GETYOURGUIDE

My name is Nicholas and I’m a Tech Lead on the Engineering team in GetYourGuide’s Zurich office! I’m here with Fabio to talk about a recent team event he and his team did. So, without further ado…

Collaborating for the Hackathon!

Hey Fabio!

Hey Nick!

Q: Fabio, what’s your role at GetYourGuide?

I’m the Team Lead of the DevOps team in Zurich. I’m responsible for managing the infrastructure for our webservice and a lot of the back-end systems.

Q: Cool! So I heard you went on a trip to the Swiss Alps with your team, where did you go?

We went to Poschiavo.  It’s where my father grew up and where I spent a lot of summers when I was young. Recently, I wanted to go there to show my team the region where I grew up.

Q: Who organized the trip?

The entire team helped organize the trip, and they were all super guests.

Q: Very nice. So where did you all stay?

My family has a hut there.  

Q: I saw some interesting pictures from your trip of a local restaurant providing the team with treats and things. What were you and your colleagues doing in Poschiavo besides eating?

Besides eating??? Well, we originally decided to do a DevOps team event, but then we invited all the people in the Zurich office.  Our goal was to do a “Hack and Hike” event. We spent three days in this area in Poschiavo, and we stayed in the hut.  

The first day was Hackathon day, so we worked on a very specific project that was DevOps related. Our other non-team members worked with us as well, so there were many different sides and interpretations of the project.  Then, the second day we hiked!

Q: So what was it like being offline? What was beneficial doing a team event in such a remote area?

The Hackathon we organized in Poschiavo was actually in a conference room with internet.  We could even attend the Friday update, so we weren’t completely disconnected from GetYourGuide!  However, it was fun to have a completely different view during the update than when we are in the office. In Poschiavo we could work, but it was a different environment with better food than in Zurich.  

Q: Besides doing the Hackathon and the hike, what other activities did you do?

Well the eating was a big part of the whole trip. On Saturday evening, we made dinner all together.  We did a BBQ and played board games and card games.  We had a lot of fun together!

Q: And how was the scenery in the Alps? Is the hut very high up?

Our hut is at about 1,900 meters, so there are still trees and some forest.  We went down to Cavaglia and then from there up to Alp Grün, some very famous places in Poschiavo. Near Alp Grün you can see the Palü Glacier.  The Palü Glacier also has a small lake, and two of us even went swimming for a few minutes, but it was very cold.  

Q: I bet! So if you were a guide in Poschiavo, on a totally different career path, what sort of activities would you recommend?  

Usually, the tourists that go there are going hiking or biking; there are a lot of biking trails. It’s mostly famous in the summer for very nice hiking trails on both sides of the valley.  The village is also quite interesting.  It was renovated about 20 years ago after a flood.  It has a lot of very nice buildings and museums.  My grandfather actually helped build them up! These are the main attractions of the village. Apart from that you can also go to Italy and have some ice cream or pizza like we did.  

Thank you Fabio for sharing, and we look forward to hearing about your next adventures.

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Interested in Engineering and want to join the Zurich team? Check out our career page.

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