Start-up have been in the spotlight for several years now, and the scene is growing constantly. It was an environment that I was completely unfamiliar with before I started studying computer development. Indeed, before starting this new adventure I was in my 3rd year of nursing studies. I decided to stop my studies for a lot of reasons: lack of means, manpower, equipment, etc.. The public hospital services are suffering more and more, it was difficult for me to develop professionally.

 So I did my first internship in a start-up, it was completely different from what I was used to. Even if my experience at the hospital was short, I was able to understand what I liked at work and what I wanted to find again: teamwork, multidisciplinarity and collaboration. And this is what I had in mind when I looked for my various internships during my training. I was able to take part in different projects, and I loved it every time. Apart from building a product/software, I was able to participate in other aspects of a product’s life: its sales, marketing, support, etc.

Currently, it’s one of the things that keeps me in a start-up. I don’t just create a product, sometimes I help with sales, marketing, user support, etc. I’m not just a product creator, I sometimes help with sales, marketing, user support and so on. You’re part of an ecosystem, and that’s what I like about it

My training courses are going relatively well, and that convinces me to continue on this way. However, a particular event came to shake up my life a bit, I’m going to be a father.

The Dad adventure

So I became a father while I was studying in 2018. It was challenging but at the same time fulfilling, having the “chance” to still be a student I arrange with my school to spend time with my wife and son, a kind of long term parental leave.

How blessed I was. I was not at all prepared for the coming of this little being. You think you are, but the truth is, you never really are. He woke up in the night every three hours for his milk bottle and never had a full night’s sleep until he was one year and a half old. The illnesses, teething, colic, feeding, you name it… It’s a total joy.

The start-up WeLoop x Parenting adventure 

Before doing my final internship, I asked myself a lot of questions.  There are a lot of unspoken things about schedules and involvement in dev work that made me wonder about my family life. Will I be able to continue to participate in my family life during the week? How will I be able to organize myself with my partner? Will my work rhythm be judged if I leave the office around 5pm? So many questions that will be quickly discussed during my interview with the Weloop start-up. During this interview, I preferred to be transparent, I shared my situation and the constraints that go with it. This was taken with a lot of enthusiasm and positivity, which gave me real confidence for the future and motivated me to show my abilities and motivation.

My girlfriend and I are lucky that she works in “full remote” which makes it easier to bring and pick up our child. But this is an extra mental charge for her on a daily basis (big up Lolo). On my side I do my best to leave work at around 5pm to be able to take over from her and take care of our son. WeLoop allows me to arrange my working time as I wish, it is not rare that I continue to work at home after putting the little one to bed because there are tasks that I couldn’t finish. The start-up advantage! When my partner is sick, I can work on remote, or when the child is sick, I can keep the child at home and continue working at the same time. I realize how lucky I am as a developer to be able to organise my time in this way, which allows me to develop professionally as well as in my family life. This organization is bound to change according to our positions and our child’s schooling. It will be necessary to be agile in the family organization and to adapt but I have no doubt that this can happen as well as it does at present. A start-up organization