Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
My name is Rui and I am from Porto de Mós, a village in the center of Portugal, part of the Natural Park of "Serra d' Aire e Candeeiros" where a strong battle against the Spanish took place - search for "Batalha de Aljubarrota".
I've lived in the Lisbon area since I was 18 years old, when I started university. I am the youngest of three brothers and I am married, father of two boys, and I am 45 which makes me most likely the "less youngest" of the team. :)
I started working in the software development industry before graduating computer science, and I have stayed here until today.
What inspired you to pursue a career in your field?
I've always been interested in exact sciences such as physics or mathematics and by a logical way of thinking. Thus, following an engineering field was the natural option for me, computer related science was more due to the influence of a close friend. After a few years on the job, I found myself being pulled to areas like management and organization, and happened that it resonated.
While I didn't runaway from the software development teams, I started to spend most of time thinking on how to get the most out of a team, a team of teams, or even an organization.
Can you share a proud moment or accomplishment in Spider AF so far?
I joined Spider AF in the beginning of this year during a challenging moment for the team. I am glad and super proud of the team that embraced the challenges together, and stayed tight and united until the present.
What’s a fun fact about you that many people may not know?
Until the age of the 16, I wanted to be a math teacher. Actually a friend of mine with I used to talk with about the topic, followed the path. Somehow, I ended up feeling that I wanted to have a bit more excitement in my daily job. Maybe, that also explains a bit why I joined the crazy world of startups in 2016 :)
How do you like to spend your weekends or time off?
Farming and growing, plants, vegetables, trees, and spending time with my kids :) I really love the idea of being there almost everyday, seeing those small changes, having those daily cares, enjoying the results and also, learning from the failures.
In short, I am a family guy. Time with family, friends and relatives is the biggest part of it. Sometimes I cook and also make barbecue!
How would you describe the culture at Spider AF?
Can I skip this one and answer with our values? https://spideraf.com/about-us :P
Ownership, Speed, Challenge, Customer Centric, Excellence, Integrity, and Teamwork are for sure among the others I would use to describe our culture.
Where is the best place you have visited?
There's a place I would be visiting forever, feeling at home despite being a bit away, and that place is Portugal. I am a huge fan of domestic tourism, maybe the two kids kinda put that in pause for a while. So that's the place I wanted to return soon, exploring this amazing country :)
What is the best career lesson you have learned so far?
You need to be yourself, otherwise you take serious risks of being extremely unhappy at work. I took tough decisions, some of them after 35 :), and I am really glad that I had the courage and the will to do so. Resiliency is the skill that will bring you closer to the right people and to the right job.
If you had a podcast who would your first guest be?
Physics teacher from the high-school 12th year. He used to be late to the classes because he got distracted with his agriculture achievements :)
He was a colleague of Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations in university, and I was told that Guterres was the best student while he was the second... Ah, and an outstanding chess player (he would question you: "shall I play without the queen or shall I turn around")
