inding the perfect job is not an easy task at all. But there are moments in life when from the first moment in the company you can feel "that something", which makes you stay there for years. That was the case with Grzegorz - Senior JS Developer in Strix. Grzesiek shared with us his story about his professional path, which led him from passion for computers to working as a frontend developer in e-commerce industry.
How did you come to be a programmer?
From passion! I was lucky that in the 90s, when computers started to appear in Polish homes, my parents bought one and I became good friends with it. Also, since my school days I was somehow involved with IT. Back then it was mainly about solving hardware problems, today we would call it IT support. Then I went in the direction of web development and already in high school I made my first websites, when the Internet in Poland was still in its infancy.
Your development path hasn't been entirely straightforward, though, as you've tried different things.
Yes, during my studies I kind of moved away from computers and headed more towards management and development. I did a big project at AGH "Engineer with culture". After the project I got an offer to work in a training company in the marketing department and I accepted it. I was doing internet marketing, but I was also developing websites of different types all the time, I was dealing with SEO and content marketing. But I never completely lost touch with web development. Then, in another company, I was developing a web application for training enrollment. I wrote it as a fullstack developer and it was a challenge for me, because I was exposed to new technologies, but also I could taste different sides of programming.
In the end, however, you bet on the frontend. Why such a choice?
I have always been most interested in interfaces and how they are built. I like to see the results of what I create. Although today I have to say that headless frontend applications have evolved enough that I also use the knowledge from working as a fullstack on a daily basis.
And how did it come about that you started looking for e-commerce jobs?
First of all, at some point I felt that I couldn't really grow in my previous job. I reached the limit of my abilities, I didn't have anyone more experienced around me, who could do for example code review. It's a moment when you write code in a small team, but then it turns out that others somewhere do it even better, so I felt that I need a larger team and more experienced people to develop. So I started looking around for a company with larger scale projects.
That's how you ended up at Strix. How do you recall your job interview?
Three years ago it looked like I was invited for coffee. When I first walked into the office, it felt like home. It was a similar experience for me to when you buy a condo. Usually, you look at a lot of properties before you find that perfect place, until at some point you walk into a place and that's it. I had that with Strix. I felt the chemistry! At the interview I met with two people, we talked about frontend, mainly about Vue.js, which at that time was a fairly new technology, and I already had experience working in this framework. After the interview I was given a task to do and that's how I ended up working at Strix as a regular.
How do you recall your first few months on the job?
I ended up on a cool team that was heavily focused on using new technologies. At the time, we were writing a headless application for an electronic parts store for the Chinese market. It was a large scale project with over 500,000 products in the store, and we were strongly focused on performance. What was important for me - the team consisted of young people, focused on integration, and this was something I lacked in my previous jobs. I felt like I had joined a new group at university. Something wonderful!
And what did you like from a technical standpoint?
Most importantly, at Strix I met people who had a lot of experience, there were more developers here from whom I could learn new things. Here I also met with modern approach to programming, where everything has its place, there is code review, tests, etc. We also use the latest technologies: Vue.js, Nuxt, GraphQL, and this is very significant for me.
What do you enjoy most about working in e-commerce?
The coolest thing is that I work on large scale projects. I don't make small websites with only a few dozen visitors a day. I mostly create websites with a huge number of visitors and even millions of buyers per month. Furthermore, II like the complexity of the projects, their scale and the fact that we reach a large audience in Poland and abroad. I also like the fact that my work affects the quality and comfort of shopping for other people.
What was your most interesting professional challenge at Strix?
It was a challenge for me just to join the company and create my first e-commerce project. It was also a challenge to work in the current project, where we are making a very technologically advanced system for eobuwie and MODIVO stores. We are creating a modern web application based on PWA, which is scalable, behaves well in terms of performance and is user-friendly.
We have a large team combined with a client team that is very focused on development and creating high quality code. So I have opportunities to grow and learn all the time. The work culture in this team is such that we care a lot about feedback. Everyone gets a really large number of in-depth CRs and no one gets offended about it ;-)
What do you value most about your job?
People! For me, they are very important, because first you work with people. When you have nice people in the team, work is also more fun. That is why I always liked the emphasis on social life at Strix, there was a lot of integration, events, meetings. Now, because of the situation and remote work, there is obviously less live activity. But since I started working here, I've been impressed that a company full of developers is so well integrated.
Do you feel you can grow and learn in your current job?
Yes, definitely. Apart from the things I've already mentioned, I also appreciate such elements of the daily work as, for example, code review, which in my team is extensive and based on the review of the whole logic. Moreover, we have a frontend channel, where we post interesting facts, case studies and discuss. Once every two weeks we do a retro meeting where we discuss problems or interesting solutions with the entire frontend team, which allows me to be always up-to-date.
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