Nicola Corti is a Google Developer Expert for Kotlin. He has been working with the language since before version 1.0 and he is the maintainer of several open-source libraries and tools.

He’s currently working as Android Infrastructure Engineer at Spotify in Stockholm, Sweden.

Furthermore, he is an active member of the developer community.
His involvement goes from speaking at international conferences about Mobile development to leading communities across Europe (GDG Pisa, KUG Hamburg, GDG Sthlm Android).

In his free time, he also loves baking, photography, and running.

Enjoy the following interview and find out more about Nicola’s professional experience and personal views!

____

Hi, Nicola! Can you introduce yourself in a few words?

Hi everyone ? My name is Nicola Corti. I’m a Google Developer Expert for Kotlin and I work as Android Infrastructure Engineer at Spotify. I’m currently based in Stockholm, Sweden. In my free time I love open-source, photography, and running.

What is a day in the life of a Kotlin Google Developer Expert?

Nicola Corti: It’s rather busy I would say. As a GDE, I keep on receiving several requests to speak from meetups and conferences. I personally love to share knowledge with others so I wish I could accept all the requests. Unfortunately, time constraints force me to reject several requests but I try to prioritize events that are community organized.

I also spend quite some time in the open-source world. I personally really enjoy mentoring other developers that want to join an open-source project. Moreover, a lot of my time is devolved to open-source project maintenance, such as developing new features and supporting our users.

What are you planning to learn in the upcoming months?

Nicola Corti: I’m planning to spend some time playing with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile. I think this technology from JetBrains has the capability to be a game changer in the mobile development ecosystem. I personally already have a couple of projects that I would love to port to KMM. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the community will react and contribute to this new technology.

I always have a good plan to…

Nicola Corti: …make everyone feel welcome. This goes from welcoming everyone to an event to having great documentation on my open-source projects. I’m a big fan of diversity & inclusion, and I want to make sure everyone feels welcome and empowered to participate at the events I organize.

At school, I was famous for…

Nicola Corti: Organizing events! I was always keen to organize events and parties to build communities around me. This evolved lately in me organizing developer communities in Italy, Germany and Sweden.

If I had a superpower, I’d love to have…

Nicola Corti: Having 25 hours a day sounds appealing 🙂

What about your work-life balance?

Nicola Corti: My tip on this front is: exercise regularly.
Make sure your gym/workout session is booked in your work calendar and always stick to it.
During the Coronavirus lockdown, I had regular lunch workout sessions.
This was a great relief for my mental health and an incredible source of energy.

Please tell us about your keynote held on Tuesday, November 17 at DevCon 2020.

Nicola Corti: My talk was thought of as a knowledge sharing session about Mobile DevOps – a topic that is really close to my heart, as I’ve been working as Mobile DevOps/Infrastructure engineer for the last 3 years. As there is a lot to tell and learn in this sector of mobile development, I really hope that my talk served as inspiration for other engineers that wish to follow a similar career path.

What is your message for the Romanian IT community?

Nicola Corti: Don’t be afraid to ask.

Ask for help, ask for support, ask for suggestions.
Unfortunately, I’ve met a lot of friends that are afraid to ask, fearing they will appear weak or incompetent. Don’t fall into this trap. Ask often and ask wisely.

Don’t miss our updates, new speakers & register here for more details: www.dev-con.ro