"It was nice to know that my colleagues had my back in my professional and personal life"

Braian is a Data Scientist at Veriff, working at our Data Extraction team. He joined the company in February 2019. He's originally from Brazil, and moved to Estonia for his job at Veriff. His everyday work-life involves experimenting with various solutions and implementing them into our product. His engineering career began in Brazil, where he worked on multiple interesting projects and improved his skills in that way. Our conversation covered his career, challenges, and life at Veriff. Enjoy!

To get readers up to speed, let’s talk about your professional life. How did you decide to choose this career path?

I have been interested in tech from a very early stage of life - I had a computer that I could build and set up by myself, and I loved the procedure of doing that. My huge interest in computer games also had a big influence on deciding my career path. 

That's what pushed me to go into the Software Engineering world - I started my university studies in Brazil with a Computer Science program, which helped me get new skills and learn a lot about Software Development. 

What’s the story behind your first Engineering job?

During my university studies in Brazil, I started working on various projects that would help me learn more about programming. One of these projects was an application for the gym I was going to during that time - I created a scheduling system for them. 

This project led me to start a Software Development internship in a company developing a management system for small shops. It was a great experience to be part of that company and get more insights into this field. During my internship, I understood that the path I wanted to take was more into Data Science, and I decided to put a lot of effort and time to develop my skills in that field. 

How did you switch from Software Development to Data Science?

As my interest in Data Science and Analysis grew, I started trying to apply it in my internship tasks from time to time. This is the way I tried to change my career path and switch from Software Development to Data Science. I started working on projects related to Data Analysis and developing products to understand this field in more detail.   

One of the biggest projects started in 2012. I decided to build a startup with some of my classmates and create a Data Analytics platform. Everything was going great - we successfully managed to onboard clients, get funding, and the platform was working well. It was a fantastic experience to build products related to Data Science and Machine Learning. 

How did you find your way to Veriff?

At the beginning of 2018, I decided to look for a job outside Brazil. I wanted to start a new adventure and take on a challenge that would help me achieve interesting results. At first, I was searching for opportunities in bigger countries such as France or Germany, but I couldn’t find anything in those areas. 

After a while, I saw an ad on Instagram for a program called “Career Hunt”. The program was about bringing people to Estonia and arranging interviews with Tech Companies here. I took it as a great opportunity because I was looking for a job in my field. I applied, and Veriff accepted, allowing me to visit Estonia for the interviews in December 2018. The procedure was very interesting - I met the team, learned more about the product, and understood the challenges Veriff had at that time. The interviews went well.

Veriff sent me a job offer after a month, and I decided to relocate to Estonia to start a new journey. 

What was the main factor for you to join Veriff?

The position that Veriff offered was exactly what I was looking for. Also, the team was fantastic, and I was sure that this opportunity would help me grow, develop my skills, and improve professionally. 

I saw a lot of potential in Veriff back when I was joining. Mostly, it was because of the team behind the product. That was one of the main factors to relocate to Estonia and start a full-time job here. 

Which of Veriff's values resonate with you the most?

The first value that comes to my mind is - "We always have each other's backs". This is primarily because of the great team we have here at Veriff. 

As I mentioned, I moved to Estonia because of my job at Veriff, and in the beginning it was pretty hard for me to fully adapt to everyday life here. My team showed great support in that sense - it was nice to know that my colleagues had my back in both my professional and personal life. 

How would you describe your everyday work-life at Veriff and what are the challenges you face?

My daily tasks at Veriff are very diverse. Most of the time, my schedule depends on the life cycle of the product I’m working on. There are some days when we have lots of meetings to understand the needs and milestones we need to achieve first. Then we need to figure out the technical challenges behind every solution. 

There is a lot of communication with Data Ops. It is really important to know what kind of data we need to collect and annotate. Experimenting with different solutions can take a lot of time, and it can be challenging to apply these solutions to the real world. 

Thanks for the answers! Let’s move on to some quickfire questions now.

What are your hobbies?

In my free time, I love playing computer games and swimming.

What is a ‘Must Read’ book for you?

My recommendation to everyone who wants to learn more about the different strategies and develop a startup idea would be to read ‘The Lean Startup’ by Eric Ries. It helped me a lot to understand this field more.

Do you have a favorite podcast?

I enjoy listening to sports-related Podcasts - mostly about Football and Formula 1. I also like podcasts about Data Science, for example "Data Skeptic", which gives me some insights about my job. 

Mac or PC?

I prefer a PC. I don’t use any Apple products.

If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be?

I would probably try to be a professional swimmer. I feel really passionate about the sport, and that's the reason I try to improve myself in this. I have participated in some swimming competitions, and I enjoyed them a lot.

What would be your advice to everyone who wants to kick start their career in the Engineering field?

I would suggest starting by building projects that you can relate to. Take easy steps at first and work on something that is fun to create. That way, you will start acquiring skills that can be useful for your professional engineering career. There are many valuable online resources, and it’s easy to start learning by building real projects.