Meet Suleman. He is a hero in HubSpot and has advanced front-end skills. His projects are rarely late, he communicates well and seldom loses his patience. We (basically me) refer to him as Suleman the ice cream delivery man because he is always handing out smooth and cool updates. In this installment of Behind The Coding Suleman dishes on his previous life as a serial prankster, why he rarely Googles anything for fun, and his relationship with bugs and coding.
Hi Suleman! Ready?
Yes, Sajeel. Totally ready.
Ok, what are the last three things you Googled?
Map JS
Obviously work-related. What is this for?
I am building a HubSpot mapping module and needed JS to handle some new client requirements.
Yes, that makes sense. What else?
Lottie Files
Why were you Googling about Lottie Files?
Well, we recently did an estimate for a HubSpot theme development job, and we needed to figure out how we can modify the animations and drop those animations into HubSpot themes and templates. Generally, it’s pretty easy!
What else?
I was Googling different techniques to optimize images.
Why specifically?
Was looking for articles to share and research with different members of my team since we have a few HubSpot sites we are optimizing for speed at the moment. Usually, our designers optimize the images, but they are a little busy so we are doing some on our own.
It looks like you Google primarily for work!
Yes, that’s right. I don’t find Google to be a great source of entertainment. And I usually know what entertains me so I don’t need to ask Google for it!
Makes sense! When was the last time you worked after hours to solve a hard problem?
Last night!
Really? Doing what?
Speed optimization on-site built that is going live in 2 days. Asim (Asim Iqbal, HubSpot Developer) and Mazhar Mehdi (HubSpot Developer) generally work late. So I joined them and we worked on things together.
Who are three people you'd like to have dinner (dawaat) with at the same time, and why
This is easy. But I would actually like to have 3 dinners with 3 different people.
Why is that?
Just because.
Ok, let’s go for it.
The first person is Sajjad Ali Khan (Senior WordPress Frontend Developer)
Why do you want to have dinner with Sajjad? Apart from the fact that he is an extremely cool guy who loves Batman 😊.
When I used to work in the office, we used to have lunch together all the time. He is a really nice guy and a fun person to be around.
What makes him nicer or more fun to be around?
Actually, it’s nothing about him. His wife’s food is really good and he’s usually generous enough to share it with me! She makes delicious red beans.
Hahaha! So you don’t really want to hang out with Sajjad. Do you just like getting a sample of his wife’s cooking?
You can say 99% of it would be to get his wife’s cooking. 1% is to hang out with Sajjad.
Ok. Who else?
My fellow backbenchers from University – Shahnawaz, Ali Khan, Manzar, and Aftab Khan
You were a backbencher? Mean you didn’t take school seriously?
You are correct sir.
I find that hard to believe! Here you do a lot of our technical interviews, rarely miss deadlines, work extremely hard, and are extremely committed and diligent.
I did well in school, but I didn’t always ‘perform’ well in school. If you get my drift. I have changed a lot over the years.
I would say so. Ok, and what is the other dinner you’d like to have?
I would actually like to take you Sajeel out, but not for dinner.
Me? Why?
Well, you always call me the ice cream man so it would be great to go out and actually get ice cream with you!
I am sold on that! When was the last time you cried tears of laughter?
University. With the 4 backbenchers, I mentioned earlier. We pranked students and teachers. But one prank really stands out.
Can you tell me about it?
Of course. So, Ali is always sick and is a tiny guy. We actually pranked a lady teacher.
I can’t believe you were involved in anything like this with a woman.
Wait let me finish. So we had a group project that we were due to present that day, but it wasn’t done. So Ali, the guy who is always sick, faked a seizure.
What!?!?
Yeah! I started presenting because I had the first part. When I was finished, it was his turn to go, and he faked a seizure.
I don’t believe you
Man, why would I make this up? How could I make this up?
It’s just, I mean I…
Listen, I was a different person at University.
I can see that. So what happened?
Well, he faked the seizure so we took him out and told everyone we’d take him to the doctor.
What did the doctor say?
Nothing. We went to go eat chickpeas and rice and hang out.
I’ll never look at you the same way again.
Hahaha! You wanted to go Behind The Coding. So here we are!
And you have worked all around the world too!
Yeah, I worked in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and lots of places.
Why did you come back home?
Actually, my father passed away. Our family business was a vegetable store. So I came back, helped my younger brother set up the business, and then when he was ready to handle it on his own I went back to
We’re glad you are here. What do you love about coding?
This is going to sound strange, but I love bugs and issues. I love to fix issues sent from QC.
Really? Why?
It’s like chess. Problem-solving and a fun irritant.
When was the first time you saw a laptop/computer
I saw a Windows 95 machine at my friend’s house. I used to go over to his house and play games.
What games did you play?
It was Windows 95! So Solitaire obviously.
What is something your teammates don't know about you?
Honestly my teammates know quite a lot about me as Suleman the professional. They know my skills, weaknesses, and things I enjoy doing. But they don’t know about the person I was at University! That I was a prankster, backbencher, and quite a different guy.
Does the ‘old Suleman’ ever come out?
Yeah, when I am around University friends, he comes out sometimes. But not to the same level!
