What company do you work for now?
Spotify. For those who don't know, it is a streaming music service that is available in 66 countries with an audience of more than 250 million people.
What are your responsibilities?
I work on the main Android client of the service, provide support to other teams, participate in improving the team's work processes and management.
What projects have you participated in?
LinkedIn contains data about my work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgorod/
In addition, I was part of the teams that won prizes at the Microsoft Imagine Cup. The highest achievement was the world semi-final in New York in 2011. Mentors were the teachers of the Academy: Alex Tumanov and Vyacheslav Kalashnikov.
Tell us about the most difficult and brightest project you are proud of.
Student project is definitely the project for Imagine Cup.
Work project is my current job at Spotify. To work in a product company with 4000+ employees, 100+ nationalities and 250+ million users of the product is radically different from IT outsource/outstaff in Ukraine.
What role did IT Step Academy play in your life?
The key role. Significant :)
In addition to the actual education and technical skills, the Academy played a huge role in shaping values and developing communication. Great teachers: Alex Tumanov, Vyacheslav Kalashnikov, Olena Serbova, Maria Sokolova, Dmytro Barabash, Oleg Chorny, Dmytro Dziuba, Kateryna Pinchuk - each of them by their personal example shaped us not only into IT specialists, but also into an adult-minded person.
The Academy taught us not to give up. Not all projects were successful, not all competitions brought victories. But each participation gave new experience, and often life lessons.
And of course, a healthy competitive spirit within our group. I am sincerely grateful to my classmates for the intense educational "battles" and interesting discussions!
What can you advise students who are currently studying at the Academy?
After graduating from the Academy, I drew for myself my life credo - Be a human. Be a dreamer. And keep walking. It means - to be a Human. Responsible, sociable, honest with yourself and others. Remember that the main thing in any business is always people.
It means to be a dreamer. Always be a little naive. To set unachievable goals. Because they are what move us forward. After all, what can be easily done is not progress.
It means always pushing to move. To leave the comfort zone. Never give up. Knowing when to step back and try again. Try in a slightly another way or even in a completely different way.
I wish the students of the Academy high aspirations, self-realization and independence. And to learn English, of course! :D Boring wish, but without English now really no way :)