Tech Talks at Dineout — In Conversation with Senior Software Engineer, Aravindharaj Natarajan

Tech Talks at Dineout — In Conversation with Senior Software Engineer, Aravindharaj Natarajan

This blog post is a part of our interview series “Tech Talks at Dineout” where we talk about and to the great bunch of engineers at Dineout and understand their work, their experience, and their journey at Dineout.

Aravindharaj is a senior software engineer at Dineout. He is an Android app developer. He is a graduate of Madras Institute of Technology. He was always fond of app development. He developed several apps during his college days. He remembers making an app for his college fest. This app would sync all events, scoreboards, and more. He has been with Dineout since 2016, for around six years.

Aravind is also a gamer. He spends his free time playing and watching movies. He likes to call himself a cinephile. He is also fond of travelling and talks about travel planning. He is an explorer who is always up for new adventures. He makes it a point to travel to nearby locations once a month.

Comfort food: My mom’s special biryani.

One dish that you want to try/restaurant you want to visit: I want to try more North Indian dishes.

So, tell us what got you interested in this field?

You know when friends in school discussed what would everyone like to become, I remember everyone having a definite answer. Someone wanted to become a doctor, someone wanted to become a lawyer and so on. I would say that I want to become an astronaut just for the sake of it. But deep down I never had an answer.

Back in my school days, I used to play a lot of video games. So because of that, my father bought me a PlayStation. Also, my friend introduced me to a smartphone and I must say I was fascinated to see such a tiny device could do so much. I think that really intrigued my technical side.

I was fascinated beyond measure and I kind of decided that I want to do something related to the mobile phone industry and I landed here.

Interesting fact, I pursued my engineering degree from the same university as our ex-president, Dr A.P. J. Abdul Kalam, i.e. Madras Institute of Technology.

I got into Android programming with a lot of help from the internet.

I remember once developing an app in just two days. I hardly slept during that time. My passion for this field helps me to keep going forward.

Why Dineout?

I wasn’t very satisfied with my on-campus job offer because of the job profile. I was actively looking out for opportunities and just then I connected with a senior who was working with Dineout then. I had a good interaction with the team here and I was hired. I was proud of being one of the very few freshers to crack the Dineout interview back in 2016

It has been six years since I have been working here. The company has been able to give me the freedom to pick and work on projects. My reporting managers too were one of the kindest people I have ever met. My first manager, Vijayan is one of the best people that I have worked with. He trusted me with my work and gave me the freedom to explore projects. I think by now all our team members have become a family after all these years of working together.

Right from the beginning of my job I have been able to learn so much from the different stakeholders of the company. There is a lot to learn from everyone in the company. I can also proudly say that I am one of the very few technical engineers who have worked in all 3 companies of dineout (dineout, inresto and torqus)

Favourite project

I monitor projects from the B2B and B2C ends currently. I have developed projects from scratch. One of them is the valet management system. I developed the prototype within 15 days of time and we wanted to hit the market as quickly as possible. I even went with the sales team to some of our restaurant partners to showcase the product and presented its aspects. Also, I have taken part in the deployment as well. I went and trained the valet management people of some famous restaurants and breweries I even interacted with the end-users to understand their take on it. I was receiving first-hand feedback from the customers and that was thrilling. This project made me go the extra mile and stretch myself as a developer who is developing consumer-centric products.

This product got deployed in 2018 and within 6 months we got thousands of entries. Vijayan was very supportive throughout the process. Currently, I own this product end to end and I’m a PoC for all the restaurant partners.

What does your average day at Dineout look like?

When I was working in the office, it was very difficult to reach the office on time. I’m kind of a night owl so the routine was a bit of a hassle for me. Thankfully, I got some permission from my reporting manager after a few years to tweak my office timing a little. I code mostly at night. The custom office timing helped me level up my game like no other. The offline office was fun with all the interactions with our colleagues. My productivity level increases mostly in the evening.

The online office has made my life easier in terms of flexibility at work and spending time with family.

Post work is all about gaming, exploring new places and food.