Hello, my name is Johan and I work in Advertising & Brand Experience at Deloitte Digital, with a strong focus on web development.
I am sure that everyone has an idea about “Advertising & Brand Experience” while hearing the name of our team for the first time. I am also sure that basically no one will think about web development so it’s time to focus on that. I am happy to give you some insights in my blog.
You’ve been at Deloitte Digital for nearly five years. What brought you to the company? And what did you do previously?
I originally learned to program through self-interest; my first IT job was as a web master for a large job platform in Belgium, where I grew up. My wife and I moved to Germany in 2008. After working for several years as a web development consultant, I joined Deloitte Digital in 2016.
Deloitte Digital is not your typical consultancy: this was definitely a factor that drew me to the job. Even now, five years later, I have the freedom to define my career path within the company – this makes Deloitte Digital more like a start-up than a huge corporation. It was clear from the beginning that the job would be rewarding. Deloitte Digital has challenged me to grow while also providing recognition for my work.
Currently you’re a Senior Front End Web Developer. What does this work involve?
I am responsible for making key decisions in web development projects; this includes defining each project’s architecture and processes. Fortunately, I have the freedom to propose specific technologies and set other programming standards.
A difficult task in any web application project is to consensually determine which JavaScript frameworks and build processes should be used. The senior web developers on the project team are expected to agree on how to develop a given solution, using methods that lay a foundation for evolving needs. Every project comes with its own challenges. By way of example, a car-loan application app will have different requirements from an application used by the Deloitte Audit team, despite significant technical overlap. Ultimately, the senior front end developer must ensure the project team delivers well-tested and well-documented code.
Deloitte Digital has challenged me to grow while also providing recognition for my work.
In your current role you coordinate with colleagues who design the UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface). Can you provide some insight into this collaborative work?
The UX/UI Team does an amazing job determining technical and conceptual requirements, which they translate into amazing screen designs and functional specifications. As a senior front end developer who is specialized in mobile development, I provide input during the design phase, particularly to ensure that practical implementation is kept in mind.
The front end developer can contribute to the design process in various ways – for example, by using Storybook to develop a library of reusable web components. We normally deliver the project through design and development sprints with an iterative character. This ensures the flexibility for last-minute changes while also allowing us to demo concepts before the actual programming work starts.
Your team is currently looking to hire developers with various skill sets. What are some of the abilities necessary to excel at Deloitte Digital?
At Deloitte Digital, senior front end developers should be able to “lead by example.” Strong coding skills are a must, as wading through the nitty-gritty of the code is sometimes essential. But aside from technical skills, strong interpersonal abilities are also important, as web development projects are a collaborative enterprise. For this reason, every project includes a peer review, which is a great way to avoid getting rusty while learning from colleagues.
Ultimately, the broader your skill set, the better. In some projects, we do much more than write browser code, as there is a need to define backend APIs and work with tools such as Adobe Experience Manager and Salesforce Lightning. The diversity of technologies we use and apply can be challenging at times. But that is part of being a web consultant – we are not one-trick ponies that specialize in a particular framework or toolkit.
While being pragmatic is appreciated, critical-thinking skills and an ability to anticipate problems are also crucial. We are expected to adapt to project constraints, and to predict how needs and specifications will evolve over time. This is an important aspect of my job – and one that necessitates keeping an eye on current trends and solutions.
To be sure, the world of IT is constantly evolving. What trends and features do you expect in the coming years?
Re-usable custom web components and component libraries are gaining increasing importance, as customers want to avoid re-inventing the wheel on every project. Reusable components provide adaptable building blocks for multiple web projects.
Various trends are also on the horizon. In coming years, I anticipate changes related to Web 3.0 technologies and the real semantic web, based on AI optimization of data. Users will be more in control of the content they create and how they share it. In this connection, decentralized self-sovereign identities (SSIs) and decentralized data sharing (cf. data pods) will become more popular. Of course, I could name many more examples. The coming years in Web Tech are sure to be transformative. And I enjoy at Deloitte Digital the time for observing and adapting to these changes.
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