Virti Meet the Team: Oskar Wroz - Junior React Developer
As Junior React Developer, Oskar plays an important role in building Virti’s products. His creative flair and unwavering energy makes him an essential part of the Dev team.
As Junior React Developer, Oskar plays an important role in building Virti’s products. His creative flair and unwavering energy makes him an essential part of the Dev team.
Tell us a little bit about your background
After graduating from my business degree with a marketing specialisation, I spent the first few years writing music, recording and touring with my band. Then the pandemic hit, and with live music put on pause, I took the opportunity to teach myself how to code.
When did you first become interested in virtual and augmented reality technologies?
VR and AR were technologies that I had tried only briefly before joining Virti. So, my role here has really opened my eyes to all of their possibilities. Most of my previous exposure had been through games, and it was amazing to see VR being used so effectively in impactful real world applications: from healthcare training to mental wellbeing.
When (and why) did you join the Virti team?
I’m originally from Vancouver, Canada and when my partner moved to London in the Autumn of 2020 I decided to come with her. I dreamt of starting a career as a developer. After spending a lot of time building up an impressive portfolio, I was lucky enough to catch the eye of the Virti team when I applied in late 2020. The role was perfect for me and I was delighted to be offered a permanent position with the company. It felt like the perfect Christmas gift after an incredibly tough year!
Can you describe your role at Virti? What does a ‘typical’ day look like?
I’m a React Developer and work on our main web application - essentially where all Virti content is created and managed. I usually have 1-3 ongoing projects which take up the majority of my day; these can involve improving our existing products or building entirely new ones. My projects allow for a lot of independence in how they’re completed, but there’s also a huge amount of collaboration with other developers, designers, UX and QA teams. This generally takes place over Slack, in meetings or in ideation/co-creation sessions.
What skills did you bring to the team, and what skills have you developed since joining?
I brought some strong fundamental skills in Javascript and React - and an extremely hungry attitude. I knew enough to dive straight in on small projects and make a difference where I could. Since starting, my role has expanded a great deal, which has allowed me to learn a huge variety of new skills. Many of these are code-related - from React best practices, to GraphQL, AWS, CI/CD and so on. But I’ve also learnt a lot about project management, content creation, VR and game design.
What excites you about being part of Virti?
Two things: the people and the vision. We’ve got an awesome team who are all super skilled at what they do, so collaboration is always really energising. I also believe everyone is truly aligned on Virti’s vision, which makes it pretty easy to get excited about work.
What’s your proudest achievement (so far) as part of the Virti team?
I’ve worked on a number of really cool projects but the biggest - and most independent - so far has probably been the creation of our Feedback Tool. Building that from the start and seeing it marketed and now used and enjoyed by customers has been a really rewarding experience.
Looking ahead, what do you think the rest of the year holds for Virti? What are you particularly looking forward to?
On the development side, we’ve been completing a UX overhaul that has made the platform super pleasant to use. We’ve also been doing a tonne of research into game design in the field of learning and education. So, I’m really looking forward to implementing what we’ve learned and watching these begin to take shape.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work? Hobbies, talents, projects etc…
As the pandemic eases, I’m slowly beginning to play music again and am finishing up an album with my band. I love to ski, although there’s not much opportunity for that in the UK, of course. Besides that, I’m really passionate about photography, cooking and cats.
Connect with Oskar on LinkedIn
The Virti Team
Otis Mondir