How did you discover your passion for Software development?
During high school we had informatics as part of the program and I really liked the interesting things we can do with our hands and minds to create useful systems for everyone. Probably this is the thing that guided me to continue with software development at the university.
What is your education?
I graduated 10 years ago from the Highschool of Mathematics and Natural sciences “Konstantin Velichkov” in the town Pazardzhik with a profile in Mathematics, Informatics and English. Then I graduated as a software engineer from the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” with Bachelor and Master degrees.
Can you share your experience as a software developer and how it has prepared you for your current role?
I can say it all started back in time when I selected my program at the university. The courses there helped me to see the whole process of developing a software solution. At the same time, I started working at Kin + Carta where I had the chance to learn more than just how to code better. I worked on several different projects in the company with a variety of team sizes (from just me to up to 10-12 people). During this period I had the opportunity to try a few different roles, including Project management, talk with clients, collect requirements, prepare test scenarios and documentation. I would say that the best for me is that I have to deal with more than one thing at a time, which is making me feel good and keeps my attention.
What motivated you to transition from a software developer to a leadership role?
With time I started to feel that being helpful to others is making me feel better and writing a code is not enough for me. I decided to try with a leadership role because it kind of gives me both things: I am still assigned to a project where I code everyday and at the same time, I can think and apply ideas for making things better for our team and our company.
How do you envision your role as a Team Lead and a Craft Lead contributing to the growth and success of the team?
Being assigned to each of these roles is a big recognition for me and my knowledge and experience. I believe that making a team is hard work (which our Team Lead - Miro, already did) and it’s even harder to keep it as it is and make it grow.
As a Team Lead, my goal is to collaborate with colleagues, discuss new ideas and make them happen. I believe everyone has a lot of knowledge and experience and it’s our job, as leaders, to give them the opportunity to share them.
As a Craft Lead, I plan to cooperate and create internal standards within the team. This will give us common ground level and will help us introduce new colleagues in the team. Working together with Miro, we want to become an active part of the development society where we share our knowledge.
How do you balance the need for maintaining project standards and goals with encouraging individual creativity and innovation within your team?
Project standards are an essential part of software development. Without them, it’s like building a tower of cards. I can’t hide that not all projects have such standards. When we start a new project it’s easier to introduce them. In other cases we need to put some extra effort to convince the client that bringing standards into the project and its workflow is paying a lot in the future. Probably finding the balance between standards and creativity is easy because we create basic guides which are not strict. This allows everyone to bring order and still have the opportunity to share their ideas. For example, I can share the initiative we started – it’s called Lightning talks. Similarly to conferences, we give a short time slot – 10-15 min, for everyone in the team who has seen or read about something interesting and wants to share it with the team. This is how we already heard about a variety of topics like Hot buttons, Narcissism and INSAIT.
Can you share an example of a particularly challenging situation you faced at Kin + Carta and how you resolved it?
That’s a tough question. I’d say that everybody has a challenging situation no matter his/her job and position. For me, as a junior it was challenging to talk with clients, understand their needs and specify them into requirements. With lots of opportunities to do so, I have managed to become better at that.
Then, as a middle, when I had to introduce a new colleague I faced a situation when I had to give feedback for the code during code review but in a way that he/she doesn’t feel bad after that. I’ll say it was a hard thing to do, but again, with time, it became easier.
Later on, as Project Manager I faced challenges when our project was going to have delays from the expected deadline. What I did was to try to make a visual representation with the features left in a roadmap with milestones along with deadlines for each of them. Then I had to communicate the plan with the client and keep it up to date when some unexpected events happened.
Of course, I would say there’s way more instruments and strategies to learn in the future for solving the same problems.
What is your favorite part of the job?
There are a lot of interesting things that are constantly going on in our job. Technologies are evolving, people are growing as individuals and professionals and for me it’s best to have a piece of all of this. This is why I like my current job at Kin + Carta.
How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies, and how do you encourage your team members to do the same?
Staying up-to-date is a challenging task which everybody handles themselves differently. I found that for me, being subscribed to newsletters is useful but being part of society and going to conferences where real people share what they have heard or tried is “catching” my eye. We always share in the team and the company future technical events and encourage colleagues to participate.
How would you describe the company culture that you have experienced at Kin + Carta? What aspects of it resonate with you the most?
What I like about Kin + Carta’s culture is that we are friends that are working together. Whenever you need help, there always would be at least a few people ready to help you and a lot more willing to do so. You can talk with anyone no matter their position or role. This is making the whole atmosphere nice, grounded and full of energy to grow.
What attracted you to our company specifically, and what do you find unique about our approach?
There are few key points for me:
- I really like the fact that we are all friends no matter our positions and roles.
- You can always find someone to talk to when you need it.
- When have ideas for improvement, you can share them and make them happen
- When you need technical support, you can just share your problem with the technical team and they’ll love to spend some time for brainstorming solutions
- When you want to grow and develop your skills, you are always welcomed to try new responsibilities and roles. You can become whoever you want. It all depends on you and your will to do it.
In your opinion, what role does a positive and inclusive work environment play in the success of a team? How would you foster such an environment?
I believe that the positive and inclusive work environment is an essential part of making and keeping every team together. The nice and energetic ecosystem provides opportunities for personal, professional and career development. My goal is to bring people more often together to get to know each other better. Organizing internal presentations, projects, knowledge transfer, pair programming and brainstorming sessions are a huge part of this. Because of being friends, it’s important to spend some time outside of the work environment. We encourage and organize mini-team buildings such as green offices, cinema nights, foreign food nights and many more.
What are your long-term career goals, and how do you see our company contributing to your growth and development as a professional?
My plans for the future are always oriented to how I feel and look in my eyes. I see myself as a better and experienced professional leader oriented to both technology and people. I want to help people to grow and provide them with a healthy environment and lots of opportunities and challenges which will bring out the best of them. Maybe forming and becoming part of a coaching society at Kin + Carta would help me to do that, who knows.
How do you stay motivated and inspired in your work?
Success stories about completed tasks, projects, initiatives and training are making me feel inspired either being mine or someone else’s. Small things are what matters in our everyday lives and I hope I’ll be able to share this passion with my colleagues.
Apart from your professional endeavors, what are some projects or initiatives that you personally feel passionate about, and why?
Whenever I have an opportunity, I always take part in projects that are related to folklore dances. I’ve been part of many ERASMUS+ projects abroad and met a variety of young people sharing the same passion to preserve and spread national traditions, culture and folklore. For the last 5 years, I’ve become part of a small group of current and ex-dancers in Pazardzhik who are willing to organize our own ERASMUS+ project. We want to invite our friends from all around Europe to celebrate traditions and customs of our nations.
How do you strike a balance between your personal interests and professional responsibilities?
Most important for everyone is to find his/her own time to refill his/her own batteries no matter their profession. I learned with time that if I don’t take care of myself, no one would do it. That’s why I’m devoting part of my time to my family, my development, my hobbies and to myself. Of course, this is not so easy as it is to say it and sometimes the balance is violated, but still, when you have eyes for it, you will see it and take actions to fix it.
Can you share any hobbies or activities outside of work that you enjoy?
I really like learning new languages, I found out that it’s bringing more “color” using the native language in the communication rather than just English. For now I’m keen on Spanish and Turkish which I practice almost every day.
My older hobby is photography which I recently developed more with taking some classes and being part of a contest.
