About me

Antonio Ufano portrait

I was born in Zamora, a small city in the northwest of Spain. My parents bought us a computer when I was 15 and since the first moment I started using it, I was hooked.

After more years than I should have spent in high school, thanks to an embarrassing number of hours playing videogames, I decided to study a Bachelors Degree in Software Development. I did my internship in a small local company, where I built web templates for potential clients and help to fix bugs in the products they already had. I should have done a good job as they offered me a permanent role so I stayed in the company for a few more months before moving to the big city, Madrid.

I started doing job interviews in Madrid and got a couple of offers from a web agency and a consultancy company. I joined the latter and started working in projects for the main client, one of the biggest banks in Spain (and Europe). After a few months, I took more responsibilities in the team and we started working on a project for the UK subsidiary of the client. I became the main contact with the client and started managing all the fixes and weekly releases.At this time I also started mentoring new joiners, helping them have the easiest as possible onboarding in the project.

In July 2009, I moved to the UK to work directly in the client offices. What was supposed to be a few months project became my job for more than a decade! I've had multiple roles in a lot of different projects. See below a few of them:

  • Full Stack Developer, OnePayFX project
  • Technical Lead, real-time data streamming project
  • Product Engineer, Disputes project
  • Incident Analyst
  • Web developer

If you want to know more about my professional experiece, technology stacks and project details, visit my LinkedIn profile.

A couple of years ago, I had a burnout crisis. I was stuck in a project I didn't like, doing repetitive tasks that didn't give me any joy and dealing with more paperwork and bureaucracy than with what I really liked, coding and technical challenges.

I requested to be assigned to a different project and at the same time, I started working on side projects in my free time. I learned new things on my own, I built my website and I started documenting a lot of the things I learnt in my blog. This was an eye opener for me as I realized I enjoyed more working in my side projects and my blog than in my daily job.

Antonio Ufano in the mountains
Me in the Samariá Gorge in Crete

After more than 10 years working in the same company, I decided to take my chance, leave the safeness of my job and take a few months off to focus on my side projects and try to find new clients and projects on my own.

In 2021, I started to learn about blockchain and smart contracts and in 2022 I joined Chainstack as a developer advocate.

Hobbies


I love running. I think it's the best way to start my days and when I go for a run first thing in the morning, I know I'm going to have a very productive day. It helps me focus, wake up and during my runs I organise my thoughts and come up with new ideas. It's like meditation on the move for me.

I have a goat mentality 🐐! I really like nature and being outside and as soon as I see a mountain, I want to go to the top. I've been doing trail running lately which combines my passion for both running and mountains and I plan to run an ultra trail race (more than 42Km) this year.

I'm a foodie traveler. I love travelling and visit new places and learn new things about different cultures but most of all, try different foods. I also love cooking and I think I'm pretty good at it.

Antonio Ufano in a glazier in New Zealand
Me in the Tasman glacier in New Zealand

Mantras


Here are a few quotes and phrases I like to remind myself and that I try to follow in my day to day:

  • Every big problem can be broken into smaller and easier ones.
  • Action express priority. No matter what you say, your actions speak for yourself.
  • Without a goal, you can't score
  • The 40% rule by David Goggings. When your mind is telling you you're done, you're really only 40 percent done.
  • Always be useful. Don't be the guy that just highlights the issues. Come up with new ideas and solutions.
  • Every situation can be improved through humor
  • Have a plan, then execute it