uProfile January 2020: Alice Puricica

For how long have you been working with Umbraco?

3 years in total.

2 years in developing solutions in Umbraco and 1 more year of integration work with Umbraco.

Favorite Umbraco moment or achievement? 

It has to be the first agency project I ever did. It was the first time I actually sank my teeth into the Umbraco APIs and built an import.

What in your Umbraco career are you most proud of? 

Having my own Umbraco Sweeden Festival talk. 

After working on a challenging project, I got invited to talk about it and share it with the Umbraco community in September 2019. 

What about Umbraco keeps you coming back for more? 

This one is easy: the community. 

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a festival or Codegarden without knowing I was going to see a familiar face.

I also know that if I am ever stuck, there are many people out there who have had the same issue and would be happy to share their experiences and solutions, whether it’s on Our or the Community Slack channel.

What are you currently working on? 

My first Umbraco 8 project.

I have mostly been working with Umbraco 7 for a while so I’m very curious to see just how many things have changed and how everything works in Version 8. 

Furthermore, I have been to a couple of talks on version 8, but nothing compares to getting your hands dirty with the new version.

What are your top 3 best tips for an Umbraco newbie? 

1. Go to Codegarden and Umbraco festivals - it’s a one of a kind experience that gets better the more you go. And the people you meet each year are simply phenomenal.
   
   
2. If ever in doubt about anything Umbraco related, ask - Slack, Our or a friend - doesn’t matter. Just ask. Odds are someone has had the same issue before and can help with an answer. Either that, or you can make your own contribution that could help many others in the future.
   
   
3. Get a little pet project. There is no better way of getting a sense of the software than testing it out and trying to implement it yourself. Download some packages, look at some source code and get inspired to keep up with the latest version.

Any aspirations for your future? 

I would like to have a talk at Codegarden eventually, but I don’t know about what :)

What is on your desk at work?

A bunch of plastic toy soldiers.

Every day, after every activity, if I use energy on something I take out a plastic soldier from the tin can. If I run out of a specific colour for the day, it means that I cannot take more time for that activity.

I haven’t run out of any soldiers yet.

Agency work can be demanding, so being aware of expended energy is important to me.

Each colour represents an activity (blue is for emails, green is for development, yellow for meetings and red for… frustrating things I have no control over 😊). This way, I become more aware of how I actually spend my time at work.

What books are you currently reading?

On top of technical books, I do enjoy to read some fiction as well.

I usually switch between these two categories. 

Currently, I am alternating between "Clean Architecture" by Robert C. Martin and "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman.

What's on top of your bucket list?

Going to New York to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and looking at van Gogh’s Starry Night painting.

I am a huge fan of his work and travelled a bit to admire some of his other pieces. I have yet to see my favourite one.

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And that was all we had for today! Thank you for telling us a bit about your Umbraco journey, Alice 🙌! If you’d like to connect with her, you can find her on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

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