🎤 Dorian Ouakli, our R&D Engineer

Back with our series of interviews spotlighting our XWikiers career stories! Today, let's meet Dorian, our R&D Engineer, and find out how he got to join XWiki as an intern, tackling a challenging task involving Quick Actions. He then joined the team as a full-timer, and now we're happy to share his experience with you. But wait, there's more! XWiki life isn't just about coding. Let's also explore what Dorian enjoys doing when he's not knee-deep in code.

Dorian

in 5 things

• Favorite artist: ZUN

• Best book ever read: "Hiss" by Amaya Ash

• Dream destination: India

• Quote you live by: "The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live – moreover, the only one." ― Emil Cioran

• At the office or remote? Remote

Tell us about yourself

I'm Dorian, 22 years old. I have been improving the usability of the Rich Text editor in XWiki for the past year as an R&D Engineer within the XS Squad. I have always loved to learn how to do new things, mostly about computers. But I do surprise myself learning songs or recipes for cakes or drawing. I enjoy mostly admiring scenic landscapes, and problem-solving.

🌄 The internship experience

How did you find out about XWiki, and what made you choose it for an internship?

I went to FOSDEM 2023 with my CV in my backpack! I had already heard of XWiki once before meeting the team at FOSDEM, but didn't actually know anything about it or about CryptPad. I spent nearly two hours at the XWiki Stand discovering XWiki by chatting with Anca, Clément, and Simon.

XWiki was everything I was looking for, but I never knew existed. I thought that open source was synonym of low funding, but the sponsoring company was right in front of me, and growing really fast. Providing great work/personal life balance, with the 4-day work week and flexibility of choice between a full remote, or at the office work.

I already liked the people back then, when meeting them for the first time at FOSDEM, so I simply knew I wanted to join and experience XWiki! The people I saw that day were a subset of the community, but it was clear that we shared values that are important to me, the most important one probably being collaboration, which is full of kindness, giving, but also receiving and seeing things from someone else's point of view.

What was your internship experience like?

I spent 4 months in Romania, in Iași. Overall, I highly appreciated my time in the company. I found the team friendly and welcoming. I felt like a real part of the community in the office.

The team-building activities, especially a full week spent in a retreat in another Romanian city called Oradea, gave me many networking opportunities and connections with other developers. In the course of this week, we hiked the mountains, attended presentations, had a party, and more.

Together with other interns, we even had to give our own presentation in front of the whole company. I feel that I really integrated during my time in Romania.

What did you find to be the most interesting and challenging tasks?

During my internship, adding support for inserting XWiki macros using the keyboard exclusively in the Rich Text Editor was the most difficult task. It involved a long exploratory phase where I navigated the source code of XWiki trying to figure out the proper way to retrieve the list of macros at the right time.

I had to ask the community a lot of questions about what decisions to make as well as for help. But after that task, I knew a lot more about how XWiki was organized. That understanding is invaluable, yet it was only a small part of XWiki.

And what about integration into the environment? How easy, or difficult was it for you?

Huge thanks to the HR Team who helped me with the administrative part of moving to Romania for the internship, but also for finding an apartment. Everything went extra smoothly because they had my back when I needed them the most!

I was not the only newcomer on the day I arrived, and the office was more than alive. I felt welcomed, and took the time to meet everyone, while discovering the habits in the company.

As I settled, I got to know the people who often went to the office, but still regularly met with coworkers that work remotely during the activities organized by the HR team.

I spoke maybe two words of Romanian because I looked up the basics before starting my internship, but everyone at XWiki made an incredible effort to include me, by speaking in English, whenever I was around. Even when not talking directly to me.

During my internship, there were various team-building exercises. In a workshop held in a recreation center in Iași called Ludic – joc & minte (in English: Ludic – games and mind) there was a day of group activities. We had challenges such as cutting a piece of paper into the longest continuous strip possible, but without talking, to see the importance of communication.

We stood in a row with our backs turned, and one person danced, then the other person tried to copy that dance, to see how the dance evolved through communication. The goal of the HR exercises was to get us to relax and face challenges together.

In his manager's own words:

I've been working with Dorian for more than a year, initially on Quick Actions for his internship and then on real-time editing for his alternance, and I enjoyed it very much. We had long discussions about the features we were working on and he often had very good questions and suggestions that saved us valuable time. What I like about Dorian is that he's proactive, has a positive attitude (I don't remember seeing him sad, stressed or complaining about something) and he strives to deliver high-quality work (clean code, well tested and documented).

🔎 Open-source impressions

Was open source something you had an interest in prior to XWiki?

Since I learned about open source, I have been drawn to it. I have however not been much more than a user before joining XWiki. My only contributions were small bug fixes and translating Gentoo wiki pages.

What's the open-source value you identify with most?

I thrive for transparency. Everyone has something to take from transparency, whether it is to receive it or to give it. It is about letting people know what's happening when it is happening rather than being left guessing for a long time and losing faith and trust.

⏳ The XWiki experience

What made you decide to stay as a full-time employee?

The team I truly appreciate, the responsibility, pride and praise I get from my work. Having a good balance between work and my personal life has been crucial to manage school and assignments at the same time.

Did you feel like anything changed after this in the way you view or do things?

I feel more confident about what I do. All one needs is an idea and determination.

I joined XWiki in a streak of first times, I want this streak to continue and keep exploring!

What is working as an R&D Engineer at XWiki like?

My experience as an R&D Engineer has been rewarding. I started as an intern, yet my mentor, Marius, filled me in with every detail of the project we were working on. I started brainstorming ideas and Marius adapted his support to my level of autonomy. He was always there when I needed help, or was stuck. He provided very thorough and helpful code reviews, that changed the way I code everywhere.

As an R&D Engineer in the XS Squad particularly, one will be discussing and showing their work publicly. Marius was not the only XWikier who helped me and provided code reviews.

Being an R&D Engineer is about becoming part of the XWiki community, making XWiki better, making choices with the community, asking and answering questions or sharing progress. Collaboration is what stood out to me.

What would you say is the most valuable lesson you learned during your time at XWiki, so far?

Not giving feedback is the opposite of collaborating. It's staying alone, staying stuck and losing the leverage of the community that has a better overview.

Only good comes from giving feedback, whether that feedback is good or bad. It feels great to start planning for later rather than trying to run for making something happen yesterday because we thought we could.

If you could describe XWiki in one word, what would it be?

Dynamic

Favorite memory at XWiki, so far?

Eating papanași in restaurants with the team. 😋