I resigned from Snappymob. Thanks for the Memories!

Yep. I actually resigned from Snappymob the past mid-September. I haven't write any farewell message ever since because I haven't fully moved on from it, lol. For me, Snappymob is like a primary school of proper industry-standard UI/UX, that I cherished so much, and taught me a lot for the past years. 

These are not everyone ah because MCO, people WFH liao.

When I first joined this company, the office was in Publika, the fancier part of Dutamas after Solaris. My first interview was with the CEO himself, Allen. It was in Coffee Stain. I felt bad that he paid for my fancy cup of latte, I 'terhutang budi' instantly after. 

Me and Allen. 

The 2017 office room, to be honest, was 1x smaller than my kampung house's kitchen and it was very darn quiet (but then I get used to it). I told Allen before that I like mecha and Gundam, so he put a Decepticon's Soundwave mecha on my desk (that is how lovely and courteous Allen is). 

I eventually had to buy a Destiny Gundam to accompany the lonely Soundwave.

There was 6 person; Allen, Alvin, Yee Ling, Andrew, Taylor, and Ah Fei. Taylor is my forever idol, he is the Google Developer Expert in UI/UX. A month after I joined, he left but came in twice a month to teach me and check my progress. It made me the only designer there, but luckily, Allen also is very good at UI/UX (even better than me) and proficient in using Sketch—Thank god. 

My first friend that sits next to me was Ah Fei (In Cantonese, it would sounds ± like Ah Fai). He used to ride a Honda Ex-5? (I actually forgot the Honda variant but most importantly he leveled up into a new Myvi now). We clicked together thru our almost similar music taste, (AC/DC - Foo Fighters - Eminem - Linkin Park). Ah Fei was an Android developer back then (now he rocks iOS too). I actually remembered that I was actually a bit sick during my first three months here and ended up coughing badly to the point that I rushed to the toilet to vomit, ngeh—  I might disturb Ah Fei a lot by coughing, sorry. We remained to sit next to each other until the end of my 2nd year because Allen made sitting arrangements later on.

Ah Fei's workplace (right) most of the time cleaner than mine (left). This was the 2nd's office.

I was the only Malay at that time but I never been discriminated against at all. Alvin speaks the best Bahasa Malaysia here, he also got the friendly-Chinese-neighbor-next-door vibe (lol), so, he's the best one to talk to about the Malaysian political scene, toddlers behavior, or even the Ayam Gunting Uncle Bob.. Believe it or not, Mat Sabu is his housing area neighbor.

Me and Alvin.

I feel like we're all a family here, Allen always takes us together and paid for our lunch, where we'll talk about the previous Game of Thrones episode or even some Manga series (Allen shared with me the pdf manga of 'Battle Angel, Alita' I hope it is a legal copy, lol). Ahhh, I miss the good ol days. When the company was small, I remember the struggles of working odd design jobs like Singapore Airport Playground branding and interior graphic design or designing business card design for the company's friend. I believed it was for networking.

Good business, more and more people joined the company and we moved to a bigger office (3x bigger than the previous one) in the Arcoris, Mont Kiara. This was my most favorite office of all because of the scenic green park downstairs that also accommodates a Gongcha shop! And Tealive is just at the next building too! How cool is that for a boba head like me? 

The Arcoris park where I enjoyed eating lunch alone, and my messy workspace.

This picture was taken by Allen. It was Allen taking pictures of Ah Fei, taking pictures of me, taking pictures of my socks collection. 

After a year, I was #blessed with another designer – Kelsey. She was so kind as to work overtime with me, sacrificing her weekends to rush for a CIMB project, //cries. It was very nice to have a friend to talk about xiao xian rou like Yang Yang together hahaha. 

These here are 2018-2019's Kelsey. For 2020, she upgraded already.

This office gave me so many new friends, Dimi from Russia (which I thought will be as buff as Putin, but actually, just a slender guy but okay), Shushu (Huicong), Unker from Taiping (Adam), and Boi (Alex). In this office, I got my first batch of Malay friends - Ili, Adri, and Hariz. Also, more international colleagues came in, they are from Iran, India, and Pakistan. I also had my first UI/UX intern here, Wye Mun. I suddenly realized that training and teaching is my passion, lol.

See, we are diversely multiracial.

The projects I worked on for this company were well-selected and provided me with the proper learning curves and helped me grow, meaning we never ever worked on crappy products that we don't even like. It made me very happy to be actively involved in diverse ranges of products. Welp, there are good for my portfolio. We work in a fully agile environment, with sprints and stuff. The daily stand up really help us communicate with each other on planning, progress, and overcoming blockers.

In my second year here, we started to get big clients; industry players and international jobs. I was so exhilarated throughout the year. There was a time I got really sick to the point that I got a fever almost every 3 days (I wrote a show-off post on my counterattack about it here). But seriously I feel less sick when I was surrounded by my officemates. There were some days I got hospitalized in Pantai Hospital and I realized that Allen was also hospitalized there because of his dengue. One of my regrets was not visiting him at that time. After he got discharged, he went to the office and continue his works despite looking sick and for me, it was very heroic.

I bragged a lot about how I love my workplace on my social media.

During my third year here, we moved to a bigger office again because the business went well and new peeps joining in. This time it is in KL Eco City, opposite the Gardens/Midvalley Megamall. It is huge! I am glad that I took part in the early interior design process for the office, where I did the color selection of the paints, the pantry color designs, furniture, and stuff. It was fun. 

My workplace in the 3rd office.

Besides being the office unofficial interior designer, I am also the office official photographer. If you google Snappymob and look for the images, most of the photos there were taken (proudly) by me.

More designers coming in, Leni, Han, Jyemiin, and Meikwan.

Designers team. I made the joke in this picture.

Actually, Adri is also half designer, half developer but he's not here on the day the photo was taken. I am genuinely very happy to witness the company growth from just 6 people to 50++ in just 3 years plus.

Working here, I realized that I have this talent to make (most but not all) people to be their natural self around me. And a lot of people come to me to consult on their life decisions (?). 

Me and the #hypebeast boys, with photoshopped BG to improve our confidence.

We're actually crazy from draining our brains out while working.

Me, Ili and Leni we're parasites when someone hosting free foods.

Thanks to knowing Leni, one of the designers, I became a bit competitive on my personal branding through my website (hahaha). It made me upped my CSS game on my blog site. She also has a good taste for memes.

Uhh, I look plumped.

Working in Snappymob, I've unlocked many new skills. I came with basic Sketch knowledge, but here, I learned Principle for Mac, Prototyping with Marvels, Adobe XD, Adobe After Effect animation, and countless new soft skills such as leadership, project management, and designer-developer communication. This company also taught me proper project workflows through their agile working environment. EVERYONE! I REALLY REALLY RECOMMEND PEOPLE TO JOIN THIS COMPANY. Check their openings here. 

I am endlessly grateful for the chance of being here, meeting with my fellow bosses and colleagues, and most importantly for the friendship built. I hope the company business will stay great for countless years in the future. Thanks for the past 3 years 7 months. I'm Aan Hamdani, signing off.

Update: While writing this, I am working as a livestock farm manager with my family business. I own a share of it, and I also do some UI/UX freelances while having my sweet times of learning Figma and Blender 3D.