Few people know iFood as well as software engineer Daniel Silveira, 39 years old. He joined the company in 2022, in the first class of iLab, the technology talent accelerator of foodtech. It seems like a new relationship, but it is actually a long-standing one.
On iFood there are many Foodlovers who were already customers of the app or who were delivery partners. But what about someone who has been a customer, delivery person, restaurant owner and scholarship holder? Yes, there is: Daniel.
He has worked at a partner restaurant, was a delivery boy (his main source of income), owned a restaurant, Chef Tico Burguer and returned to being a delivery boy. Until, in 2021, a WhatsApp message changed the course of things.
Hunger and the desire to eat
“iFood sends some messages to the delivery people, and I received one talking about a technology course”, remembers Daniel. Technology is a subject in which he is interested and knowledgeable.
He was a computer teacher, focused on equipment maintenance. In fact, in addition to being a software engineer, delivery man and restaurant owner, Daniel has also been a musician, risk inspector, sales representative, final artist, sales representative, store manager, restaurant manager...
“There comes a time, around the age of 30, when we ask ourselves: 'damn, what am I going to do? When will things work out for me?'. Because I always wanted to do something that would work out financially, to stabilize myself with my family and have a little more peace of mind” said the former scholarship holder programming course taken by Cubos Academy in partnership with iFood.
And, look, it worked, almost at the age of 40.
Daniel received the message during his second stint as an iFood delivery man, shortly after he gave up on having his own restaurant. She arrived at a time when he was thinking about making another change of direction.
Around the same time, in 2021, Daniel had already decided that he needed to take a slightly bigger step. “Being a delivery driver is a good job. I met people who had been on the street for 5 years, but I already felt like I didn’t want to do that forever”, he recalls. He then took a course to go to college — which he was unable to do when he was younger — in the technology area.
He combined hunger with the desire to eat.
It's persistence that calls
Daniel signed up for the course suggested by iFood, took the test, passed and started training in programming.
In the final stretch of the course, Daniel participated in a hackathon, the programmers' marathon that brings visibility to those who work in the area. Dedication to studies, persistence and good performance in the challenges of the “hack” helped open the doors to the path that led the client, former partner and former delivery man to the iFood technology talent team.
It worked, Daniel!
Daniel the software engineer
The programming course that Daniel took was developer training full-stack.
This professional can act as backend (responsible for the “behind the scenes” of an application and website, for example) as front-end (responsible for the “visible” part of applications and websites, where iFood customers, for example, interact with the app).
On iFood, it performs the function of backend. While there at iLab, Daniel sees “from the inside” how the entire structure in which he participated so much works.
