Recorder, 2018: engineers, managers and juniors who surpass me
Topics: Software engineeringEngineering leadershipEngineering talent and education
Read the article in Recorder ↗SUPERCODERS. „Ca să fii un bun programator, trebuie să-ţi scoţi nasul din calculator şi să vezi ce se întâmplă în jurul tău“
Recorder, #SuperCoders series (made with the support of Orange România), February 2018. Profile of me, then co-founder and managing partner of Tremend. Tremend at the time: over 200 people, clients in 15 countries, included in 2017 in the Deloitte, Inc. 500 and Financial Times rankings of the fastest-growing technology companies in the region. Topics: learning the trade, Silicon Valley in 2004, engineer versus programmer, the founders becoming managers, the Romanian market of the time, the young people joining the company.
In Romanian. The quotes below are translated, with the original alongside.
Learning from many companies
“As a programmer, exposure to many technologies opens your horizon a lot: you see more models and you start to pick up some work patterns. For example, that is how I was able to make the move to the Java universe.” („Ca programator, expunerea la multe tehnologii îţi deschide foarte mult orizontul: vezi mai multe modele şi începi să deprinzi nişte tipare de lucru. De pildă, eu aşa am putut face trecerea la universul Java”)
I started as a programmer while still a student at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, at a Bucharest company that wanted to enter the international video games market. Selection was strict. For that first job: “I received a test that I worked on for 3 days” („am primit un test pentru rezolvarea căruia am lucrat 3 zile”). In the following years, other small Bucharest companies, with something to learn from each.
Silicon Valley, 2004
“It was a very beautiful experience to see that energy we had only heard about. Beyond that, they also have a different style: Western management was something else entirely compared with what was happening here.” („A fost o experienţă foarte frumoasă să vedem acea energie despre care doar auzisem. Dincolo de asta, au şi un alt stil: managementul vestic era cu totul altceva faţă de ceea ce se întâmpla aici.”)
In 2004, my first time in Silicon Valley, together with Ioan Cocan, a former university colleague, for a company that had just opened an office in Romania. More striking than the technology: the organisational culture. In Romania everyone was very tense, while there “you could clearly see they have a history of both democracy and management” („se vedea clar că au o istorie şi de democraţie, şi de management”). Later, Denmark, where “people were colder” („Oamenii erau mai reci”).
An engineer, not a programmer
“The difference between an engineer and a programmer is that the engineer thinks about a product taking into account all the phases it goes through: from planning, construction, implementation, maintenance, everything. Programmers write code and that’s it. But code is not a goal, nobody writes code for the sake of code, otherwise they would be called painters or writers.” („diferenţa dintre un inginer şi un programator e că inginerul se gândeşte la un produs ţinând seama de toate fazele prin care acesta trece: de la planificare, construcţie, implementare, mentenanţă, tot. Programatorii scriu cod şi atât. Dar codul nu e un scop, nu scrie nimeni cod de dragul codului, că altfel s-ar numi pictori sau scriitori”)
In its early years Tremend had no sales department, and its projects came only through recommendations. What mattered was the engineering side of the trade. Recorder’s headline: to be a good programmer, you have to take your nose out of the computer and see what is happening around you.
Elsewhere. 20 Minute Leaders, 2021: “if you spend too much time with the code and the screen, that’s where your skills are.”
Learning to be managers
“At the beginning, we stayed focused only on programming. After all, that is what we are good at. But at some point we realised that, to be able to grow, you also have to be a good manager.” („La început, am rămas concentraţi doar în zona de programare. Până la urmă, la asta ne pricepem. Dar, la un moment dat, ne-am dat seama că, pentru a putea creşte, trebuie să fii şi un manager bun.”)
That was the moment the company started to develop at a much faster pace. Tremend grew continuously in its 11 years, and sharply in the last five.
Elsewhere. Economica.net, 2021: “We succeeded because we realised we had to be good managers.” („Am reușit pentru că am realizat că trebuie să fim buni manageri.”)
A fertile environment
“Competition started to be quite strong, and the environment became very fertile! In other countries in Western Europe, things are a bit more settled. And that is also reflected in the dynamics inside an organisation. Here, the transition period also translated into a more dynamic industry.” („Competiţia a început să fie destul de mare, iar mediul a devenit foarte fertil! În alte ţări din vestul Europei, lucrurile sunt mai aşezate un pic. Şi asta se reflectă şi la nivelul dinamicii dintr-o organizaţie. La noi, perioada de tranziţie s-a tradus şi în dinamizarea industriei noastre”)
Tremend’s work at the time: a Highly Autonomous Driving (HAD) platform, an infotainment system for the automotive industry, a mobile banking solution and a new Internet of Things marketplace.
Elsewhere. 20 Minute Leaders, 2021, three reasons Romania became a destination for software development: an education system focused on mathematics and the exact sciences, its size in the region, and a culture that looks at Western models.
Juniors who have already surpassed me
“Our entry-level people are fantastic! They are almost intimidating. If you look at the concepts they handle and at how they develop, looking back at my own evolution, I realise they have already surpassed me.” („Cei care sunt entry level la noi sunt fantastici! Aproape că sunt intimidanţi. Dacă te uiţi la ce concepte manipulează şi la felul în care se dezvoltă, privind în urmă, la evoluţia mea, îmi dau seama că deja m-au depăşit”)
Elsewhere. July 2022, on the first day of 150 new trainees: “I Hope I can make as much of a good impression on them as their colleagues from the previous years have had on me.” (One of the best moments every year)
Read the article in Recorder ↗
A summary of an external interview or article. Quotes are my words as published or spoken; the original is the reference.