10 years at Igalia
Monday 9th April 2007… that was my first day working at Igalia, a really important day in my life. 😊
How I met Igalia #
Just after finishing my Computer Science degree in Ourense, I had the chance to start a 6-months internship at PSA Peugeot Citroën in Vigo. There was the first time I heard about Igalia, and it was like a dream. First it was a free software company based in Galicia, I was a free software lover, and had been using it extensively since my first years in the University (despite being a rare exception there where most teachers still used proprietary software, hopefully things have improved now). Another unbelievable point was that it had a flat structure and you could become co-owner of the company in a few years after you entered. During that internship Igalia posted some job offers, so I decided to apply and I was happily selected to join the company. 😆
Joining Igalia was an awesome experience, apart from the technical work (where Igalia has contributions to lots of free software projects that you use every day) the people in the company were really kind and helpful. From the first day my mentor Loren, which has eventually become one of my best friends, was explaining me everything I needed about the company. As time passed I was evolving trough the 3 stages: employee, assembly member and partner/co-owner of the company. It’s amazing how you can start to contribute to the company decisions so soon, and how you feel like the company is yours since the first days. I’m extremely grateful to the people who let me join the company at that time and give the opportunity to become part this wonderful family. 😍
Some highlights about my work in Igalia #
During the first times I was working with TYPO3 CMS contributing to some extensions and also some patches to the main project itself. I even had the opportunity to attend my first international conference T3CON08 in Berlin. The next step was a project called LibrelPlan an open source web planning tool, again working on the Web as main technology.
By the end of 2012 Igalia had gained a relevant position within the WebKit community. Trying to take advantage of all my previous experience around the Web, I joined the Igalia Web Platform team, where I started to contribute to WebKit initially and Chromium/Blink later. As any newcomer I started my contributions with some small patches here and there, but as time passed I got more and more involved on the implementation of CSS standards which allowed me to be granted reviewer/owner position in these projects.
Due to my work around CSS, and particularly CSS Grid Layout, I started to participate on the W3C discussions specially inside the CSS WG, where I didn’t miss the chance to join, as external observer, their face-to-face meeting on the last TPAC. On top of that I’ve attended more and more conferences and I’ve been luckily selected to speak in some of them like BlinkOn 2, CSSConf US 2015, HTML5DevConf 2015, BlinkOn 6. Also lately I’m part of the organization of the Web Engines Hackfest. All this stuff has been really exiting, I’m loving it!
Closing note #
Igalia is an incredible company, I cannot think in a better place to work. Igalia will be celebrating its 16th anniversary this year, my first 10 years here have been wonderful and in the years to come I just hope for the best. I’ve met lots of nice people in both Igalia and the projects I’ve been involved, thank you all!
Taking a look to the past it’s clear that the Web has had a huge impact on my career, as I’ve been working for 10 years on different things but all very closely related to the Web. And I don’t have plans to move away from it any time soon.
Let’s keep rocking in the free world. 😎