Meet Pedro! Service Coordinator and Senior Software Consultant at AKKA Spain

Tell me about your background and culture, where you took off and how it evolved.

My career started while I was still studying. I was born in a family of engineers, so my path was pretty clear from the beginning. As I have always been interested in computer science, programming and technology, I became an Audiovisual Systems Engineer. During the third year of my engineering degree, I started getting interested in the field of robotics, so I looked up something that helped me developing my robotics and programming skills thanks to a research group. When I started my master’s degree, I joined another research group focused on aerial robotics and I published two scientific papers. After that, I decided to move to the corporate world and started as a junior developer at a well-known consulting company in which I worked for two years developing an intelligent automation tool. 

It has been a year since I joined the AKKA team here in Madrid and my day to day allows me to improve my technical skills as well as evolve professionally which is very important from my personal point of view.

What’s the greatest challenge you’ve overcome in your professional/academic career?

The greatest challenge I have overcome in my professional/academic career is at the same time a challenge I will always have to overcome. We live in the era of modern technologies, and I work in cutting-edge technology which means I’m continuously learning new things and I can’t get too comfortable sitting on my chair. Having to look always what’s happening out there, what’s the state of the art of certain technology and understand how it works to try to get the better of it and use it in my day-to-day is.

To better perform in this world you have to go international. And that does not always mean you have to move to another country, but for me, it’s important to work with people from several countries. 

What interested you in AKKA?

AKKA offered me one of the most interesting projects of my career: Autonomous drones for aircraft inspection. Having the opportunity to work and solve a real challenge is the dream of every engineer (hence, mine too). Besides, the job would allow me to work for an international company and in the military environment as the idea was to implement the system for Airbus Defence and Space.

From a career point of view, AKKA allowed me to develop my management career as I was in charge of a small development team and now I’m in continuous communication with the client.

Tell me your hobbies/interests.

I have a lot of hobbies! I like to think I’m a full-stack engineer and I don’t mean that I develop both frontend and backend of a web page, I mean that I love everything related to building something new, crafting and mounting, assembling and connecting. At home I’m always doing something related to the mechanic of my motorcycle, assembling the new robot I just bought, mounting a lamp, repairing a faucet, or printing something in 3D.

Besides that, I try to have a healthy lifestyle which is why I like sports such as Crossfit, basketball, or soccer. When I need to think, I like to jump on my bike and hit the road, that gives me time to think and enjoy some amazing places.

Tell me about the greatest thing you’ve learned from a colleague/mentor.

I’ve learned so many things from a lot of people in my short professional career. I like to listen to what my environment tells me and that allows me to better do my job. 

When my professional career started, I always feared failure, but my boss told me that we learn from failure. We live in a world where several factors might slow down progress so we have to embrace proactivity and hard work in order to move forward. Since then, a sentence has driven my professional career: “Attitude makes the difference”.

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