Carlos Sotolongo, Senior Software Developer (Ottawa)

We sat down with Carlos to learn more about his role, the projects he’s working on, and his experience with the Trading Central team.

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What does the job of a Senior Software Developer entail?

The biggest part of my role revolves around writing code to implement the features that make up our products, but as a Senior Software Developer I also get to coach junior members of the team and have a more involved role in the planning of our development sprints.

Occasionally, as technology evolves, I also get to do some research work in order to keep up with emerging technology trends that can potentially make our work more efficient, produce better quality products or simply enable capabilities that were either not available to us or very difficult to achieve.

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What project are you most proud of and why?

It’s really hard to pick just one! If I had to choose I would probably say the Bling chart rendering service or the TC MetaTrader indicators project. They are two very different projects, but what I liked about both of them was the breadth of technologies involved in each, most of which were new and unfamiliar to the team, as well as the level of technical complexity involved, and the positive impact these projects had for our products and our end users.

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What are some of the things you enjoy best about working in our Ottawa office?

Hands down, it’s the people I get to work with every day! We have a very talented group of people here and there is very good chemistry and camaraderie when we get together, whether that be inside or outside the office (Aaaahhhh… those pre-covid times!). Also the variety of different technologies we are involved with makes for very interesting and challenging work.

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Do you have any guiding principles?

I try to always remain curious about new technologies and continue learning. It’s something that’s served me well throughout my career and I owe a lot of my professional growth to those two simple principles.

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What advice would you give to someone looking to join the TC team?‍

Always be willing to learn! It’s a very dynamic professional field and you’re never done learning. If you are just starting your professional career as a Software Developer, don’t get overwhelmed or discouraged by how much there is to know, realize that we all started there at some point and don’t be afraid to reach out to your teammates for help. Software development is like a craft, it takes time to hone those skills. Be patient, keep at it and keep an open mind.