Social media scraping and Big Data

While this role spanned nearly two years, the nature of the work was relatively straightforward. I initially joined the company as part of a project focused on generating reports based on trending social media data. We leveraged services similar to what Scrapify.io offers today (though it didn’t exist at the time), along with web scraping techniques, to collect valuable insights for companies. The goal was twofold: to assess the impact of advertising campaigns and to proactively detect customer complaints, allowing brands to intervene and resolve issues before they gained viral traction.

It was an interesting and meaningful project. The backend was built in PHP, with MongoDB as the primary database. The frontend was a custom tool developed in vanilla JavaScript (with some modern enhancements), enabling analysts to visualize data through charts, monitor trends, and generate periodic PDF reports for clients. The platform was used by several major companies, which added a layer of real-world relevance and scale to the work.

Web factory

After about a year, the company underwent a strategic shift in priorities and reorganized its departments. In this new phase, my primary focus was developing institutional websites for clients and supporting digital advertising campaigns. These projects were typically short-term, fast-paced builds delivered through a streamlined tech stack.

The workflow combined Wordpress for content management, which allowed for rapid setup, with a custom frontend built using Codeigniter, jQuery, and vanilla JavaScript. We used the popular Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin to transform WordPress into a lightweight, headless CMS. This approach enabled us to bypass the limitations of traditional WordPress theming —which at the time was quite restrictive— and gave us the flexibility to build more dynamic and maintainable front-ends.

Offboarding

The nature of the work, being mostly part of a website production chain, wasn’t particularly fulfilling for me. It often felt more like executing repetitive tasks than engaging in meaningful problem-solving or creative exploration, which are the aspects of development I find most rewarding.

Fortunately, a new opportunity came along, allowing me to transition to another company where my role offered much greater room for growth and professional development.

Referrals

• Mario Valiente - Development coordinator (Manager)