The success of Cosmic Development wouldn’t be possible without the talent and skills of our valuable employees. Recently, Viktorija Velichkovska celebrated her fifth year at Cosmic Development. We love to celebrate the milestones of our employees, so we sat down with Viki to discuss her career as a web developer and her time so far at Cosmic Development. Enjoy the interview.
1. You recently celebrated your 5th work anniversary in Cosmic Development. So first of all, congratulations, and let us say we are thrilled to have you on the team! In that spirit, could you tell us the story of how you joined the Cosmic family?
First, let me thank you for your congratulations and especially for the fantastic gift you sent me for my fifth anniversary. I wasn’t expecting that at all. I am so happy to have such helpful and thoughtful coworkers and managers.
My career path in Cosmic Development started at the beginning of 2016. At first, I was mentored by the more experienced colleagues who unselfishly shared their knowledge with me. I am thankful beyond words for the advice and support they gave me and how they assisted me in going outside of my comfort zone and being the best version of myself every day.
I love working at Cosmic Development, which fosters a positive work environment where everyone feels safe, engaged, motivated, and productive. An environment where employees are valued and recognized for their excellent work and where they can unleash their full potential.
2. What is the most challenging part of your job? Can you describe how you approach the challenges you face as a web developer?
The challenges I come across daily are approximately the same challenges you face in almost every profession in this industry – task prioritizing, time management, staying on top of the new technologies.
However, if you ask me about the technical challenges I have faced so far, I can mention a few, but the most important one would be not having a standardized development process. This happens when more people work on a project, and everybody delivers a product that meets the requirements but uses a different approach. That results in a far more complex and time-consuming process than it should be. The solution, of course, would be identifying the issue and standardizing the processes.
3. In your opinion, what are the top technical skills needed to be a successful web developer?
This is obvious; you must be familiar with HTML and CSS. JavaScript is also at the top of the list of necessary web developer skills and qualifications. A web developer can use a source control system to track, regulate, and revise code changes. Git is an excellent example of an open-source version control system that allows you to identify and rectify errors quickly.
Another crucial skill for a web developer is Testing and Debugging. It might be considered a time-consuming and complicated process, but for me, it’s like solving a puzzle, and slight alterations can make everything work. Of course, besides object-oriented programming (OOP), I’d add Libraries and Frameworks, which are critical elements for developing a more organized project. As a crucial factor, I would also mention Web Optimization and Teamwork and Time Management (or Project Management), which are vital.
4. Tell us more about your expertise and how do you hone your skills?
As I mentioned earlier, thanks to the mentorship of my senior colleagues, I can advance my skills and knowledge. The short courses we often organize, the informal discussions we have during break time, or the online meetings we now have during the COVID-19 pandemic helped me develop my skills over time. Teamwork is an invaluable learning experience for me. When we work on big projects, we learn a lot from each other- professionally and personally.
Another rewarding way to learn, teach, share, and build experience is through open-source projects. I often find some open-source projects and create my version. As we turned to remote working and online learning, I also found inspiration watching YouTube videos by interesting tech content creators. One example is Povilas Korop, an experienced developer and YouTuber who shares invaluable Laravel tips and tricks, tutorials, and demo projects with the Laravel framework. In the end, I would add WPBeginner as a great source of inspiration and learning.
5. What are you working on right now?
In all these years at Cosmic Development, I’ve had the chance to work on different projects that required the use of various technologies and services. I started with building WordPress themes, development plugins, restful API services, then on to implementation, optimization, and maintenance of the implemented services. Later I started working with specific PHP frameworks like Laravel, Codeigniter, Yii…. This basically means that my day-to-day work is based on PHP, Javascript, CSS, and HTML. Throughout the projects, I’ve encountered many challenges that helped me grow as a developer. Currently, I am working on a lengthy project in which we develop a product for a distinguished company. However, I can’t give you more details because of the product development non-disclosure agreement.
We are also preparing for DIGIT (Design and Interactive Graphics in IT), which is an educational workshop for students in the field of design and programming. There, we will share our expertise and hands-on experience with the teams taking part.
6. Why events like DIGIT are important, and who is it for?
Digit is a workshop that is of great importance to all participants, i.e., students, mentors, and organizers. It is a great event where people can exchange knowledge and experiences and network with like-minded individuals from the IT community.
As a company that has outsourced top-notch professionals worldwide for over ten years, we are honored to participate in this year’s DIGIT Web – Angular Edition. Through mentorship and presentation, my colleague Bojan and I will do our best to share our knowledge and personal experience with students and junior developers. All to assist them in gaining the skills they need for successful career development.
Bojan, who is a Senior Developer and Angular professional, will guide and assist the participants in building a website in Angular. Whereas, I will share details about my career path at Cosmic Development.
Last, I would like to invite all fellow developers interested in becoming a part of our international company to send their CVs to careers@cosmicdevelopment.com. For the latest job positions, you can get more details here.