Hi, I am Bogdan.
I am a self-taught Developer and Principal Engineer turned Engineering Manager.
I am also a Co-founder here at theSeniorDev.com, where, together with Dragos, I help our students take their careers to the next level.
The programming language I love the most is, of course, JavaScript.
My coding journey started during my Aerospace Engineering Degree when Dragos approached me talking about a little website he is building. He needed my help.
I was a bit skeptical.
Switching from Aerodynamics to HTML made little sense.
But as soon as that first JavaScript application went live, I realized the power of the web.
Since then, I’ve been doing a myriad of things, from WordPress to PHP and Python. I even touched Java and C# codebases and enterprise software like Salesforce.
In the end, I went back to my first love, JavaScript.
My biggest motivator is Technical Mastery.
I love being good at things. Being efficient. Just like most developers I guess. I like my environment and my desktop neat and clear. Same with my code.
As for the tools I use, I try to stay as basic as possible. I used VS Code with the minimum extensions.
React and TypeScript are my go-to when building things on the front end. In the backend, it can be about anything, but I love to stick to Node.js most of the time.
Recently, I was experimenting with Open AI’s API.
To deploy my apps, I mostly use AWS. But I did enjoy working with Azure as well.
Regarding our students, I mostly coach them on Technical Mindset, Frontend, Backend, and End-to-End Delivery. Yes, that’s quite a lot.
Many developers ask me how they can achieve such mastery.
I am not a Rockstar programmer, but I can say I am pretty good.
That’s not because I am more talented or smarter than the average self-taught developer. I just stuck to coding for a long time.
Even after getting promoted to Engineering Manager, I was still coding. I also had some great mentors and worked for amazing companies with strong engineering cultures, like Klarna.
I will leave you with the main advice I give to software developers who ask me how to improve. Do the hard thing first.
Yes, pick the hardest task and give it all your energy as soon as you start working. For me, that’s the first four to five hours in the morning.
At theSeniorDev, we believe in deep work, so we don’t bother each other until noon. Which allows me to use that time to push our most important projects through the door.
hat can be code reviewing some complex code our students are working on. Or optimizing our own backend systems.
Regardless, I always start working on the harder things first. And you know what? Most of the time, it turns out not to be that hard in the end.
That’s how I got good at LeetCode problems.
Okay, it was a bit more than that, but you get the point.
Finally, to connect with me, here’s my LinkedIn profile, Github, and our YouTube Channel. If you want Dragos and me to help you fast-track your developer career, you can apply here for a “get to know” chat with Dragos.
See you soon,
Bogdan
