Per aspera ad astra
Through hardship to the stars – the best description of the development path of my professional career. Every day I am faced with different challenges and obstacles, and I can proudly say that I successfully overcome them. Some of those challenges might make me doubt my abilities, but the persistence and endurance keep me on my track and I reap successes no matter what.
One of the advantages of working in the IT industry is that you can work all by yourself, from home. No bosses or superiors. It gives you a chance to be independent. Freelancers. And that sounds pretty much cool. When there is no one to monitor you, the intellectual capacity reaches its maximum. During those times we have the freedom of all the world to plan our time how to work and with whom we will work. The motto of the freelancers is “If I have done more work, I will get paid more”. And more or less, that’s the truth.
When I worked as a freelancer, I always chose projects which made me feel comfortable working on. I knew from the beginning how much time I needed for a certain project, when I will finish it and I planned my next project. It was the same every day. One project after another. After certain period of time working as an “independent” and “freethinking” developer, I understood that I am in fact closed in one circle and I personally set boundaries on my knowledge, skills and qualifications. Many times I have found myself in a situation to work on a new project, with new technologies, but at the end I always decided that now it is not the time to devote to learn something new, because, of course – as a freelancer you aren’t being paid for learning new technologies. That is one of the main reasons why I am not a freelancer anymore. The dynamic and teamwork is yet another reason why I have decided not to be a freelancer.
When the wish to go out of the comfort zone, to expand your knowledge and viewpoints, not just professionally but personally as well, is big, then the decision to make a new move is easier. And that’s what happened. Working in a company is nothing new about me.
I have worked with different colleagues in a team on different projects. But now the challenge is much bigger, because I work in a renowned company with a high credibility, with worldly renowned partners. The challenges that I face nowadays are much bigger than previously, they put me one step higher on the career ladder. When you work in a company surrounded by professionals, there isn’t any problem or challenge that cannot be solved. Nowadays, I spend less time searching Google for solutions for certain problems, and I spend more time in discussions with the colleagues and solving problems together. The time that I spent on negotiating with new clients, the planning of the projects – all that is now done by someone else. And I wisely use that time for learning and exploring areas which I am personally interested in.
What is it like today?
There is a big diversity at ⋮IW – and every day is different. I am surrounded with colleagues who work in different areas, colleagues with different knowledge about the industry in which we are working, colleagues different by age and gender. All these things force me to adjust to a completely diversified surrounding and that is one of the positive things at ⋮IW which makes the company different than the other companies. And as a freelancer I didn’t have the opportunity to work with different people.
At the end, I understood that I am not an employee at ⋮IWConnect, rather a member of one big family working fulltime.
