During three months we will be bringing you stories of Sports Tracker employees. They are the ones building the products you love from scratch, putting countless hours into them and overcoming challenges just to deliver great user experience and make your life easier.
Last time we brought you an interview with Sirpa Maas who is our Management Assistant.
Today, we are bringing you our conversation with Çağatay Ulusoy, Android Developer at Sports Tracker.
Please tell us your story and give us a bit of background. Who is Çağatay and what does he enjoy doing aside from his daily job?
Originally I’m from Turkey, I studied Telecommunications Engineering at Istanbul Technical University and then moved to Finland to study master’s degree of Communications Engineering at Aalto University.
Halfway through, I realized that I want to build products for end-users. Instead of working on technologies at lower layers, I choose to work on product development at application layer.
I have a strong background working with the Internet of Things (IoT) concept and my professional story started at the Aalto University where I used to work as a research assistant.
Later on, I moved to some new experiences in two different companies building smart locks and had product development experiences on mobile, embedded and cloud platforms. Before coming here I worked shortly as an Android Developer in another company.
What do you do at Amer Sports, since when do you work for the company and how does your day usually look like?
My daily work is mostly centered around Android development. I’m contributing to our Android project continuously, working on growing Sports Tracker application, fixing bugs, adding new features and in a bigger picture contributing to the growth of the company.
At the moment we have over 5 million users of the application so you can imagine there are lots of challenges and at the same time it’s very exciting.
What is something that really motivates you to get up every morning and come to work?
The fact that we are a sports company is a big motivation to me. Almost every morning before work I try to do sports (gym, cycling, running) and test our product. This gives me a positive reinforcement to come to work and give my best.
Sports Tracker project is really big and it’s like solving a puzzle. To me, building it and making it better is not a torture but a big learning, joy and it’s a lot of fun, too.
What is your favorite thing about your job and working here?
We work with truly latest technologies, newest tools and newest libraries.
The whole team puts a great deal of effort to be up to date and always informed. That’s one of the key things in our industry, being always up to date and on top of things.
Also, it’s all about sports, challenging myself for a healthier life and that’s another big motivation for me.
If you were to recommend working here to your friend, what would you say?
The fact that company is growing and planning to build really exciting products makes it a great place to work.
This is a great time to be part of Sports Tracker team.
Our upcoming products will be smarter, and more connected. People will be more motivated to do sports and have healthier lives with more fun. It’s also very much rewarding to work on building products that will make our sport life smarter.
What kind of people you enjoy working with?
I enjoy working with people like I currently work with. The whole team is really helpful and each and every person will help immediately the best way they can.
I would say my dream team can be described as a mix of people who are smart helpful and positive, aiming for the best. I’m happy to say we have those people here.
We would like to encourage people to fail and try better next time and also to prove we’re all humans who make mistakes and learn from them. Therefore, what do you think was your biggest mistake/challenge in your work?
Until now, thanks to Finland, my career became really good. I can’t point out something as a mistake. Rather, there are challenges if you’re coming from a different working culture, as I do. There might have been some mistakes but I’d call them learnings and contributions since without them I wouldn’t be where and who I am now.
Would you like to add something for the readers?
Whenever I came to work, I never felt negative energy in the office. I and also the rest of my colleagues start our days happily, especially after gym sessions. Company is giving the best tools to work with and encouraging us to do sports. You produce endorphins because of sports and then you perform better and happier, working on interesting projects that keep you going. It’s a great cycle to be in.
Come join these happy people here!
Jef
Please add Google fit support. It’s been two years already
Keith Dudley
On my android phone when going to the option to replay the route, the option to see mph hours keep changing from mph to mi. How to view mph on the route. I do not want to see the middle pace. I only want to see mph as I am review the run
Val
Since I connected the app with my speed and cadence sensor, the app doesn’t record data any longer if Speed and distance is set to use GPS. If I set the Speed and distance to capture via sensor, it captures speed, distance, cadence, etc…. but the map doesn’t trace location and doesn’t create the track ridden.
Thomas
Your app have been great for years, but now, im afraid its not woth the subscription anymore. My 2 reasons, 1. Your blog havent been updated in over a year in the news/wip section, cant find any contacts details on your site, just an outdated faq section in support. 2. Frequent maintenance updates recently, to many, not even a explanation on why? Other apps have surpassed you in functionalty, maintenance updates is not enough..
Shane
Love your app and have been using it for years now. Tried the premium version but I think the subscription method of payment is not worth it and hence have cancelled it. I would be happy to pay a reasonable price for it but $60 a year is way too much, especially when there is so much competition out there.