‘Meet Aamir, one of the HubSpot Front-end Team Leads at Computan. Aamir has been coding in HubSpot for 7 years and has been a member of the Computan team for over a decade. Plus, he’s one of the nicest people you will ever meet. In this installment of Behind The Coding, Aamir talks about office culture in different parts of the world, his favorite cologne, and why his work was an arranged marriage.’
Hi Aamir! What are the last 3 things you Googled and why?
Hi Sajeel! The most recent thing I Googled was ReactJS
Interesting! Why ReactJS?
Because there are a lot of good integration functions that can be done with ReactJS. In HubSpot or otherwise.
And you want to learn?
Yes absolutely! I want to learn more about React and different React functions.
Ok! What else have you been Googling?
Car prices
You are still looking for a car?
Yes! Was ready to buy a car a few months ago. But then I needed to spend that money on elsewhere.
Life happens!
Yes, it does. Now, when I look at the car prices, they have all gone way up. So I need to save some more.
That isn't very pleasant. Sorry to hear about that Aamir
It’s ok. Actually, Sajid (Sajid Ali, a colleague of his at Computan) has offered to help me out with some money so I might be able to get the car.
Sajid and you are pretty close. You have been on the team for over 10 years now. Is anyone on the team you are as close to as him?
I have always been very close to him. Also Shaban (Shaban Sarfraz, a former Computan team member) and I are extremely close. Our families know even know each other.
Let’s talk about that. Obviously, our team is all over the world, but the team members are based in Pakistan, Asia, and those regions typically don’t mix family with work. They can discuss marks in school, salaries, political views, and accept loans from colleagues, but they won’t mix family life with home life ever. Why do you think that is?
Basically, that’s how our culture is. We keep family life separate from work life.
But isn’t that interesting? How colleagues can share money with each other, but not a family dinner?
You know in Eastern cultures that is how it is. Like when couples get together the men sit in one room and talk while the women sit in another room in talk. Usually the genders don’t intermix. Work is a family with secrets shared that aren’t shared at home. And the home family is a family with secrets not shared at work!
It is very interesting. What else have you been Googling?
I have been Googling about Perfume and Cologne.
You use the terms ‘Perfume’ and ‘Cologne’ interchangeably. Why is that?
Hahaha! I know perfume is for women, and cologne is for men. It’s the language, though. People use them interchangeably.
What Cologne are you looking for?
I really like cologne. My favorite colognes are Bakhoor and Thallium.
Can you explain to our readers what Bakhoor?
Bakhoor is like wood chips marinated in perfume or other things that give off a nice smell when mixed. You can wear it as a spray or you can heat it up and adjust the smell of a room. It’s very popular in the Middle East and elsewhere!
Very much so! When was the last time you worked after hours to solve a hard problem?
It was 8-9 months ago. We have a HubSpot client that uses HubSpot forms to take App signups. There was a signup issue on their site.
What was the issue?
The HubSpot forms go to a client-provided API that they coded on their server. Once we hit the submit button, it goes to that domain to check validation, username and passwords follows their rules. If things are good then it gets populated in HS.
So it is a form validation tool that you guys did?
Yes! Shahryar (Shahryar Ramzan, HubSpot developer) and I did this.
Who are 3 people you'd like to have dinner with at the same time, and why?
The first person would be Ishfaq Ahmad
Who is Ishfaq?
He is a great writer and poet. I enjoy what he writes.
Interesting! Who else?
The second would be Abdul Sattar Eidhi. He is a very inspirational person who helps the poor and arranged a huge network of ambulances.
Not to mention homeless shelters and nursing homes too Aamir. He is a great man.
Yes, he is. I owe him dinner!
So we have a great writer and a great philanthropist. Who else would be at the table with you?
Salman Ahmed
I’ve never heard of him. Who is he?
Hahaha. Salman is a friend of mine. We are the same age, and he helped me a lot with my engineering classes in school.
Weren’t you a good student?
I was an ok student, but he was better than me. He helped a lot of us in our friend’s group. If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today.
What does Salman do now?
He works as .NET developer in a different company. I am lucky that we still keep in touch.
What do you love about coding?
You know, I am not the guy who was a brilliant programmer. I don’t even like a lot of the languages.
Really?
Yes really. 10 years ago, I started at Computan as a .NET developer.
Yes! We were kids then. Now we have kids!
Hahaha. Exactly. Sajed Aslam, our development lead at the time, suggested after 2 months of .NET development to move to front-end and I have been here ever since.
So what do you love about coding then Aamir?
Hahaha. You are very insistent.
Yes I know 😊.
I guess I love to understand the code, and after all these years, I am finally able to understand the code.
It sounds like while many of our teammates have fallen in love with coding or have a great deal of romance with it your relationship is more of an arranged marriage!
Yes! I have an arranged marriage with coding. I was in it and have learned to love and appreciate it over time as days go on.
Hahaha! Where were you when you first saw a laptop/desktop?
It was at school, and I was 23 years old when I first saw a computer.
23!
Yes. My family is from a very small village; nobody in the town even had a computer.
That’s incredible.
Yes. I was the first one in my family to study at University with a BCS and saw a computer.
Wow. That is quite a journey.
Yes. Then I encouraged my family members – brothers, sisters, and cousins to move to the city, study engineering and use computers.
Did they listen to you?
Yes! I would say I encouraged 14 or 15 family members of mine to do this, and they did.
You changed their lives Aamir! Wow!
Hahaha…I think it was God’s plan more than anything I did.
What is something your teammates don't know about you?
Well, they know a lot about me actually.
Yes. You have been on the team a long time and are pretty popular!
Hahaha. Maybe they don’t know about my coin collection.
You collect coins!? I didn’t know that.
Yes. I collect old domestic, commemorative edition coins from other countries. I love it!
