The year is 2020, the Covid pandemic is in full swing, and I have just arrived in Geneva, Switzerland. Having just graduated high school, I do not speak French and have no real work experience. My goal was to find my first job.

I embarked on a journey of job hunt with very little to back me up. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do or what I was good at. Back then, I was just a kid with a lot of dreams and ambitions.

One day i stumbled upon a job offer from a company called Ketl. I was intrigued by the project, it was something related to using AI to organize documents. I decided to contact their CTO Nicolas Casademont on LinkedIn, little i know that this would be the start of an amazing journey.

After a brief chat, i was invited for an interview at their Office in Carouge, Geneva. I was super nervous, it would be my first interview ever. I remember that i was wearing a nice chemise with some blue flowers on it.

I was hired on the place, and i started the next day. I was super happy and super excited to start my first job.

My first year

During the first year i mostly worked on bug-fixing and overall improvements of the app. I consider this period as my learning phase, i learned a lot about software development and how to work in a team. It was key to my growth as a developer.

I was also relatively new to the whole React eco-system, and thankfully i had enough space to learn more about the framework and to explore many of its libraries.

The stake

Its normal for startups to motivate their early employees with access to stock options - and Ketl was no exception. I was given the opportunity to own a small part of the company after the first year. This was a huge milestone for me, and it was a great motivation to make me take the next step. I was now a stakeholder in the company.

It was a hell of an adventure.

All good things have an end, and unfortunately Ketl wasn't meant to be. Down below you can find some of my best memories from this project, it was a pleasure to be part of this team.