My Journey at Codolio
From Intern to Founding Engineer
It started with a simple 2-month frontend internship contract. 1.5 years later, I'm still here, managing the entire platform infrastructure. Here's how I went from writing React components to architecting distributed systems.
Month 0-2: The Frontend Intern
I joined Codolio with a clear mandate: build UI components. But I wasn't just fixing CSS; I was shipping full-fledged React features. I spent my days managing complex client-side state, integrating APIs, and building interactive dashboards.
It was fun, but I kept peeking over the fence at the backend. I wanted to know how the data got to my components.
Month 3: I'll take that backend module
The 2-month internship ended, and a new opportunity appeared: a backend module needed to be built from scratch. I stepped up and asked to lead it.
That was the turning point. I went from writing react components to designing APIs and structuring database schemas. I wasn't just consuming endpoints anymore; I was creating the logic that powered them.
The Grind: 1.5 Years of Chaos & Growth
The learning curve wasn't a curve; it was a vertical wall. I ended up crafting 150+ APIs and taking ownership of core systems. My role expanded rapidly to cover everything from browser extensions to database optimization.
The All-Nighters
"We push to prod at dawn."
I vividly remember the pre-deployment meets. The adrenaline of debugging critical issues at 3 AM, ensuring the migration scripts run perfectly, and the relief of a successful rollout. These nights taught me resilience.
Technical Milestones
- Core Ownership: Managed the entire codebase as a founding engineer, building 80% of the UI and reducing build size by 60%.
- Backend Systems: Built a production-grade notification service (Go + Asynq) and a real-time leaderboard (Redis).
- Complex Modules: Engineered a collaborative sheets module with conflict-safe data handling.
- Internal Tools: Created Formwix, a config-based form generation library used across the platform.
- Performance: Optimized MongoDB aggregation pipelines and implemented scheduled cron jobs.
- DevOps: standardized deployment automation for Next.js (Vercel), Node.js, and Go services.
The Shift to Architect
Today, I'm not just writing code; I'm planning architecture. I'm thinking about:
- How do we scale this for the next 10k users?
- Is this schema flexible enough for future features?
- How do we reduce ease technical debt while shipping fast?
1.5 years have flown by. From a frontend intern to a core engineer driving the platform, it's been the most defining chapter of my career so far.
