What do the devs have to confess?
What factors make the workplace enjoyable? Most people would say that it’s a decent salary, attractive benefits or possibility to work remotely. A bunch of workers would not even think of how important the atmosphere at work is. It has its justification - when you spend 8 hours a day in your workplace, the most important thing is to feel comfortable there. Therefore, it is particularly important to take care not only about the high level of skills but also about good relations between employees. In our company, we do not have to worry about it. Our employees combine effective work and good fun in an extremely agile way. This mixture results in not only satisfied customers but also content colleagues. But not to be groundless, let them speak for themselves.
Inspire others and let them inspire you.
As you keep working in the same place for more and more time, you may get bored and overwhelmed by the tasks that you have to handle every day. How to always stay fresh and ready for new challenges? Just find endless inspiration in what you do. In our company, it is not a big deal.
“If by 'inspire' you mean the urge to do something more, try something new, explore and reach new levels of creative programming, then the answer may be slightly vaguer then you've hoped for. With every new project and every new task, you get a better grasp not only on what you are doing but more importantly on what the possibilities are. Given a time you gain experience, which allows realizing they are in fact endless. With several known languages you possess the ability to craft everything, restrained only by software and, well, your limitations. So when you realize you can design a program with every given imaginable functionality… That is where the real fun begins” says Tomek. Never-ending learning is another thing that can be added to this set, mentioned by Adam, the developer with similar experience. What is also worth mentioning, all of us are glad of having the possibility of working with US startups.
Not always easy-peasy.
Although working in TDCM allows you to develop not only another piece of code but also yourself, there are tough moments too. Even though we are not afraid of taking responsibility for ourselves, in our everyday work some decisions are not the easiest ones to make. For Pawel, the most difficult moments are when it is needed to decide how to write some part of the software to make it clean, responsive and professional. As can be seen, the quality of our work is always in the first place. As Wojtek says, questions that don't have a simple answer are also problematic - there are a few options and choosing the best one requires some in-depth knowledge. Even so, we are always well-prepared to overcome those difficulties and still learn from our mistakes.
Breaking the back of the beast.
The challenge is a more pleasant definition of a difficult moment. As we know, there are a lot of them in every type of work. It's not different within TDCM. At the beginning of each day, many tasks are waiting for us. Every day we need to face the threats and work on them, even if at first they seem to be beyond our skills. It usually occurs that there is not a single problem that is unsolvable for us. However, what were the most significant challenges that we have approached? “Optimization of the company website was challenging as it was quite new territory to me. It required many skills I had not mastered yet at that point, but I could count on the support at all times. Eventually, the results turned out to be better than I expected” thinks Przemek. For Damian, writing a quite big node.js application for one of our projects on his own in JavaScript was the most developing challenge he has handled at that moment. But it was also the time when he was developing his programming skills faster than ever before, so finally, it was one of the best decisions for him in his programming experience. Isn’t that impressive?
Being different is not always a bad thing.
Although most of us have had a working experience, being a part of the TDCM team is something completely different. Our environment is employee-friendly and encourages creative development. This company focuses on people, not just work. What do our developers think about it? “I can work remotely whenever I want. We have LAN parties and other events like Christmas Eve, Fat Thursday and so on. Also, it's quite easy to learn a lot of interesting and useful tricks and skills from the more experienced people, cause everyone is helpful there” says Damian. For Wojtek, the most important features of TDCM are the friendly atmosphere and the ability to improve himself. Przemek considers much space for growth as the most appealing one. “It feels like there is no ceiling above to limit the possibilities, so it's certainly not any dead-end job”, he says.
What happens when it comes to work distribution? It’s no surprise that it is hard to be a specialist in everything. On the other hand, you cannot do the same thing over and over again. All you need is a balance. “With the friendly, open atmosphere in a team of colleagues you both know and trust, there are really no quarrels over task management and amount of assigned work. One of the obvious perks of working in a smaller team is the possibility to freely communicate and state your needs and desires. When everyone knows, that you all work best if you are given the tasks suiting your skills and experience, handling discussion over work distribution is a breeze.” Disagreeing with Tomek’s words is hard. This is exactly how we distribute work in TDCM. What is important for Przemek is that the tasks are different each time, which enables the exploration of new knowledge, instead of repeating the same thing over and over again. Adam agrees: “everyone can get part of the project that they desire the most and work on this part. There are no fix-specialties”. This solution fosters continuous learning, but at the same time allows you to work comfortably without forcing you to do tasks that you are not ready for. Could it be any better?
Don’t rest on your laurels.
Although our developers are one of a kind, having a great experience and extraordinary skills, they never stop learning and aspiring. What are their plans for the immediate future?
„I'd like to remain a part of TDCM team, see it grow and prosper. Here I found the environment needed for my career development, with many enjoyable perks, and that's the place in which I'd like to see my path to senior developer unfold. In the following years, I'll be aiming to gain more experience and steadily rising salary while becoming a truly proficient member of a team.” ~Tomek
„I'm going for further sharpening my front-end toolset and expanding it. I wish to take part in the back-end development at some point as well. I want to get more versatile in terms of software development - full stack responsibilities sound like it to me.” ~Przemek
„Improving my technical skills and sophistication, continue to study new technologies.” ~Wojtek
„Keep learning front-end JavaScript environments like React/React Native to create cool web/mobile applications, but also getting familiar with Ruby on Rails so I can deal even with back-end tasks.” ~Pawel
„Stop doubting my abilities and become confident in my skills and knowledge instead.” ~Adam
„I want to develop my skills more and more, and thanks to that, stop being a junior, and become a mid developer!” ~Damian
As you can see, our team is full of motivated, skilled and spiffy workers who never stop. As we all know, the atmosphere is created by people, and that is why working in TDCM is an excellent experience!
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