Switching from high code to Mendix’ low code? The story of Robin
A year ago, Robin Maassen could not have imagined he would be working as a low-code developer today. His background was entirely in high code development, and in that he felt like a fish out of water. Yet this summer he made the switch to the world of Mendix and low code. In this blog, he shares his experiences and discoveries.
The transition
During my computer science training at Intec Brussels, I learned several high-code programming languages. In the five years that followed, I gained more and more experience in high-code development, and I loved it. I was able to program complete solutions from scratch, where you control all the strings. Looking back on it now, I realize that this is a cumbersome and outdated way of building software. Why would you want to program everything from scratch when you can work with ready-made building blocks that you can put together completely to your own liking? Not only does this make the development process much easier, but it also saves you oceans of time.
Returning to the Netherlands
After years of living in Belgium, I began to dream of returning to the Netherlands. Reopening my LinkedIn profile was the first – exciting – step. I wanted to see what opportunities there were for me in the Netherlands. I soon got in touch with Cooder, the recruitment firm that helped me find my previous job as a Progress developer five years ago. They put me in touch with Mendify. The first call was via videocall. There was such a good click right then, that the conversation fizzled out. I quickly had a positive image of Mendify as a company. Now I just had to discover if low-code was really as powerful as everyone said. And that soon became clear.
Convinced of the power of Mendix
After the initial conversations, I was asked if I could develop a small application in Mendix. This assignment included a use case and a brief summary of the basics of Mendix’s low-code platform and an explanation of how to create a data model. When I started this assignment, I expected that setting up this project would take me at least a full day. To my surprise, this was not the case at all. Within two hours, I set up an MVP concept. This immediately convinced me of the power of Mendix and the potential of low-code. The ability to set up projects quickly and iterate makes me believe that low-code is the future. Despite other offers, including that of a position as a Progress developer, I decided to choose Mendify.
The Mendify Academy
After joining the company, I began the Mendify Academy, a four-week intensive training program. During this training you will work on one large use case. Each week is structured as a sprint, followed by a demo to coaches and fellow students at the end of each sprint. In addition, we began each morning with a stand-up to discuss progress and possible challenges. The first sprint focused on building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). In subsequent sprints, we expanded our skills to include topics such as Xpath, importing data from Excel, email integration, using APIs and shaping the app. Informative knowledge sessions at the beginning of each sprint allowed us to delve deeper and deeper into low-code. After absorbing the theoretical knowledge, it was time to apply it in practice.
Personal growth
Unfortunately, the first sprint started with a setback for me: I woke up with a fever and had to call in sick. As a result, I missed a half-day knowledge session and the start of the sprint. Fortunately, I felt better the next day and was also able to get to work. First I watched the knowledge session back and around noon I was finally able to start the sprint. This went very smoothly: I quickly mastered the basics. If I did get stuck for a while, it never lasted long, thanks to the good online documentation and help from the coaches. After a few days of hard work on the sprint, I was almost done. On Wednesday, the day before the demo, we all had a personal coaching session. This session served to discuss the application and review what we had developed. In addition, the coach was able to offer help when we ran into something.
A new challenge
A day later it was time to give a demo. For me, this was completely new. For the past five years, I just worked as a developer and never had to present my code to a client. A great new challenge that gave me the opportunity to improve my presentation skills. Fortunately, the demo days were set up so that we had a chance to learn how to do this. Each morning we started with a practice round (dry run), followed by feedback on how we presented the demo and on the application itself. This feedback gave us the opportunity to make the final touches before we gave the real demo in the afternoon.
More complex processes
Subsequent sprints went more or less the same way, and each time my knowledge expanded. For example, I learned how to set up more complex processes in Mendix. Again, you do that using certain building blocks rather than exclusively code. This speeds up the development process quite a bit.
The future of low-code
Looking back now, my switch to low-code appears to have been a good choice. I experienced how simple it can be to build an application base, but also how to realize more complex ideas using Mendix’s low-code platform. Low-code is revolutionizing the world of software development and is definitely the future.
Are you our future-maker?
Does Robin’s story sound like music to your ears. Does Mendify also seem like the perfect place for you to start, develop or continue your career? Then don’t wait any longer and take action by applying to one of our vacancies, in the Netherlands or Belgium.