Martin Bórik: In my 18 years within IT I've never experienced 1-on-1s at such a scale

Could you describe your career path over the years?

Initially, I worked as an electrical engineer. My options were limited back then because you had to work in the field that you studied. In just a year, I had changed jobs and joined a local design studio as a graphic designer. We would be working on books, magazines, leaflets, or billboards. It was at this job that I came up with the idea of creating web presentations for our customers as an added benefit. The boss loved it, so we set up a new web development department.

My first professional IT job followed soon after. During my six years there, I started as a junior and left as a senior. After this, I moved to another company where I worked with low-level programming for a while, programming software for television transmission and the like. There I was a C/C++ developer and team lead.

In the following years, I worked in a corporate environment, where I worked with foreign customers for the first time. I also learned Scrum at this company, which I really enjoyed. But there was a downside to it all. I was really miserable in the corporation because of the impossibility of enforcing things there and the excessive micromanagement that was expected. It was exhausting.

My very last job prior to Sudolabs was a small development company (10-12 people). As I was not progressing, I spent only two years there. Throughout the entire two years, there was no change within my career. The team also tended to be older. I just like younger teams, I feel better among the young. Since I had no common ground with them, I suffered from this. Therefore, when I got the chance to go to Sudolabs, I didn't hesitate for a second.

Upon joining Sudolabs, what were some of your biggest challenges?

By being in the IT business for so long, one tends to develop particular manners. Different principles, habits, and vices are adhered to. Sudolabs taught me to get rid of these.

My mindset completely changed after a great deal of effort.

It taught me not to think of the code as something of mine, but as a collective work that belongs to us all. As a result, I began to approach the application as something we all did and not just my features but the entire product as a whole. Looking at it from a different perspective.

Due to Sudolabs, I can work with much younger, more efficient, and better developers than myself. As a result of my stagnant years, I'm a little behind. Working with them pushes me forward incredibly, but I still have lots to learn. Not a day goes by that I haven't learned something new. At any age, such an experience is wonderful. As I said, I learned not to follow different principles. The code and the process may look different, not only in the way I've built it over the years in my mind.

Did you come to Sudolabs as a senior?

The answer is yes, but I didn't want to come there as a superstar with many years of experience. On the contrary, I wanted to start from scratch. Sudolabs was using many new technologies, and I knew I was a lot behind. Therefore, I decided to catch up on everything by seeing myself as a junior.

Compared to other companies, do you see any differences within the development at Sudolabs?

As of now, I have not come across a company whose development, processes, and procedures, the way the code and its standards are written, and the way of delivery is as specifically and precisely defined as in Sudolabs. Plus, it's not a red book that no one can interfere with, but it's a living standard that evolves and adapts to the team's experience and increasing skills. I was pleasantly surprised by this. Although everything has its own order these days, it is still necessary to work on it and implement it further.

Despite your many years of experience and senior position, do you feel you have a place to move forward in the engineering sphere / at Sudolabs?

Definitely, there is always room for progress. Though at this point I would prefer to move in the direction of people management and take care of colleagues' comfort. I'm aware, that this change can't happen overnight, but I believe it will enable me to contribute more to the company.

What is your opinion on 1-on-1s?

Absolutely positive. I've never encountered it before on such a large scale. Regularly, a person has the chance to sit down with his/hers leader and discuss both satisfactory and unsatisfactory aspects of his work. It's unique. Those whose first job is Sudolabs can't even imagine how precious this benefit is.

Your progress will always be accelerated when you get feedback on your work, even negative ones.

You worked on the DNA era project, can you tell us what we did there and what was your role on the project?

I started on DNA Era when I arrived in November 2020. With another colleague who joined a few days later, we were the first to jump on this project. It is truly a custom-built solution, we really had to go through the entire process of coming up with a data model, choosing the technology (with the CTO's help), and thinking of the entire operation, including registering the DNA test kit, user login, managing user accounts and so on. We created an MVP.

As soon as the customer launched the project publicly, all the test kits had to be migrated to our database. It was the most physically and mentally challenging task. Because there was a big marketing launch, it was necessary to migrate and make it public at a predetermined time. A very short time frame was involved, and the data from the customer were arriving too late and fragmented. It was a super busy period to get it done correctly.

What did you like most about this project?

Probably the way it was built technically. I can only thank our CTO that I had the opportunity to encounter these specific technologies. As a result of this project, I learned how to work with them. Once I was relocated to The Expert project, I was already familiar with the technologies and my learning time was minimal.

Obviously, I'm also captivated by the idea of this project. Doing DNA testing and getting results out of it fascinates me greatly. My family also used this opportunity to undergo genetic testing.

Do you find all the projects interesting?

Some do not intersect with my worldview. I probably wouldn't embark on such a project, let's say fitness or NFTs and bitcoins. This is completely out of my field. As for the rest, I appreciate the fact that it is not just one project but a mix where everyone can find their place. Before, I worked for a single tax directorate for 6 years, making one single product. Seeing that there can be so many things and so many projects is exciting to me. And the fact, that we can talk about them openly within the company. In my previous company, there were many projects, but sometimes people couldn't communicate because of contracts. Plus, there was no knowledge sharing due to strong NDAs.

How do you handle the balance between family and work?

This is the biggest challenge, it's difficult to handle. We have good times and some really bad ones. It's all about whether the schools are open and whether the whole system works; and if it doesn't, there's the issue of time. If you have a child who studies from home and you must connect him every hour to online education while also entertaining him and making sure there is food ready, that's tough. My wife also works from home and also within IT. We both have meetings, stand-ups, and demos from the very morning. Corona had a big impact on this, it was much easier before.

Did Sudolabs affect your personal or professional life?

Certainly a professional one. Having the opportunity to work with experienced people is an opportunity to learn from them, and that's a valuable experience. It's always fascinating to watch how they work regardless of our age difference, sometimes as much as 20 years. And yet I'm still able to add my input on how to improve things.

What is your guilty pleasure?

That would be the production of electronic music, which is something I devote a lot of time to.