend Hongyi Liu through our Global Referral Program, who later joined Voi as a Senior ML Engineer.