OrttoMates profile: Meet Jesse

Meet Jesse, one of Ortto’s Front-end Engineers based in Sydney, Australia. Jesse has been with the company for three years, or in other words, started before COVID was a thing. He is a regular contributor to the #ortto-pets Slack channel, showing off his beautiful bulldog, Sophie. A true expert in his field, any budding developer has a lot to learn from Jesse. Find out a bit more about his work and how he got here below.

What do you do at Ortto? Explain it to us like you’d explain it to your parents.

I develop the software layer between our users and our backend processes. In other words, I work on the portion of the application that sits inside the browsers.

And how did you get here? Share a little about your career journey.

When I was a kid, I started coding games on my Commodore 64. I found quickly that creating games was more fun than playing them. It soon became less about what I was creating, and more about how I was writing the code. I would spend a lot of my free time inspecting other people's programs, so I could learn from them, and by the time I was at uni, I already had a laundry list of things I wanted to learn.

From there, I worked as a back-end developer until the late 2000s when JavaScript was starting to become more capable. Being a bit bored with the current tech stack and excited by the possibility of learning something new, I decided to start leaning towards front-end development, and have done so ever since.

My advice to someone starting out as a developer is to love what you do. If you don't love software development, find something else to do that you do love.  Once you have that, nothing really can get in your way.

Something you’ve accomplished at Ortto you’re proud of?

None of us work in a vacuum. Anything I accomplished, I would have done so with the help of my team members.  That said, I am proud about setting up the state management and container structure of the front-end, the filters, and the bee widgets.

Share a lesser-known Ortto fun fact, product feature, or hack.

More or less, filters and audiences use the same ID.  All audiences are actually filters, with extra information.  This means you can copy the audience ID from the audience URL, and use it in the CDP (we even have a link that does that). 

Fast facts with Jesse

When did you become an OrttoMate?

November 2019

What is the most interesting use of Ortto that you’ve seen?

Our internal Counter-Strike newsletters.

Your must-have Chrome plugins?

Less is more. For work, I use:

• React devtools: It allows you to inspect the React component hierarchies in the Chrome Developer Tools.

• Redux dev tools: Provides power-ups for your Redux development workflow. Apart from Redux, it can be used with any other architectures which handle the state.

• LastPass: Stores all your passwords in one convenient and easy to manage platform. 

• Screen measuring tool: As simple as it sounds. A tool to measure screen dimensions.  

• For home, I use just Dashlane - it saves all your passwords, fills out forms fast, and keeps your data accessible and safe.

Apps you can't live without?

Vim, iTerm2, Chrome, Notes, Authy, Spotify, Gmail, Calendar.

What's on your WFH Spotify playlist?

Depends on the mood. Often when I'm focusing I like to listen to Philip Glass, Arvo Part, Hans Zimmer, etc. Sometimes I like RATM, Run the Jewels, Public Enemy, Girl Talk, Slayer.

Any podcast suggestions you rave about?

Brought to you by… (Business Insider) is quite good.  In particular episode 42, The Widow Clicquot and episode 35, You've got Enron mail.

Anything else you'd like to add about yourself, life at Ortto, or the SaaS space?

Ortto doesn't try to be cool, and we don't try to force a particular culture. There are no signs like "no ties in the office" or morning company chants.  This culture will continue to change as we grow, but our energy and aligned focus is constant. I particularly like how we celebrate our wins as a team: drinks, extravagant parties and company retreats.