Thelo Gaultier
Software Engineer
Hometown: Paris, France
I first came to ITRI in 2012 for a six-month internship as part of my master’s thesis. I had done a one-year exchange in Hong Kong and I wanted to come back to Asia. My professor had visited ITRI and recommended it to me. After finishing my internship, I inquired about staying and was hired as a full-time employee.
I’m working on our Cloud OS project, specifically on the storage aspect. I work on a smaller team so I do a variety of tasks, from designing new features to coding to testing. This means I get experience with all the different sides of the process. The workload is quite variable, it’s not always very busy but if there is a deadline to meet I do find myself working in the evenings or occasionally on weekends.
As far as living in Taiwan, it feels very safe, and people are generally very nice (except when they are driving, of course). The scenery is very beautiful, I love that where I live is close to both the coast and the mountains. On weekends I often enjoy some outdoor activities such as biking or hiking. Recently I participated in my first triathlon. There is also the opportunity to learn Chinese; I’ve been learning since I came here, it’s not easy but I’m getting better. To improve my Mandarin, I advertised within ITRI and found a local family to live with, they don’t speak much English so I’m forced to practice more in different situations.
Note: Thelo left ITRI in 2016 to pursue his career in Europe.