Instituto Eldorado
The place everyone from UNIFEI wanted to work at. Located right there in Campinas, doing R&D for major tech companies - it was the dream gig for fresh graduates.
The Company
Instituto Eldorado is a research and development institute that partners with big tech companies on their Brazilian operations. When I was there, the main client was Motorola, and we were deep in Android OS customization work.
What I Did
Android OS Customization
Worked closely with Motorola on customizing Android for new phone launches. This isnât app development - itâs lower level stuff, tweaking the OS itself for specific hardware configurations. When a new Motorola phone was about to hit the market, we were part of making sure the software worked properly on that specific device.
Test Infrastructure
Built several test setups to collect data and diagnostics from mobile devices. One project Iâm particularly proud of was an audio quality testing system for call performance. Measuring audio quality programmatically is trickier than it sounds - you need consistent test environments, proper signal analysis, and automated ways to detect issues that a human ear would catch.
Device Catalog
Created a catalog system for over 3,000 devices to speed up testing workflows. When youâre testing across that many device variants, you need good tooling to keep track of whatâs been tested, what failed, and what needs attention.
Why I Left
Hereâs the thing: Eldorado is genuinely a great place to work. Good benefits, interesting projects, smart colleagues. But the work leaned heavily toward QA, testing, and analysis rather than building products from scratch.
I realized Iâm the kind of developer who needs to be deeper in the code, building things, not just testing them. Nothing wrong with QA work - itâs crucial - but itâs not where my passion lies.
The Dream That Wasnât
Itâs funny how the âdream jobâ you have as a student doesnât always match who you actually are as a professional. Eldorado taught me something important about myself: I need to be building, not just validating.