In this new series, we hear from our Mintos developers to give you an inside look into their lives. For our first edition, we take a peek into Santa’s life as a Front-end developer on the investments team. She shares what a typical Friday at Mintos HQ in Riga, Latvia looks like for her. Her responsibilities involve coding the visuals for the Mintos website.
6:00 Training for an ultramarathon
I wake up pretty early to train for about an hour before I go to the office. We have a hybrid model at Mintos, so we work from home 3 days a week and go to the office for the other 2. On office days, I train by going for a run around town. I’m training for a 60 km long-distance ultramarathon, which normally takes place in rugged terrain with lots of mountains. I’ve completed 5 ultramarathons and a 107 km race, a renowned road race in Riga.
My favorite place to train is in Sigulda, a town not far from Riga, with plenty of beautiful forest trails. I try to train here at least once a week. While the steepest incline maxes out at 80 m, climbing it 10–18 times is highly effective.
When I get home from training, I’m very hungry. I try to get in protein and substance for breakfast, so I go with something like oatmeal, but it varies day by day. Then I quickly get ready for work. At 8:00, I bike to the office.
9:00 Coffee time
The first thing I do when I get to the office is to make a coffee and grab a snack from the kitchen. I love hanging around the coffee machine because it’s where everyone sporadically gathers, which allows me to catch up with various colleagues. I then go to my desk and say hello to my team. We’ll normally chat and get ready for our daily meeting. We have 10 people on our team, so work is super hands-on and personal because we’re all very close.
9:30 Daily planning meeting
Our office stretches quite a distance from one end to another, so we used to have a scooter to get from one end to the other, but I don’t know where it went. Without the scooter, we walk to the “It’s tee time” meeting room, where we have our first meeting to plan out our week.
At first glance, our meeting rooms have seemingly random names, but they all have deeper meanings. This particular room is a golf reference. Similar to those playing the sport, we’re always on time, and well-organized. If you miss the tee time, you risk not being able to play at all– effectively, you snooze– you lose! It’s a reminder for constant development and remaining at the top of things in whatever we do.
10:00 Time to code
I love working in Front-end development because I used to work in graphic design, so I enjoy watching everything come together visually. This is the part of the day that I get most of my coding done. My team codes in Javascript, HTML, and CSS. There are also a lot of additional programs and tools that we use. In my case, I use frameworks, like Vue.js, Nuxt, Lit (for web components), and I also use test writing tools, like Jest and Cypress. I also do research and bug fixing at this time, as well as review other team members’ code. We always review code before we put it into production.
12:00 Team lunch
The engineering team normally eats lunch together, since we all love spicy food. Our current favorite restaurant is Stockpot, in the city center. They have spicy Asian food with a spice radar from 1-10 that you can pick from. I love having lunch with my team, and I think the people I work with are the best part of Mintos.
We like to celebrate birthdays and name days at Mintos, so when we get back from lunch, there’s usually cake in the kitchen. I grab a piece with my team before we head for our next meeting.
13:00 Demo meeting
This time, we’re off to our “M2” meeting room named after our founders, who are both named Martins. Once a week, we have a code demo meeting where we show each other our code. Internally, we joke that it’s a “roast”, but it’s actually a pleasant experience because everyone on the team communicates well. Because we’re a small team, these meetings are effective and a great learning opportunity.
14:00 Back to my desk
After our meeting, it’s back to my desk to code. Right now, we’re working on a new project which is launching very soon, and we’re incredibly excited. We’re currently in the development and testing phase. It’s been a bit of a learning curve with a quick turnaround and strict deadlines, so we’re working hard to get ready for the upcoming launch.
16:00 All-hands meeting
We have our all-hands meeting twice a month on Fridays. It’s such a nice way to end the week. The whole company gathers, and we talk about company developments and ask questions. We all sit on bean bags and drink beers during the meeting. When the meeting is over, we eat pizza and socialize. This is such a great opportunity to talk to other colleagues that I don’t get to see as much. We have such a friendly work culture and everyone loves hanging out after the meeting.
17:00 or 18:00 Bike home
After work, I bike home. I don’t live too far from the office and it’s an enjoyable ride home. It’s also a good way for me to unwind a little after work.
19:00 See family and friends
I normally have dinner or grab drinks with family or friends after work. Living in Riga is so convenient because although it’s a capital city with many resources, it’s not too big so my family and friends are pretty close.
20:00 Wind down
After a productive day, this is my favorite time to relax. I love reading and watching shows on Netflix. Specifically, I’ve been catching up on my favorite sitcom, Friends. I’ve also been loving documentaries recently, but it depends on my mood. I’ll grab a glass of wine and get cozy on my couch.
23:00 Bedtime
After unwinding, it’s time for bed. I brush my teeth and I make sure my alarm is set for the next day, then lights out.
About Santa
Santa is a Front-end developer at Mintos. Santa comes from a graphic design background, and she’s been working with the Mintos development team in the investment department for about 2.5 years, starting as an intern. One of her first big projects at Mintos was the implementation of Notes.
