Robert Spier

On life after our studies.

Week eleven | May 15th, 2024 | sell Life

Robert Spier was a lecturer at my major up until a year ago, and has returned to the lecture hall to calm our nerves about what comes after our time at university. Not only was Robert a lecturer; he was the coordinator of 'Blok Tech', which introduced me to NodeJS, Express and the CLI, among others. He is now a part of the Digital Factory team at Deloitte as a creative technologist, and was once a student just like us. Upon receiving the question, what is a creative technologist?, Robert answers that it's a digital superhero. There's frontend development, accompanied by a bunch of hobbies.

Today is about me, and quite a lot about you.

Creative technologist

As a creative technologist, Robert gets his hands dirty with frontend development, research in emerging technologies and qualitative research with users. Not only that, but he also identifies and manages stakeholders. He enjoys coming up with super creative solutions to obscure problems and automating everything he can. And, as it's part of the job description, Robert's there for a lot of team meetings.

Technology-wise, Robert builds stuff with HTML, CSS (SASS) and JavaScript, and relies heavily on Vite and Sveltekit. Angular threatens to fade into obscurity in Robert's workspace, and he uses some .net/NodeJS and Azure. He makes 'magical things' using several RestAPI and NPM modules, and works in the terminal but prefers VSCode and Github Desktop.

Enough about him, now onto us!

With a curious glint in his eye, Robert asks the room what we want to be when we grow up - a question I admittedly haven't heard in years. When I was younger, the answer would've been something like design, or a stewardess, or a writer. But today, my answer is, I want to be a creative developer. Robert assures us that CMD is the ideal course for anything (okay, maybe I can't get on the plane right after graduating, but you get the gist). We aren't just being taught the ins-and-outs of the dark VSCode interface, nor are we led into forests to meditate on nature to get answers for an art piece, but the two extremes meet in the middle, teaching us to be well-rounded developers and designers.

Robert clarifies his original question by then asking us, "where would you like to work when you grow up?"

• Design agency
• Startup
• Webshop
• Freelance
• Corporate
• Or none of the above?

Those who went before us

Imagine, it's July 2025, or perhaps a little bit later. The question of what steps we'll take next will be prevalent then, more than ever. Robert asked a few alumni to tell us about the steps they have taken after their graduation, as a way to inspire us and present us with a few of many options.

Alumnus one

The first alumnus graduated in 2022 and works in the Detachering (in the energy branch). They mostly work with Angular and Tailwind and earn around €3000,-.

Alumnus two

The second alumnus graduated in 2023 and is currently doing a traineeship in finance. They mostly work with Vue and Bootstrap and earn around €2900,-.

Alumnus three

The third alumnus graduated in 2017 and currently owns a design studio and does freelance work in Bali. (This resonated with me because I did my internship in Bali, consider my attention piqued!) They work with React/Next and Sanity, and earn €80 an hour or €2100,-.

Alumnus four

The fourth and final alumnus graduated in 2023 and works at a full-service agency. They mostly work with SvelteKit and Vite and earn €2600,-.

Five things that play along when searching for a job

There is a vast difference between the years 2017 and 2025. To name just a few, there's inflation, job roles, flexibility and culture. Robert emphasizes that it's our responsibility to stay up-to-date in order to respond to and navigate these changes. We must learn the fundamentals, remain curious, stay informed and enjoy discovering. Additionally, the type of employer we end up with carries its own weight. We could freelance, do a traineeship, end up in detachering, work at a design studio, get a job at a full service agency or find our spot at a company's in-house services. But our options aren't limited to this fork in the road. We could also continue studying or do something completely different. All of these things have their own advantages and disadvantages.

The stack

Every developer has their own favorite programming languages. Robert tells us,

You can learn everything once you know the basics. Everything is basically the same.

He also says, "Please never ask me to write React or Next. But maybe you'll love it. Give it a chance." (Though this wouldn't look as good quoted.) These days, the most popular programming languages are,

• NodeJS
• React
• jQuery(!)
• Express
• Angular
• Vue Robert himself learns new languages, frameworks and technologies every year (and pretends to know them fluently on LinkedIn).

The money

Then the next question arises, How much do you want to earn? There's so much to consider. The money versus the benefits, bruto versus netto, fulltime versus parttime, to name a few. So, what is a good salary? Robert says, discuss this with your peers, use the internet or apply to jobs and calculate your monthly costs. A normal salary is what you can do, combined with how your peers are being evaluated and how much your company can pay.

As for the benefits, they can include travel reinbursement, vacation money, pension building, development budgets, bonuses, profit sharing, stock options, a flexible budget or perhaps a car. What's most important is balance.

The vibe

One thing people often forget in their considerations is immaterial recognition, which means the ability to say, "yeah dude, this place is awesome!" Think about things like leaving early on a Friday, awesome colleages and mentoring, fun outings and drinks, proximity to home, or loads of autonomy in projects. That being said, it's no subsitute to a fair and honest salary combined with the realistic experience of a junior.

Conclusion

Always always always discuss benefits with your classmates. Do your own research and know that it's okay to say no to a company. And finally: it's your career, you will go there every day. Have fun and feel recognized. That's the most important part!

The best way you learn is by doing your own projects. Tutorials will only get you so far. Go build epic shit! It is okay to fail, it's better to build ten average things than to end up getting stuck on a single perfect one. Network as much as you can! Robert Spier never had a portfolio, but people still find him because he meets them, reaches out to them and interacts with them. Soft skills are vital.

You already have the no, why not take a chance and go for the yes?