Zoltán Schmidt

Education

Professional Experience

Company is the Hungarian subsidiary of a French startup company involved in video streaming and pay-per-view services. Worked as the sole programmer on-site, working with the remote team online. My first workplace with English only communication.

Performed various development tasks on a huge range of websites with the use of Django, Docker containers, and on some occasion, with shellscripting. Details:

• developing internally used Python packages to install across multiple sites
• routine bugfixing, often by checking Sentry logs
• participating in the deployment to production along with the other developers
• implementing multiple, often extensive features for precise SEO customization
• on one occasion I built up a VOD site from scratch, with the use of such internal packages - design was provided as static HTML by the UX team
• one of the packages I developed used both Google Indexing API and Indexnow for automated URL submissions each time a page has its content changed
• some feature requests impacted site maintenance - e.g. I created CSV feeds of site data that must have been re-created by cronjob daily
• countless small frontend adjustments in custom Javascript (and later Typescript) code

Working with simpler backend tools supporting the ecosystem of the cryptocurrency the company is developing.

Very little to say here actually, it was a temporary freelancer job where I worked with some friends, mostly while the coronavirus pandemic hit the country.

Tasks:

• made a Python script that could simulate block data output bytestream for testing purposes
• created a request caching and proxying tool that helped avoiding DDoS attacks on the main website
• partially developed a data deduplicator tool that in theory could have stored Docker images in smaller sizes by containing repeated data segments only once
• started the development of a NodeJS-based web app that could have provided a unified interface for various cloud computing providers - this one was never finished due to financial reasons

Company's major product is an application that provides mobile parking in dedicated lots for both individuals and B2B clients. I worked on the development of the API of the servers used on-site for tracking and communication. As this was a short period, most I did was bugfixes and a small number of new features.

This was my first time using Python in a professional environment, as well as my introduction to the Django framework and more pragmatic usage of Docker containers.

Highlights:

• bugfixes on the Django REST API used by the product
• update deprecated and unusable Swagger integration of the endpoints
• at one point, a deployment to production failed midway due to an error in Django-generated migrations; I was tasked to find the source of the problem and write an SQL script that fixes it

My first fully backend developer position at a creative agency / hosting company. Most products here involved the own websites for business clients. These were created and maintained with a modular content management system developed internally.

I spent a lot of time here and was involved in many aspect on various projects, including testing, major feature developments and even Javascript bugfixes. The main backend framework was based on PHP, while on frontend a custom set of JS functions and classes were used. Instead of containerization or virtual machines, uniform system settings were preferred for local development.

Key duties:

• understand and use every component of the internal CMS
• frequent manual testing of sites to ensure they work as intended
• implement new features in the CMS for later use
• participate in the kickoff and planning for multiple projects, based on existing requirements documentation
• going through the entire development cycle until release, usually with close collaboration with other developers

Company is part of Sonrisa International Inc.. No official specification was given for the field, but in practice, I worked as a junior frontend developer.

Here I learned a lot about the everyday practices at a larger firm. Aside of the implicit knowledge, I was introduced into the agile development, gained significant experience in versioning (Git) and started using issue tracking. (Redmine, JIRA)

My tasks:

• simple UI changes with Javascript involving database access and JSP docs
• creation of test suites with Selenium IDE, for regression testing and for video demonstration purposes
• minor bugfixes and CSS improvements on another project involving Angular 4

A very short job period originally intended to be my obligatory internship fulfillment, required by my university. I had very little to do, most involving the support of the administrative part of the team. As my first job ever, however, it was a refreshing and exciting experience nonetheless. My duties:

• manual testing of a billing machine used on-board for printing bus tickets
• creation of UI mockups for an upcomping project specification