A Glimpse Inside Apryse”s Web Team with Team Lead Matt Parizeau

At Apryse we believe in transparency and think it’s crucial to help those interested in working for us to understand why the people who currently work here choose to. (Hint: it's for the many opportunities to take on new responsibilities, professional growth opportunities, and learning to tackle technical challenges involving bleeding-edge technology.)

In the first blog of our employee spotlight series, we’ll be highlighting our exceptional employees, with our first interviewee being Matt Parizeau, leader of Apryse’s Web Development Team. We provide a glimpse inside his journey with Apryse and what it’s like to work on the Web Team. Here’s what he had to say when we sat down for a one-on-one.

I applied to Apryse for a new grad position after completing university. I had completed a couple of co-ops at other companies but was looking to try something new when Apryse caught my attention. I applied to a general developer role, so I was open to working with any technology. When Apryse hired me, I was assigned to the Web Development Team to work on Apryse's WebViewer product.

After being assigned to work on WebViewer, I learned all about JavaScript and several other web technologies. In the beginning, the team was relatively small, with three people working directly on the web team. While my primary focus has been on WebViewer, over the years, I’ve also worked on some consumer-facing web apps under the Xodo brand, doing a mix of front-end and back-end development. It’s been exciting trying out different, new web technologies over the years.

In 2015, I became the Team Lead on the Web Development Team, which consisted of just five people. The team has grown exponentially over the years, and we’re now at 30 members. Overall, there has been a shift in my work from Web Development to more Team Management, but it’s a change I chose, and it’s been an interesting, unique challenge all on its own.

First, I’d say working in Web technologies, in general, is an exciting place to be as things change so quickly. At Apryse we can play around with new technologies, which is always fun. For example, we started using React when it came out in 2013.

Second, WebViewer is the best Web Document SDK in the world, so you can feel proud to be a part of that and contribute to making it even better. Of course, I’m biased here saying it’s the best, but in terms of features and documentation, this is the feedback we receive consistently from customers that have evaluated us versus our competitors.

Lastly, Apryse provides me with an excellent work/life balance accompanied by a flexible work schedule. We’re continuing with remote work for everyone with the option to use the downtown office. Additionally, another perk is that there’s no pressure to work overtime.

Apryse’s Web Team is our fastest growing team because there is so much demand for Web-based applications amongst our customers. WebViewer is Apryse’s flagship product, so the work you do on it can significantly impact users and Apryse's business. We also have other Web applications that can impact millions of users.

My favorite part about working for Apryse is that I get to work on a first-in-class product that's constantly evolving and challenges me every day. It also doesn't hurt that Apryse provides a great work/life balance and flexible schedule that helps me do my work when I'm at my best!

Things are constantly changing with Web Development, so it’s vital that you continuously read and learn about things happening in the space. With that being said, there are too many tools, frameworks and APIs to know them all, so don’t get overwhelmed feeling like you need to know everything. If you have a general awareness of what’s out there, you’ll find and learn when you need to.

Something else noteworthy is being very comfortable with Web fundamentals and tools. For example, with JavaScript, that may be functions, scope, Promises, etc. This, along with developer tools, including breakpoints, the call stack, network monitoring, DOM inspection, etc. If you know the basics inside and out, when you’re working on something complicated, you’ll be able to focus on the complex parts and accomplish things much more efficiently.

Learn more about our culture and community, and open opportunities on our careers page.