“I think that the work that we’ve done in terms of performance engineering has been so interesting, and it’s still a challenge to improve our process even further; to try to collect and analyze all the results from performance tests and different implementations, and truly provide business value to client projects”
— Catalina Soto, Performance Engineer at Perficient Latin America
Perficient Latin America’s software outsourcing team is one that’s constantly looking to learn, grow, and take on the next challenge. Our people are on an ongoing journey to improve themselves, their teams, and their projects through an attention to purpose that guides their everyday efforts in offshore software development and beyond. We recently sat down with Catalina Soto, performance engineer at Perficient Latin America, to talk about the challenges of instilling a performance culture, the drive to continue learning, and her experience with Perficient Latin America’s culture.
How long have you been at Perficient Latin America?
I’ve been working here for almost three years and a half. I stared working in performance engineering two years ago. When I first started at Perficient Latin America, I worked as a tech lead for one of our clients. We had two projects at that time, and I worked with a big development team building software for about a year and a half. Later, I worked on another project for a couple of months before transitioning to performance engineering.
Can you tell us a bit about what you do at Perficient Latin America?
I work with the performance engineering team. We work with different clients in performance, automating processes and analyzing the results from the tests we run on the products.
What are your biggest professional challenges?
Right now, we’re working within Perficient Latin America developing the performance area and introducing performance processes in different projects. Alongside Carlos Zuluaga and other teammates, we’ve been supporting various projects by introducing performance practices and standards. Currently, we’re trying to introduce the performance process from the very beginning of the software development lifecycle and figuring out what the best practices are for each case. We’re also working on helping our clients adopt performance earlier in the development of their product or application. In some cases, clients may not be interested in applying performance engineering from the onset of a project or even know that it’s possible, so we’re working to guide and share with them processes that will result in better software overall.
“At Perficient Latin America they want to help you if you feel you need it. If you want to switch projects or if you want to take on bigger challenges, they’re there to help you reach your goals.”
— Catalina Soto, Performance Engineer at Perficient Latin America
What is the coolest, most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?
During this past year, the team has been working on defining a performance engineering process, and it’s something that’s still being developed. We want to continue improving that process, and with every step we take we’re working to integrate different technologies. I think that the work that we’ve done in terms of performance engineering has been so interesting, and it’s still a challenge to improve our process even further; to try to collect and analyze all the results from performance tests and different implementations, and truly provide business value to client projects.
What advice would you give a new Perficient Latin America employee?
At Perficient Latin America, you have to be willing to learn new things all the time; learning new technologies, learning new skills, learning new tools. We have the opportunity to work on different projects and goals and not just stick with one thing for your whole career. The most important thing, I’d say, is knowing your business value when you’re going to learn a new tool or skill. It’s about knowing what you can do with it, how you can help your project or the people around you improve.
What would you say to someone that’s considering working at Perficient Latin America?
I really like Perficient Latin America’s culture. Here, there’s a mentality that everyone is working on the same team; they’re thinking about whether or not you’re happy with the things that you are doing. At Perficient Latin America, they want to help you if you feel you need it. If you want to switch projects or if you want to take on bigger challenges, they’re there to help you reach your goals. I think that’s very valuable and important for me. It makes me feel very lucky to work here.
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