Shaping Xurrent’s Front End Architecture – Tina’s Engineering Journey
From Graphic Design to Development: A Global Adventure
🖌️🌍 Core member of the Xurrent AI team, South African turned Dutch resident Tina van Schelt sat down with us for this month’s spotlight blog.
Tina initially studied graphic design at a creative business school in Cape Town. Excelling in both IT and art, she was constantly busy creating and tinkering within the digital space. She went on to study computing part-time, writing her thesis on machine learning.
A job opportunity for Tina’s husband moved the family (and their new pup) to Ireland in 2018. Shortly after, her husband got a call from work asking them to move to the Netherlands and follow his Dutch roots. Wanting to settle for a bit, they finally made the move to the Netherlands in 2020.
Tina’s career path eventually led her to full-stack development, with a particular focus on front end technologies. She prefers “the short feedback loop, the close proximity to the user, and how it blends programming with design thinking.” Joining the Xurrent team in 2022, Tina became the first dedicated Front End Engineer. She loves the variety and complexity of the challenges at Xurrent. “There is always something new to sink your teeth into. You’ll never get bored.”
Redefining Growth as Xurrent’s First Front End Engineer
"I’ve grown a lot here. I’ve introduced new ideas, driven change, and established several systems in terms of Front end Architecture — we’re working towards a more modular front end architecture, driven by a design system and component library. With a mature codebase like ours, progress happens one pixel at a time. It takes patience to see the impact, and if you don’t approach it like a marathon, it can feel disheartening. But over time, those incremental changes add up."
💻 🚴Prior to joining Xurrent, Tina felt conflicted about the idea that career growth meant rejecting hands-on roles and stepping into management. Now, as an integral development team member, Tina has realized that those making the biggest impact are often on the field, the player-coaches and subject matter experts. “It says a lot about your organization, if you have an opportunity to grow in a technical track and still have a seat at the table.”
For now, Tina and her family (dog and toddler included) have settled into life in the Netherlands, gaining a new group of friends (“admittedly harder to do in your 30s!”), and fully embracing life as a Dutch resident, even riding a bakfiets for school drop-offs. Their free time is filled with spending time outdoors, staying active and traveling off the beaten path. As for work, Tina is still working her marathon, one pixel at a time.
Good news: You can join Tina and her fellow Xurtains. We have openings!