Mutual chemistry

Edward, you’re a .NET programmer on our Life Insurance Contract Sales (LICOSS) project. Your background’s fascinating, because you’re an example of a successful change of sectors.

Yes, I spent nine years as a business processes analyst… and now here I am at MakoLab working as a programmer! I’d heard a lot from friends in the IT sector about how it was months before they were given their first task and even then, it was something they could accomplish in three minutes. But here, I was assigned to a project right away.

In your case, perhaps that’s not really remarkable, since you’ve always been involved in programming?

I wrote my first programme at primary school. Back then, we all had these exercise books called ‘Golden Thoughts’ [Millennials will remember them! – ed.]. Well, instead of the exercise book, I made a programme on a disc. I wrote it in Turbo Pascal. It showed questions and recorded the answers. The best thing was this; back then, I didn’t know what a variable was, but I had this friend, a genius, and he was learning C+++ and he explained it to me.

How about your time at university?

That was a bit of an aberration. I’d decided that I didn’t want to spend my whole life in front of a computer. Mind you, when I was working in analysis, that’s exactly what happened anyway. So, I chose to study logistics. Then I got a job at the place where I’d done my work experience and I stayed there for nine years. I turned out to be the only person in the Polish branch with any knowledge of programming and I started streamlining and automatising some of the processes. To begin with, I was writing macros in Visual Basic. Later, the time came for C++ and PHP, meaning that I could make my way to the technology that’s perfect for corporate conditions… in other words, C#. Nobody imposed any boundaries on me.

How about the way work is organised here?

Everything operates on a human scale. The work has to be done, but not necessarily at any price, such as endless overtime and no holidays. Work and personal lives shouldn’t overlap. It’s a unique approach to people and stability is a good route to gaining loyal members of staff. It gives you a sense of being part of a smaller company, where there’s no inertia.

After nine years, though, you decided that a change was in order.

Right. And I hit the bullseye first time! I sensed a chemistry with MakoLab and I think it was mutual. After a rapid recruitment process, I was assigned to a project where we’re working in the new .NET. I have an excellent manager and my colleagues are open and friendly. It’s a great team. From the outset, I felt that trust had been invested in me and that, to a large extent, I could do things as I saw best. So I’ve come forward with a few initiatives, proposed that we do something this way or that. There’s no one breathing down my neck all the time. Also, right at the start, I was able to register for training in Kubernetes. It’s excellent that the company invests in its people.