#DevDiary: Welcoming new team members in Lisbon

What’s different on this occasion? They’re all based in Lisbon, Portugal – where Eric, Pedro and Nuno will be working remotely alongside our 25-strong tech team in the UK.

This is an important step for the business as we continue to expand our international footprint – working closely with our European partners in a post-Brexit business climate – and expanding our development bandwidth in a big pool of talent.

A PMC welcome

To help welcome Eric, Pedro and Nuno to the PMC team – Senior Integrations Engineer and Nearshoring Lead, Chris Townsend, headed over to Lison to spend the week there.

We spoke to Chris about his time in Lisbon and how it helped the onboarding process for the new recruits, with a brief Lisbon cameo coming in the form of PMC Head of Development – Dwayne Rowley!

Over to Chris…

Onboarding the new team

“It was brilliant to head over to Lisbon to spend the week with the new guys – not only to welcome them and get into our tech stack and how we operate, but also to live and work in such an incredible city.

“At PMC, wherever you’re working, it’s essential you feel part of our culture and shared ethos. Eric, Pedro and Nuno are key and equal members of our team, and the last thing we want is for them to feel like they’re operating in a silo.

“All three guys have strong but different tech backgrounds – with Eric having 20 years PHP knowledge, Pedro with C# cloud platform expertise and Nuno a full stack developer with TypeScript and JavaScript. They picked things up super quickly and started their first tickets within a few days!”

Lisbon’s culture

“For me personally the trip was a brilliant development opportunity, integrating into a different working environment – including visiting the Hexis Technology Centre, which is a real hub. I was staying right on the coast which provided a stunning backdrop whenever I looked out of my Airbnb.

“Culturally, I loved Lisbon – and it proved pretty different weather wise in winter compared to the UK! Lunchtime was always really cool, with great places to eat and I could go and see the beautiful architecture.The food in general is amazing there. I’d always try and find a new spot every day.

“The evenings were also super fun. When Dwayne our Head of Development came we all went out for some drinks and a meal, which was a good opportunity to get to know the guys on a more personal level – including Nuno’s musical theatre, Pedro’s bee keeping and Eric’s love of playstation gaming!”

A worthwhile trip

“Most importantly, though, it was a really worthwhile trip meeting the new team members in person and integrating them to all things PMC.

“It has meant the guys have hit the ground running and their productivity since then has been superb. They’re proving to be a real asset to the company. Also – for other PMC dev team members, I couldn’t recommend visiting Lisbon enough!”

Chris Townsend, Senior Integrations Engineer

Thanks for your time and thoughts Chris… we should book in another #DevDiary soon.