What Is It Like To Be a Developer at NordPass?

Arnoldas Armonas is Lead Android Developer here at NordPass. Today, he shares his thoughts and insights about what it's like to be a part of the development team at the company.

How long have you been working in the development field? How did your career as a developer start?

I have been an Android developer for about 6 years. However, my love for the mobile platform started a bit earlier than that. When I was about 13, I got my first mobile phone. It was a Nokia. Like most Nokias at the time, it had “Snake” and “Space Impact”. The other magical thing about it was its ability to connect to the internet. Phone browsers at that time mostly used WML instead of HTML, so mobile web pages were much simpler than they are now. At the same time, it made it easier for people interested in how stuff works under the hood (like me) to play around with these technologies. In a couple of months, I built my first WML-based web pages using only my old phone.

For some reason, my interest in building stuff via software did not grow into anything but a hobby. At school, I thought that I should be a lawyer. Later, I studied renewable energetics engineering. And, only when I was finishing my master's degree in industrial engineering, it clicked that I should do what I am genuinely interested in and what makes me happy. So, long story short, I managed to get myself into the summer camp of a local software development company. After the camp, they decided to hire me as an Android developer. Fast forward six years from that moment, here I am at a company called Nord Security, working with a fantastic team of professionals and building an awesome tool to make people's lives easier and safer. Could it get any better?

What’s the best advice you can give to someone who’s just started their career in this field?

I have a couple of those:

• Be prepared to learn new stuff every day for the entirety of your career;

• Learn who uncle Bob and SOLID principles are as soon as possible;

• Most importantly, be genuinely interested in what you're doing.

What do you do at NordPass?

I work as the lead Android developer, which means that I'm not only writing code but also helping other developers to grow and making their lives at NordPass easier.

Why did you choose to join NordPass?

Of course, the Nord brand itself played its part in my decision to join. However, the potential challenges intrigued me the most.

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What exceptional challenges do you face in product development at NordPass?

We build a password manager, which requires exceptional focus on security. This involves cryptography, OS-specific things, etc. The other complex challenge we deal with is the autofill feature. It might look like a simple task, but believe me — it's not.

What strengths have you gained while working as a developer at NordPass?

Working at NordPass, I’ve grown as a developer for sure. I had to learn new stuff and find solutions to complex problems. Then learn that these solutions weren’t that great and find new ones. Before that, I was kind of a perfectionist who tended to overcomplicate stuff so the code I wrote could cover all the possible use cases. Working at NordPass made me understand that there is no such thing as the perfect solution. Most of the time, good enough is perfect.

Do you have a future vision for the NordPass product? What will NordPass look like in one year or so?

Most of those visions are internal technical things, which might not necessarily be user-facing directly. However, I feel like these things will improve the overall experience for users and developers a lot. Small hint: for those who are interested, this includes things like machine learning, multi-platform solutions, and jetpack compose.

What skills are necessary to become an Android developer at NordPass?

The most important skill is the willingness to learn. Software technologies evolve rapidly, so the skills that are required today might no longer be relevant in a year. So, what we are looking for is a character more than a skill set. We also value knowledge sharing a lot. Of course, there is a tech stack we are currently working with. So, the knowledge of these tools and technologies is a plus. We use Kotlin, Hilt, RxJava, Coroutines, Room, Retrofit, Pikachu, MVVM, and Data Binding (guess which one of those is a pokemon ;D).

Could you describe the NordPass developers’ team in a few sentences?

First, we are all NordPass users. We genuinely care about how good the app and overall product are and how things can be improved. Second, we all are tech geeks and we love building stuff.

What would you advise to a person who considers joining the NordPass team?

Just take the leap. Joining or even trying to join big companies like Nord Security might look scary just because they are big. But, behind these big names, the people working here are ordinary guys and girls. We value professionalism, but, at the same time, we love a good party. We love both dogs and cats. Sailing, basketball, racing, gaming — we all have different interests and hobbies, but, most importantly, we all love what we do here at Nord Security. So, just talk to us — we are always looking for new faces to join our teams.