Meet Jeffrey, Lead Full Stack Developer

Since 2012, Jeffrey van Norden has been a valuable member of team Grexx, bringing both positivity and expertise to the company. He joined as a service desk employee but has since risen to become Lead Full Stack Developer. Jeffrey played a key role in rebuilding the Grexx Platform and is highly knowledgeable about its workings. In this interview, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know Jeffrey a little better.

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"I earned a bachelor's degree in business informatics followed by a master's degree in Intelligent Computer Systems at the University of South Wales. Nowadays, I believe that program is referred to as Artificial Intelligence. Towards the end of my masters, I began discussing job opportunities with Pieter. I had an interview with him and Ton, which sparked my enthusiasm right away. I was excited about what Grexx was doing, but for me, it was also a fantastic chance to start working immediately—especially since we were facing a crisis at that time, making this opportunity quite rare. So, I accepted right away and have been here ever since.

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At first, I primarily worked on the support desk and provided consulting services. Bart taught me everything about the platform, and I had a few clients for whom I did development work. This lasted for a year or two, but eventually, we both realized that there was room for improvement. As mentioned in Bart's proposal piece, we saw potential in enhancing the platform's structure and architecture.

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Bart and I made a plan. We dedicated a whole weekend to outlining everything and organizing it all. During that time, we tinkered and worked out our vision, even beginning to write some of the code. Once we were satisfied with our progress, we shared it with the rest of the team, and they agreed to move forward with it. And thus began Project Atalanta: the redevelopment of the original Grexx Platform into what it is today. The first lines of code we wrote during that weekend are still present in the project's current state."

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Embracing variety

“The best part of my job is the constant variety. Working for a smaller organization allows me to be involved in all aspects of our projects, preventing me from being pigeonholed. One day I could be setting up servers and analyzing infrastructure, while the next day I'm programming or thinking about our company's architecture. And in a small company, there are always peripheral projects, like deciding to renovate the interior of the office, or plan a team weekend. There is always something to do which is nice.

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The development team now consists of eight people which is a great, so we try to make sure to have fun together outside of work. We have just decided to create outings where our colleagues live: the first outing coming up is in Deventer, where Anne-Marie lives. I don’t know the exact details, but it will probably include food or a local tour. It's going to be fun, it's nice that we're doing that as a team."

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Focusing on the technology

“Our team has significantly expanded over the past few years. As the team lead, I provide guidance and direction to the developers, but managing people is not really my forte. This was evident when I first met Ton in 2012; as the CTO at the time, he was more focused on building and creating things rather than managing others. In school, I had been taught that as a developer, your career path would eventually lead you to a managerial position after a certain number of years of experience. But with Ton, I realized that there are different ways to approach this career path. You can focus on programming and technology without necessarily becoming a manager. Though now, with over ten years of experience under my belt, I can take on a different role and enjoy it, crafting and building is still my passion. 

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I split my work week between the office and working from home. Typically, I work at home for three days and in the office for two days. While I find my office days more enjoyable, I tend to be more productive when working from home. This balance works well for me."