Andrea Vicari, Full-stack Software Developer, EOC

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Alumni Service

7 December 2020

In order to help current students and recent graduates to find their way in the working world, many of our alumni shared their career story. Here the story of Andrea Vicari, Full-stack Software Developer for EOC - Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale in Bellinzona. USI Degree: Master of Science in Software & Data Engineering , 2019, Bachelor of Science in Informatics, 2017.

How did you start your career?

I applied at the position that was sent to us students while I was working on my Master Thesis, during February 2019. After a 3-steps interview I got the confirmation that I got hired during May 2019 and I started working on 1st July 2019. It was very nice being hired in a company (and for the position I was interested in) even before finishing my studies so that I could directly dive into this new chapter of my life.

Why did you choose a career at EOC?

I was looking to start a job right after my Master Thesis discussion. I got informed about EOC and found out that it had a big software house with almost 100 developers. I found very interesting to have the possibility to work in a big environment with many developers to share ideas and opinions. Furthermore, I liked the idea of developing software that would be used in production by many people.

What is your current role/duties?

I am currently a full-stack software developer. My current project aims to help doctors to prescribe the laboratory analyses. I use technologies like React, Node, Feathers.js and MongoDB, etc

In your opinion, what are the qualities necessary for a successful career at EOC?

You need to be ready to work as a team: at EOC we work using the Agile process of development with sprints of two weeks. You need to be open to use the newest technologies as we are adopting a fresh approach to building software using React, Node, MongoDB. Everything deployed autonomously by Jenkins and running in Docker containers.

What positive aspects and qualities meant most to you during the study programme you attended?

The Master in Software and Data Engineering allowed me to enter in both worlds of Software Engineering and Data Analysis. These two words have been usually separated in two different people but thanks to this master program I have been able both to develop, create and architect software from scratch and also to manage, analyze, visualize big amounts of data.

What competences and/or skills acquired in your USI Study Program have been useful/are useful to your professional career?

USI gives you many possibilities to work as a team thanks to the Atelier courses and the fact that you work close to your classmates in the openspace.  Before  starting  my  job,  I  had  experienced  the  Agile  software development process thanks to the courses that I took at USI. During my years at the university, we used many different tools, frameworks and programming languages. Thanks to this variety of skills that I acquired it was not difficult for me to learn new technologies like React and Feathers.js in just a couple of weeks. The USI program wants to teach you a general approach to programming rather than a specific programming language.

What is your advice to USI students entering the job market?

Make the most out of your years at university: program a lot and make a lot of experience by working hard in you assignments and group projects. The fact that you practiced a lot during your university years will, for sure, benefit your CV and will facilitate your hiring process when you will apply for a job in a company.

Watch Andrea's video career story