"Turquoise style" - principal's story
"Whether you imagine your future career as a programmer, product owner, or tester, in my opinion, the essential skill is the art of communication when you can clearly and precisely express your mind and talk with people from different areas of software delivery."
said Wojciech, who currently works as a Principal Software Engineer and has been at ANIXE, Wroclaw, for over 13 years.
1. What benefits do you see in long-term cooperation with ANIXE?
The possibility to create a product that people will use worldwide and enrich it with new features. You can see how the market is changing, how IT is revolutionizing it, and how the amount of data is growing at a tremendous tempo. There are new challenges all the time, and I don't remember a day when I was bored.
2. You have come a long way in ANIXE. How was it at the beginning? Do you remember?
I remember how naive my perception of tourism was in the context of selling services and computerization. Anixe gave me a lot of knowledge and room for development from the very beginning. I also remember the people who worked on projects that they identified with and just loved, they were passionate about it, and it was unforgettable for me.
3. Are there any critical skills in growing a career at ANIXE?
Whether you want to be a future programmer, product owner, or tester, in my opinion, the essential skill is the art of communication when you can clearly and precisely express your mind and talk with people from different areas of software delivery.
Everyone in your team should know your opinion, see how you perceive the plan, understand their role, and seek the same goal synchronously with other parts of the organization.
Factors that seem important, like the foundation of programming languages and project management techniques, are just tools. They will not ensure our success.
4. What do you think are the biggest challenges for a principal?
From my perspective, the most challenging is the ability to scale your job. It is a process that begins when you are an engineer specialising in one technology (sometimes two) with a single task. The next step is to become a leader who deals with and manages a unit whilst running a comprehensive product using multiple tools. After that, there are no single tasks anymore - there is a complex goal. The final step is when you are the principal, with multiple teams within one enormous product scope.
There are more solutions and more people from various fields of computer science. Everything is bigger but fractal. I can act in such conditions only thanks to the people I operate with. My successors have started their own units and work independently under my supervision.
5. How would you describe your leadership style?
In one word – "Turquoise style". There are several rules behind this. First, everyone is equal and has an essential role in the team. Second, I do not give my employees orders and don't use the carrot-and-stick rule. Third, I don't block any ideas or initiatives of my employees. My role is to smooth the team's performance; it is called "combining the dots" or "missing puzzle delivery". I motivate and teach people from my team based on learning from my mistakes. I do not judge them as stereotypical bosses would.
6. What do you cherish most about your duties?
I can judge myself because the systems I create are used daily by many people worldwide. I think this is the best rating system for an engineer.
7. Why would you recommend working at ANIXE?
It is a great place to gain experience with IT operations, e-commerce and agile methodologies, where the application is used 24 hours a day around the world.
We have minimal bureaucracy, where a creative approach does not require permission; there are no fire-and-forget initiatives. You don't wait two weeks for the computer; you don't wait three months for the first serious task. The results of your work will operate in production in the next sprint (not in a year). In addition, there are numerous people in ANIXE with vast expertise from whom you can learn their craft.
8. After work you…?
I spend my evenings exploring science, writing code, checking various IT operations beneficial for the company, and exploring new world trends. On weekends, I run away to the woods, to the mountains. I try to cut off information completely.
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