For nearly 5 years now I have been a part of Proxify, working on an evolving project where I get to develop my skills every day.
I’m a full-stack developer with 7 years of commercial experience in web development. I studied programming in college and have a bachelor's degree in Computer science and engineering. Apart from college lessons I dedicated a lot of time to self-learning and implemented different tasks as I wanted to grow professionally, particularly in the development sphere. I started with learning C-Sharp, the .Net framework and implemented easy tasks working with arrays. Each new task that I set for myself was more complex.
I managed to learn .NET to a reasonable level and wanted to start my career and obtain some commercial experience as a developer. It was not an easy task to find a company willing to start with a relatively inexperienced junior developer. Luckily, I got through the competition for students that was held by the Smart Business company, which is a Gold Microsoft Partner. I had a chance to work there for 1 and a half months as a trainee and it was my first experience working in a team. We creeated a chatting system and worked with the most advanced patterns for that time. I received a certificate there but, unfortunately, there was no possibility at that time to grow as a back-end developer, which is what I had harboured dreams of doing all along.
I continued to study and work remotely on different short term projects with American and European companies: wedding studios, furniture stores and projects like these. During this period I discovered the Laravel framework which I have been using in my work for the last 2 years now - I am in love with it! When these projects finished, I obviously had to start looking for another remote job. That’s how I met the Proxify team. I am one of the developers who started to work with the guys from the very beginning. Amongst other things, I integrated a third party API (a time-tracking software called Hubstaff) to Proxify’s admin site.
We enjoyed a really good cooperation and they soon realised what I could offer on other projects, so I was invited to my first big project with one of their Swedish clients which helps companies to find better office spaces and better lease terms. I worked there as a full-stack developer.
This project ended successfully and luckily for me Proxify stayed true to their word and put me straight onto another project, which I have been on ever since. For me, this is one of the huge advantages of working with proxify - I no longer have to find my own work or short-term gigs to keep busy and earn money.
I am now working with another of Proxify's Swedish clients but solely as a back-end (PHP, Laravel) developer. It’s a big team of back-end and front-end developers as well as QAs and DevOps and it is growing fast. I'm really satisfied with my work here as I am making a great contribution to the development of the golf industry in Sweden and worldwide. I can have a direct influence in helping open up this market and in making it more accessible for golf players in various locations.
On top of this, I have a chance to work with new technologies and continue to learn and developer professionally. For example, DDD (domain driven design) for scaling up applications, new systems and ways of working with databases - Laravel Doctrine, etc. Everyday I learn something new, because I work in a team with experienced senior developers, who organise our work according to the Scrum methodology and share their experience in development.
I’m only looking forward now - to gaining new knowledge and experience in different areas - and I am thankful that Proxify gave me the opportunity to do what I am doing. It has been a pleasure working with them for all this time and I am grateful that they have been so committed to working with me. I see the guys there as my friends, not just professional acquaintances.
To finish, I’d like to give some suggestions to newcomers as well as to all junior developers out there:
• Be dedicated and involved in what you are doing - Be attentive to everything you do and do it 100%. • Companies like Proxify and their clients appreciate this and it does not go unnoticed. • Have the desire to learn. If you don’t have it, think about changing your career. Software development is an ever-changing industry. • Communicate and be social. Talk to people, ask questions and be professional. Clients love to be able to bounce ideas off you and are always open to advice.