Barista ➡ Software Developer

Status: Software Developer | Remote from Tenerife

I'm Francesco. I moved to the UK from Rome in 2019, and as of February 2026, I am living in Tenerife, Canary Islands. My journey hasn't been a straight line, but every step has been essential to the developer I am today.

🌱 Phase 1: The Foundation

After high school in Italy, I started university but quickly realised it wasn't the right fit; I needed to learn faster. I moved to the UK to immerse myself in English and the tech scene. To support my studies, I spent four years as a barista at Pret A Manger. Those years taught me more about human nature than any classroom could. I met wonderful people and mastered the art of staying calm under pressure, a "customer-first" mindset that I still carry into every line of code I write.

💻 Phase 2: Technical Training

I eventually took the leap into development. I applied to the School of Code bootcamp. After a thorough application process,which included calculating how many tennis balls fit into an average airplane, I was accepted. It was an intense, 100% remote experience. I mastered React, Next.js, Node, Express, Cypress, Playwright, Git, and GitHub. But the real value was the team dynamic. We worked in squads, practicing asynchronous communication and presenting projects to stakeholders. It was the perfect environment to learn how to ship production-ready software as a team.

🚀 Phase 3: The Startup Grind

Post-bootcamp, I joined UNIS, a fast-paced startup building a software dashboard and mobile app for construction managers and workers. I built the dashboard from scratch using Next.js, Material UI, and Firebase. I also worked on the mobile app, refactoring the codebase, eliminating redundancy, and building a custom chat system to allow for real-time data sharing. Unfortunately, the company closed due to funding challenges, but the experience of building from zero to one was invaluable.

🤝 Phase 4: Giving Back

I rejoined School of Code as an Assistant Coach. It felt right to give back to the community that had given me so much. I mentored cohorts, helping them debug and navigate architectural decisions, while focusing on "fostering independent problem solving." I also provided one-on-one mentorship on career strategy. I'm proud to say I had a 100% success rate: every person I mentored landed a job within three months of graduating.

📈 Phase 5: Enterprise Impact

I then joined Good Growth, a consultancy specializing in A/B testing. I was humbled to work on some of the largest e-commerce sites in the world. I authored over 50 tests with multiple variants, measuring ROI and conversion uplifts of up to 35%. Beyond testing, I focused on developer experience: building reusable components, utility APIs, and global stylesheets to ensure consistency. I even developed an AI-powered RAG chatbot to make our internal documentation instantly searchable.

🌴 Phase 6: The Present

After nearly seven years in the UK, I decided it was time for a change. I'll always be grateful to the UK—I arrived as a barista and left as a software developer with 3+ years of experience. But I felt it was the right time to move closer to my roots. So, here I am in Tenerife, ready for the next challenge. Thank you for reading my story. If you'd like to collaborate, discuss tech, or just reach out, you can find me via the contact form on my home page or on LinkedIn. I look forward to meeting you!