From student to developer, a journey to be proud of – meet Francisco

Francisco started as a scholar about 2.5 years ago. Having studied Computer Engineering at the University of La Laguna, he found himself developing one of the most popular plugins; YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards, a few years later after being offered a contract.
This journey is really remarkable when you think that over 50,000 shops rely on the development, passion and maintenance that Francisco, with the support of the full team, provides.

The plugin was not originally developed by Francisco which led to some challenges when redesigning the plugin. So we asked about his experience on redesigning the Gift Card plugin

“Yes, version 3.0 of YITH Gift Cards that was fully developed by me and has a lot of improvements and new features that makes it one of the top-selling plugins of our company. Together with Sara, the company’s UX designer, I was able to set a new standard in design and also code”

What were the struggles you experienced when completing this project?

“I found many since the plugin was not developed by me and it is always difficult to work on someone else’s work. You first need to understand the developer’s thinking and work habits before you build it up again to the improved company’s code standards and framework”

What lessons did you learn from it and what can someone take-away from these lessons?

“I learned to improve my developer skills when I was stuck at some point, I always found a way to fix it, looking for information on the internet with support of the very helpful WordPress community, asking colleagues, etc. And also learned that in the development, everything is possible, but it depends on your desire and determination”

Francisco has always lived in La Laguna in Tenerife. It is an ancient town a short tram ride away from the capital Santa Cruz where the head office is located.
Having studied at the local university and found his ideal job on what many would describe is the perfect place to live, but like everyone, also Francisco wonders what is beyond the horizon…

“My passion is travelling, know the culture of the places where I travel, meet local people and eat local food of course 😀
I don’t have a specific hobby, but I like to play video games, meet my friends and play table games, stroll through the wonderful places that our island offers us.”

If there is one thing Spain and in particular Tenerife is famous for, it is the food… no surprise then when asked what motivates Francisco and that the favourite moment of the day is ‘lunch’

“I really love all the Canarian food ( papas con costillas, ropa vieja, puchero ) but my favorite one is the “Carne de fiesta”, a typical food that consisting of small pieces of fried pork, accompanied by fried potatoes and a bit of parsley, really tasty <3”

We asked Francisco to describe the perfect customer in his experience.

“Not a favourite type of customer, but I’m really happy when a customer appreciates extra work (a customization for example). This makes me think that I’m useful to someone, that  he or she is not a simple customer but represents a whole company that is making a living and earning money thanks to his e-commerce. Being a tiny part in this process, making it a success is very rewarding to me”

Finally, Francisco added one more thing to all our YITH Customers:

“In this difficult moments I just can say to all to stay safe and healthy in home, everything will be over soon and we can enjoy our world again.”

If you like to connect with Francisco Mendoza, you can do via Twitter @fran_mendozag or check out his WordPress profile: franmglez92.

Find more about Gift cards take a look here> or read the blog post around Giftcard version 3.0