Babbel’s endgame is getting people to have conversations with other people, in a new language. There are fantastic folks here making that possible. So we sit down with them from time to time, to provide a glimpse into who makes it all work, what they do, and where their heads are at.
What’s your role at Babbel? What do you do in a typical day?
I’m a professional iOS developer. A typical day starts with coffee and a cookie before stand-up at 11am. From there on it changes, and can be anything from working on new features, learning time, workshops and meetings driving new features, tutoring some developers, and learning from others.
This is a pretty international workplace. How does that influence your work?
I would say it affects my out-of-work life more than it does my work life. I’ve found myself discovering Turkish music, enjoying a Ukrainian sitcom, and traveling to Lisbon with a Portuguese teammate.
Are there tools you’ve brought with you that you find surprisingly useful?
My preference to talk face-to-face over using chat apps.
What challenges are you most animated by?
Understanding what’s really important to our users, and what helps them learn. We often discuss a certain aspect of a new feature just to look at data and realise other aspects are far more important to our users. This is something you just learn with time.
What learning/growth opportunities have impacted you most?
Babbel puts a lot of emphasis on learning and growing. It’s reflected in when you ask for time to learn and investigate new fields, and when you ask to bring new technologies and knowledge to the team.
How does working in a purpose-driven product affect your workday?
I’d used Babbel before even applying for a job, and I’m still learning German, so working for Babbel makes it both easy and fun for me to come up with new feature ideas, and new points of view for how to implement them. Babbel develops a learning product, and we are all learners, and that means that your opinion as an engineer is valued as much as that of a project manager, designer or even learning expert.
Want to work with Yotam? We’re currently looking for a Senior iOS Developer! Get at us!