10 in 5. John Hult, Developer at Humblebee.

As you know, all our Product Teams here at Humblebee have a nice balance of business, tech and design. How the dickens can you create outstanding services and new business models without those ingredients??

With that in mind, here’s one of our razor sharp developers. He’s as sharp a dresser as he is developer… Mr John Hult.

1. Hello John! How the devil are you?
   I’m feeling fantastic! Trying to make the most out of the “current situation”. Really tired of saying “current situation” though.
2. What do you do at Humblebee?
   Whatever I damn well please! Nah, that was a lie. I’m simply a humble developer. I focus mostly on front-end. Considering our tech stack, I sometimes dabble in the dark arts that are full-stack developing as well, but that is mostly for smaller projects.
3. Can you tell us exactly what a developer at Humblebee does?
   Considering the projects we get at Humblebee, I can’t really give a complete walkthrough of what a day looks like. That’s a big reason why I joined Humblebee. I like working in smaller teams and taking on projects that last for a limited amount of time. That keeps me sane. I’m also quite the generalist, and interested in UI/UX as well as the business side of things, which makes these small projects fantastic. The reason for that is that you get to be a part of the whole process, and can come with input along the way, from a tech perspective. Recently I’ve worked with Polestar, which has been both challenging and fun, but now I’m moving on to my next project, whatever that will be!
4. How come you ended up being a coder? What’s your background story?
   I took the Rollercoaster-path™ towards becoming a coder. Started with theater education, moved on to preparatory year at Chalmers, studied Software Engineering and got involved in Gothenburg Startup Hack. From that I got offered a job as a designer. I worked with that for a while but missed coding a bit and moved towards frontend development. Eventually I landed at Humblebee!
5. Tell us about 1 project you’re particularly proud of…
   Mölnlycke CSR (in-house event app) was on a tight budget, really small team and we were definitely a bit understaffed for that one. The end-result, however, was a success. We could have spent more time to straighten things out, but considering the circumstances, it turned out great! Big shout-out to our great designers that made it look clean as f*ck.
6. What’s the best thing about coding?
   For me, it’s always been the possibility to create something that can actually be used from an idea. I have a lot of different ideas I want to try out or learn and just being able to sit down and actually having enough knowledge to make an MVP for myself is just something I really think is cool.
7. Ever found any particularly nasty bugs?
   I don’t do bugs ;)
   Hahaha, that is complete bullshit. Yeah, I’ve gotten a couple of nasty bugs. I remember working on a side project, a mobile puzzle game. I created the whole game in React Native because… well, I wanted to learn React Native and I wanted to do a game. React Native is not meant for games! I had a lot of issues along the way. For example, the background music that was meant to play didn’t stop when going out of the app. At one time it froze and I couldn’t close the app so the music just continued… forever. Some say it’s still playing today.
8. We love JavaScript here at Humblebee, what’s the best thing about working with that?
   Personally, I like JavaScript because of the freedom it offers. Basically, the opposite to Typescript. It is very much dependent on the size of the project though. I can really see bigger projects having a lot of advantages with harder typing as it can easily get hard to get an overview once the project grows too big. The second thing I like is how easy it is to get up and running with a project.
9. Do you have any advice for people starting out their career and considering coding?
   To me, it’s definitely a career choice for the future. I would say to make yourself hireable by looking into what people use at the moment and learning a bit of that. It’s a great way to get started. Also, learn the basics first. And most importantly, practice your people skills. Most people can learn how to code, but being a good team player and having good communication skills will get you a long way as well.
10. Tell us about how Design Thinking Methods influence your life as a coder.
    I mean, we work according to different design thinking methods in Humblebee so whether I like it or not, it will influence me. I do like it though, just to be clear on that point. I think there are a lot of reasons as to why it’s great. Every idea needs to be worked on before it turns into something great. You don’t just take a couple of pieces of wood and slap them together to get an amazing sofa. As with all things, putting time and thought into the process is what will yield a good end result. The design thinking methods is what makes a good idea into an even greater product.
11. If you could give a company one piece of advice (from a business perspective) in terms of coding, programming or ways of working, what would it be?
    Stop supporting IE11. It has to end. But for more serious advice, I’d say that there are amazing possibilities out there to incorporate leading edge tech in your companies. It will always be worth it to get a better base from the start. Both for your mental health and money-wise in the long run. Humblebee knows how these work and are constantly learning new stuff so feel free to drop someone at Humblebee a message if you need help.

Cheers Johnny!! That was actually 11-in-5, so thanks for that. See you IRL again soon hopefully! You’re nice on a webcam, but even nicer in real life. :)

If you’re interested in working at Humblebee then get in touch and we’ll meet up for coffee and a chat.

Contact:
Russell Clark
e. russell.clark@humblebee.se
t. +46 (0)734 359 741
w. humblebee.se