Meet Emmanuel Akinde: mobile engineer during the week and assistant coach on weekends.

What do you do at Brass?

I’m a Mobile Engineer at Brass. I work majorly on the Brass - Banking For Businesses App.

What does a typical day for you at work look like?

Well I try to resume work at 8am, create a todo-list, and read notifications from the engineering channels. I would normally split my work hours into two burst of high level concentration, Cal -Newport calls it “Deep Work”, 9am -12pm, and 1pm to 4 pm. The other hours is for “Shallow Work”: used to reply slack messages, meditate, grab a snack, read a page or two from a book i’m on at the moment, currently it is “One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez”.

Did you always want to be a Software Engineer?

What I wanted to be was a Computer Engineer, my idea of it was hardware stuff, which i actually know how to do, i just bent towards software around Year 4 in Uni and we are good.

When you are not working, what do you enjoy doing?

Oh I do a lot. I am an assistant coach and ball player for a local football team. I run about 8km twice weekly. I go hiking very often. I learnt to ride a bike at Brass’s last off- site event at Lakowe Resort, since then i have gotten a bike and mostly go cycling with my dog after the days work or before the days work. I read and watch good movies too.

What is the one thing you are most proud of?

I am proud of my ability to pick my self up when I’m slacking, I always go back to the book Deep Work by Cal Newport.

What is the one thing you have learnt at Brass that has helped you with your growth?

The importance of communication. Let people know what you are doing, when you have difficulties and always ask for help when you can’t move on.

How would you describe what you do to a five year old?

You like games yeah? I guessed so too, I can build one .

Which of Brass’s pillar of culture do you resonate with and why ?

Collaboration, why? I actually love learning from other intelligent people.