Written by: Justyna Cichocka, Employer Branding Specialist
Beginnings can be difficult, but it is the first impression that determines how the entire situation evolves. Starting a new job is no different; success is often determined by the first days and weeks. Read the interview with Mateusz, a programmer specialising in C++, who joined the #solwitteam in February 2022.
A few years ago, at the beginning of my professional path, I came across Maciek Gajdzica’s blog (warm greetings to Maciek!) and it was his texts that were the answer to many of my questions. We exchanged a few messages online and, as it turned out later, Maciek worked at Solwit. His blog covered safety critical systems and that’s how the idea of pursuing an interest in this topic was born. A lot of time passed, I was faced with the decision to change jobs and, as luck would have it, while I was actively participating in recruitment, I was contacted by Mikołaj from HR. A few days later I was already having a technical interview, followed by a positive decision and an offer in no time. I didn’t give it much thought 🙂
I think it was Maciek that pointed me in the direction of the Solwit Academy and told me that at Solwit you not only develop technically, but also share your knowledge as a trainer, which is also strongly encouraged by management. I think that was the decisive factor that made me realize Solwit was the best choice.
I am a biomedical engineer by profession, having graduated in Biomedical Engineering – a strongly interdisciplinary course that combines biology, mechatronics, and computer science. While still in my third year of university, I didn’t think I would be programming in the future. It was probably at that time that I had a class in microcontroller programming, something I don’t recall too fondly. In my fourth year, I ended up in the biomechanics lab, where the instructor, Jacek, made the space available to us, threw some development boards on the table, and that’s how my embedded adventure began. In the same lab, my colleagues and I came up with the idea of developing a lower limb exoskeleton, executing it and setting up a startup. Unfortunately, the plans fell apart at the final stage of talks with the venture capital fund. In the meantime, the company Jacek had previously worked for was looking for someone to replace its R&D manager. And so – by chance – I was thrown in at the deep end, resulting in the development of a medical robot designed to rehabilitate the lower limbs of patients with gait dysfunctions.
At the place where I had the pleasure of building medical robots as the R&D manager, I had a huge influence on how the final design looked from the technical side. In hindsight, I can see that many issues could have been solved better, but I am nonetheless proud of the final outcome. I think the biggest problem at the time was the lack of people from whom I could learn. On the other hand, this had its own pros, as I got to explore a lot of paths on my own and learn from my mistakes. Solwit has filled this gap. Here I feel that I work with experts from a variety of fields.
Three aspects are essential to me at work: the chance to develop, supervisors’ support, and undertaking interesting projects. Solwit offers all of these. At the beginning of my work at Solwit, I brought up the issue of documentation and additional compiler features with my leader, to which they threw in, “why don’t you do a lightning talk about it?” This is how I joined the Solwit group of IT Trainers and prepared several lightning talks and trainings. This, to me, is one of the most valuable forms of development, as when you prepare a training or a lightning talk, you have to become an expert in the field. As far as the projects are concerned, I like the fact that there are a lot of them and they are varied in content, as well, so everyone can find what interests them.
