Hi, I’m Marko Esho and I joined the APEXA team as a Senior Software Developer in April of 2022
My journey to APEXA
I graduated with a Computer Science degree in 2015 from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) and had a short stint at Freshly Squeezed while studying (I’m told I make good smoothies). I began my career at a company called KUBRA as a Programmer/Analyst. Have you ever paid your Enbridge bill online? Well, KUBRA is their online-payment service provider, and the company provides several customer management solutions to utility, government, and insurance entities. This position allowed me to work closely with customers where I would resolve any issues they were facing as well as work on new feature implementations. I was there for a little under 2 years.
A friend referred me to a job at SPS Commerce which was very close to home, so my commute to and from work was less than 30 minutes. I had my first Agile experience at SPS and I worked with awesome people. I also had a blast with the foosball sessions and tournaments in the break room.
I later applied and was hired at Uptake, which I called my work-home for 4 years. I witnessed the company move from providing on-premise solutions to a full SaaS based enterprise running Agile. This is where I learned and grew the most, working on technologies like ASP.NET, SQL, NodeJS, and Angular as well as some ancient tech like Classic ASP and Visual Basic.
This brings me to today, where I’ve marked my first year at APEXA. I decided to apply for and join APEXA because I wanted to take my experience and continue growing in a new role where I can provide value in my work. After meeting the dev team in the interview process and learning about what APEXA does, it was an easy decision. Everyone is friendly, smart, helpful, and we are all working towards a common goal.
What I do in APEXA
As with anything insurance, a lot of paperwork and fact checking is involved, and all that paper gets tedious and difficult to maintain. Well, Apexa is like a Marvel super-hero for those in the life insurance industry and boy does it do a lot of saving. As an insurance advisor, you’re up and running a lot sooner, giving you more time to prospect, sell and serve clients. As an MGA and carrier, you can be at ease knowing you’ll get automated alerts for compliance and profile changes, not having to validate license documents, and having all your contracts digitized!
Here comes me, a senior software developer, and while I’m no superhero, I play an important role in APEXA’s development and maintenance. It’s not just me though, there’s a whole team of other awesome people who I work with closely, and without them, the APEXA universe wouldn’t exist. We all work together to rid the streets of villainous software bugs and use our powers to expand Apexa so that it continues to meet and exceed our client expectations.
My go-to productivity trick
I’ve tried a number of productivity tools and tricks, but the one thing that I continue to do, and which continues to provide results, is a simple To Do list. I don’t know what it is about crossing off items on a list, but it makes me feel good and it makes me want to cross everything off. Another important trick for big and complex problems is breaking things down. That big task or problem doesn’t seem so bad when it’s split into multiple smaller items, and you’ll feel better when you start accomplishing those smaller tasks.
My dream skill
I’ve always wanted to play an instrument, and if I’m to choose which one, I’d say the piano. I dabbled with it as a kid but my attention span at the time was my downfall and I never got back to it again.
Away from work, you can find me here
Computers are a big part of my life, so more often than not, you’ll find me on my PC at home when I’m away from work. I enjoy playing competitive online games, such as Counter Strike and League of Legends and I watch a decent amount of TV shows (I recently started Succession). Basketball is also passion of mine and I take any chance I get to play. It’s competitive, fun, and keeps me active.
