What is your role and work you do in Transcenda?

I’m Front-End Engineer, working in a small team of Front-end, Back-end, and QA Engineers building the health tech product. Since the summer of 2022, I have been a part of Transcenda, where we develop high-quality software that helps our clients to achieve their goals.

What inspired you to pursue an Engineering career?

I first became interested in programming at school. At that time, it seemed fairly easy, because, in actuality, school-level programming is easy. During my last year at school, I was considering a medical career. However, I wasn’t that good at or interested in biology. I took my final exams, and I had good grades on the programming exam. I said to myself, “Why not? Let’s continue with this.”

It turned out to be a great decision, and I grew to enjoy my profession more and more each day.

Name a few lessons you’ve learned throughout the years as a Software Engineer.

1. Continue learning all of the time. As a developer, this is a part of your unofficial job description – and that is very important to understand even before you decide to pursue a career in IT. Make sure you take the time one, two, or three times a week to learn something new. If you skip this, you might risk taking yourself out of the job market eventually.
2. Another thing is that you have to check your code a few times before you actually commit it and before you create a pull request. Back in the day, I had to learn this the hard way.
3. Never be afraid to ask for help, because the truth is, you’ll probably receive it. Of course, first, try to see if you can fix the problem or create the thing on your own. Sometimes you will be able to do this, sometimes you will not. So there’s no problem in asking for help, people will ask for your help too.

Which recent trends in Front-End development you would highlight?

React has recently published new documentation and made changes to its library for application development. For example, Create React App is not officially supported and was replaced by a few other options, like Create Next App from the Next.js framework.

Right now, Next.js is taking its place as one of the best frameworks for full-stack web application development, as it applies well to the other trend—going server-side instead of client-side.

Going server-side provides changes to how you structure your app and implement it. This approach becomes necessary right now—as it allows access to bigger resources and provides more security, improving the overall app experience.

Give a piece of advice to new Front-End developers.

Finish your job like a senior developer.

Throughout your career, there will be situations when you’ll reach a certain level of expertise, and you’ll feel pretty comfortable working with your set of knowledge and tools on a daily basis. There will be little to no pressure for further development, and that is when you’ll have to find ways to go the extra mile – and look out for opportunities to improve by yourself.

Take your time to learn and, as mentioned earlier, ask for feedback and help when needed.

What do you consider to be the most challenging part of your job?

Switching technologies is quite a challenge sometimes. Each skill has a learning curve, leaner or steeper, but it still takes lots of time and effort. There’s one thing to learn, and the other is to apply and work with it.

Also, the planning stage of the project is quite challenging as here you have to combine your tech skills, people skills, and business acumen when you search for ways to solve a problem, present, and discuss them.

I’m happy to see that the results of my work are in use and that I made an impact. On the front end, it’s just more visible.

If you could master one skill this year, what would it be?

I’d like to get better on the business side of the project. I do not want to limit myself to just technical stuff, but to see the whole view. What’s the bigger picture of the product or service? Why are we doing this?

This is the career path I’d like to follow in the future.

How do you improve your technical skills?

Every developer wants to be a better developer. I usually go to the official website of the framework technology and start reading, doing examples, watching videos, trying to engage with everything that’s out there. And practicing, because that’s how you actually understand how it works.

I do like to follow developers as well. Theo Browne is one of my favorite presenters on YouTube. Dan Abramov has been working on the React library and posts a lot of related stuff. It’s nice to actually follow people that create the technologies I am using at work day to day.

Which Transcenda value resonates the most with you?

Always Finding a Better Way and Respect and Promote Diversity and Inclusion. I enjoy working with people from different cultures and with different mentalities. I believe this is a huge advantage for the developer community.

What do you like the most about your job at Transcenda?

The people are really friendly. The projects are cool, and the tasks timelines are reasonable. For me, it’s a really good work environment.

I do appreciate Transcenda’s “work where you work best” strategy, which allows me to enjoy the flexibility of working remotely. Even more so now, since many businesses in Romania are going back to the office for at least a few days per week.

What are your hobbies, and how did they shape you?

I play sports every day, and I go to the gym. They shape me, not only physically, but also in a sense of self-discipline. I have learned through sports that it’s really good for the body and mind, and it’s healthy to have a schedule. I used to play rugby in high school and learned about teamwork there. Now, I am not as big into team sports, but more of a weight-lifting and running fan.

I also like to take walks outside. No matter the place—even in the city. Now that the weather is nice, I plan on spending my weekends hiking.

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