Fernando ist neu bei PHOENIX MEDIA und verstärkt das Entwicklerteam mit seinen Magento 2 skills. Im Interview erzählt er uns mehr über den Entschluss, sein Heimatland Brasilien zu verlassen, um für eine deutsche Magento Agentur zu arbeiten und gibt Einblicke in seine selbst geschriebenen Magento 2 Bücher.
Interview with Fernando José Miguel
Please introduce yourself and tell me why you have decided to become a developer?
„My name is Fernando and I’m from Brazil. Since I was a child I love to play computer, video games and stuff like that. Also my brother has incentivised me to work as a developer. He was the first person that introduced me to PHP. Today he is working as an executive at IBM in Brazil. So I’ve decided to study Information Systems at the Centro Universitário Módulo in Caraguatatuba (São Paulo/Brazil) after finishing highschool. Basically that’s the story. *laughs*“
When did you start developing?
„That was in 2004 when I’ve started my studies at university.“
You wanted to work for a German agency. Why?
„Oh, that’s a great question. Well, I think all my life I was looking for a challenge and a strong Magento Enterprise Solutions Partner in Europe to work with. Because of many powerful Magento modules PHOENIX MEDIA has developed, the agency was well known to me even before my start of work in Stuttgart. In this context I’ve seen a big chance to improve myself and to grow both as a person and as a professional. Because of my new job I had to leave my hometown and move in a foreign country with another culture and so many new impressions. So that are the main reasons why I am here today.“
How did you get into contact with PHOENIX MEDIA?
„Oh, that’s a funny story! *laughs* For me it was very important to provide my profile information and CV on LinkedIN also in English. So, when I’ve created my account on the platform I decided to write my résumé in Portuguese and English. During that time I was also working on one of my Magento books. So I wrote about my experience with Magento, too and then I received a message from Dirk Schwarz asking me if I would be interested in starting developing for PHOENIX MEDIA.“
Please tell us a little bit about your work at PHOENIX MEDIA!
„I’m working as a Magento backend developer. So I’m involved in different projects, in which I can bring my expertise in. I work with new technologies and tools, always trying to provide the team and the whole company with some new opportunities. As a Magento 2 expert I also train my colleagues and pass on my knowledge in this area. All in all it’s very important to me improving the way of developing projects to get even better results.“
You wrote three Magento 2 Books. That’s very interesting. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Why did you decide to write a book and what are the books about?
„That’s a funny story, too, because I didn’t plan anything concerning that. In 2011 I started to work with Packt Publishing, a publishing company. They sent a message to me on LinkedIN after checking my résumé and then asked, if I would be interested in working together with them on several Magento books as well as a video class. As I saw a chance to improve both my English and technical knowledge I took this opportunity and agreed. In this context I worked as a technical reviewer, wrote improvement suggestions and commented their work.
But that’s not the end of the story. In 2015 they invited me to write an own book about Magento 2 and I thought: Why not? So I agreed again. At that time I wanted to contribute something own to the great work of the Magento community and of course I was always thinking about possibilities to improve myself. That’s the reason why I’ve decided to write a book. It’s called „Magento 2 Development Essentials“. That was very challenging, because I had to write in another language and about a technical topic. Also Magento 2 was in the early stages of development by this time. And after that they asked me, if I would be interested in writing two books more together with a group of talented authors. So in October 2016 „Magento 2 Theme Design“ and in March 2017 „Magento 2 – Build World-Class online stores“ were published.
So all in all I wrote three Magento 2 books and reviewed three Magento books as well as a video class. Although it was very challenging, it was a pleasure for me to work on these books and I really enjoyed the work with the professionals in realizing something great.“
How can readers benefit from your books?
„The books are introducing the Magento development and will provide you with skills you need to successfully create themes, extensions, and solutions for Magento 2 projects. By sequentially working through the steps in each chapter, readers will quickly explore all the features of Magento 2 to create a great solution. So I think the real benefit for all people reading my books is that they’ll get a fantastic overview of Magento and a deeper understanding of how the system works.“
Why should merchants decide to use the Magento platform?
In my opinion Magento is the most powerful and flexible open-source e-commerce platform in the world nowadays. Day by day a global ecosystem of 150,000 developers and a network of 300+ solution partners make great efforts to improve the platform in order to ensure an unique experience. With Magento you are able to create awesome projects for merchants. Recently Magento was named as a leader in “The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites For Midsize Organizations, Q3 2017” report as well as a Leader by Gartner Inc. in the 2017 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce. So I would say for merchants it’s the best option to have a Magento system to work with."
Thank you so much for the interesting interview and welcome to PHOENIX MEDIA. We are really happy that you joined our team and we wish you and your family a great start in Germany!
