After spending almost 16 years in the restaurant and hotel industry, holding various management positions, he decided to change the field and began to deal with the IT recruitment. For his first three years in a new role, he held various positions from a junior specialist to IT project manager in a recruitment agency.

Konstantin joined Godel Technologies in 2020. With his huge help, the company was proud to announce its first BG location in Sofia at the start of 2021, providing further growth to the local office.

In his current position, Konstantin is actively engaged in the development and management of human resources, Employer Branding strategies. He always participates in various conferences as a speaker in the field of Human Resources and Employer branding.

Konstantin, could you tell us about your career path? How did you get to this position?

My career path, I would say, is quite interesting. I started as an ice cream seller in my school years, then worked in the restaurant and hotel industry. Believe it or not, for the first 16 years of my working experience I’ve been working as a bartender, a waiter, a cook and a restaurant manager.

But I’ve always had a passion for computers and programming. When I was 15-16 years old, I bought myself books to learn JavaScript. But in Sandanski, where I’m from, there were only few people who dealt with it back then, and it was difficult for me to learn on my own so I gave up.

Knowing my love for computers, my friends recommended me to try myself as a recruiter. And since I graduated from the Faculty of Law and History at SWU with a major in “Public Administration” I thought that my other love for human resources would help me to get into new role.

So, one day I put on my LinkedIn profile “Freelance IT Recruiter” status, and it worked! Some agencies contacted me and asked me if I was looking for a regular job. Few months later I was working as a full-time recruiter.

After a year in this recruitment agency, I decided that I should separate and develop my own business in this field, wanting to show a different approach and way of working. So it happened. I started pretty good. Many of the colleagues I had met in the field asked me to work on their projects. Some also tried to attract me as an internal recruiter, but at that time I was of the opinion that I wanted freedom to work and declined every offer.

One day one of my friends introduced me to Godel Technologies. I liked the company and I saw that our values ​​largely coincide. So I started my work here. Almost 6 months passed until we registered the Bulgarian company and at the very beginning of 2021, the decision of the Trade Register was officially issued – Godel Technologies Europe Bulgaria was a fact.

As the manager of the Bulgarian office of Godel Technologies Europe, could you share the projects your teams are working on, the technologies being used?

As I already mentioned, Godel Bulgaria opened at the beginning of 2021. For this year and a half, the Bulgarian team reached about 20 specialists, in the various directions of the IT sector. The team in Bulgaria includes specialists with .NET, Java, JavaScript (React, Angular), DevOps, Quality assurance, Data Engineers. For the moment, this is our focus of specialists that we want to develop in the Bulgarian office.

Godel has a lot of different and diverse clients, with whom specialists from different locations work. This multinationality of ours gives us the freedom to form a team with specialists from different countries.

At this stage, specialists from Bulgaria participate in various Godel projects. Mainly the projects that are being worked on are in the e-commerce, energetic and fintech industries.

How do you assess the technological abilities of Bulgarian talents at the moment? Are we able to compete in the global market?

Of course. Almost 5 years in this field, I would say that Bulgarian IT specialists are highly qualified and are strong competitors.

Our staff, whether they have graduated from a university or come out of an IT academy, have very deep and in-depth knowledge. I have always said that it doesn’t matter where or what you graduated from, what matters is your desire and persistence.

You are organizing your first technological Meet Up here in Bulgaria. The speakers are leading specialists from your company. Tell us more about the event. What should professionals from the IT community expect from the event?

We have invited three speakers who are our employees in our .NET Division. This is Vitali Pukhalski, who is also the Division Manager for Bulgaria of the .NET team. Our second speaker is Raman But-Husaim, who has been with the company for over 6 years and who is a Team Lead now. And our third lecturer is Senior .NET Software Engineer Vladimir Dimitrov. He is one of the first appointed employees in the Bulgarian office.

Our main topic is “Intro”, that’s why we named the event “Godel Sofia Intro Offline Meet-up”.  It’s been a little more than 1 year since Godel entered Bulgarian IT market. The official office opening happened a year later, providing further growth to the local office. And now we are ready to get to know the local tech community better. Apart from the main topic, we will try to cover technical topics related to .NET.

The most valuable thing for everyone who is going to visite our meet-up will be new acquaintances with colleagues and like-minded people. We have set aside time for networking, both before and after the event.

We are waiting for everyone interested at the very first Godel Sofia Intro Offline Meet-Up on October 6 in Sofia Tech Park at 4:30 pm.

Register by the link here.

Are you about to expand your team? What kind of professionals are you looking for?

Of course. This is our leading strategy. The goal we have set for ourselves is to finish 2024 with a team of about 300-400 people. Some might say it’s quite ambitious. And so it is. But I love challenges and, in my philosophy, impossible things do not exist.

At Godel, as I mentioned, we have projects of various sizes and clients operating in various business areas.

Mainly in Bulgaria, at this stage we have focused on specialists with .NET, Java, Python, DevOps, Automation QA, JavaScript (React, Angular). In the company, we also have Data Engineers, Mobile developers, PHP developers, UI/UX specialists. Every single specialist with the mentioned technologies is very welcomed to us. At Godel, we are one big family and there is always a place for one more member.

Are there any qualities that candidates must possess to become part of your team?

I personally look to see that the candidate is responsible, with a desire to develop and, first of all, is a “Human” with a capital “H”. For me, attitude and behavior are leading. I believe technical things can be learnt, but behavior cannot. We all live in the dynamic environment and the rapid pace at which technology develops. But the Internet space is full of helpful materials, where, as long as a person knows how to search for the information he needs, he can very quickly cope with the tasks set.

But there is no way a person can change his behavior. But yes, technical knowledge remains leading.

What are the values behind a successful software company? What values do you hold most dear at Godel Technologies Europe?

For me, the biggest value behind a successful company is its attitude towards its partners. I’m not just talking about business partners here, but also about its employees. Companies that see their employees as partners are successful for me. At Godel, we know this well, and that’s why we see our colleagues as partners.

In the company, we fully respect the so-called “flat structure”. Each one of us is free to approach, even a C-level manager, and free to express his or her opinion or make a suggestion without reflecting on it. As I mentioned above, we are like one big family. And I personally like this culture very much.

I personally had the chance at the end of July to visit one of our company’s offices in Europe. My visit also coincided with the office’s summer party, and even more interestingly, it also coincided with my birthday. During the party, the host called me and nearly 200 colleagues greeted me with the song “Happy Birthday”. After that, almost all the colleagues came one by one to congratulate me personally and get to know me. This sense of belonging cannot be described. Even, this may sound ridiculous, but for the first time in years I cried. Yes, they were tears of happiness, but they still made me cry. Colleagues from the Bulgarian office have shared the same with me, that for the first time they found a company where they feel important, and not just another appointed employee.

What are the development opportunities? What level can be reached in the company?

At Godel, we value our colleagues. Everyone has the opportunity to grow and develop with us. If we stop at the local level, we are still developing and every new colleague of ours has the chance to reach the position of Division Manager of a team of specialists. Currently, most of our Division Managers are based overseas, but as we grow, we will be able to locally promote colleagues to take on this role. Separately in the company we have different Functions, such as “Innovations”, “Learning and Development”, “Talent Acquisition”, “Compliance” and so on. That’s why every employee can develop not only in his standard role but also in something different.

Do you continue to learn on a daily basis in your job? What would you recommend to everyone who is just starting their career and wants to reach your level? Where to start?

Of course! Everyone can learn something new every day. My day starts every morning at 06:00 am. After making my first coffee, I have a habit of checking out a few sites that have been leading in my career and reading useful articles in my field. Apart from that, I attend various seminars and conferences. Some of the best teachers, however, remain my colleagues, both locally and globally.

My advice is not to give up. Before you hear your first “Yes”, you probably will hear “No” a hundred times. But this should not dissuade people. You should always be persistent and motivated and above all – do everything with love. When one does something with love, then things work out. Also, to remember that the biggest enemy of success is sitting in the “comfort zone”. Going back in time, if I hadn’t taken the step of leaving a well-paying job and branching out as a freelancer, maybe someone else would be in my shoes now. And I will end by saying that “fate favors the brave”.

Yura Grishko – Team leader of game development in Anakatech – Bulgaria

What is the reason behind your nomination?

Yura deserves to be a Developer on Focus because of his unique and successful career path that brought him to relocate from Israel to Bulgaria and establish a new game development department.

His interest in game development started at age of 14, when he started producing small Flash games just for fun. Even though Yura spent his academic years studying Biotechnology, he placed his passion into the subject and wrote complex life simulator programs. At age of 23 he started his IT career as Web developer and shortly promoted to Full Stack Developer. At 25 he followed his passion and landed a position of Game Developer.
Through the years, Yura developed numerous game engines, templates, pipelines, documentation and etc. that eventually led to his initiative to relocate to Bulgaria and establish a new game dev team in Anakatech.

Relocation wasn’t easy for him at first; alone, new country, new language, new culture both ethnically and professionally, unexpected lockdown. But despite the challenges, the plan was a success and a newly formed team through the year showed great performances and produced more than a dozen new original games.

Describe his professional qualities.

His professional qualities can be divided into two – as a developer and as a team lead.

As a developer, Yura is very experienced and shows a very solution-oriented approach to any situation he faces. It means that after identifying the problem, comes the stage of planning the best solution that will work the best for the current situation – if the solution should work for the long term, the resolution will be very methodological with a planning ahead. In other cases – thinking outside a box and workarounds – works the best for one time solutions if they serve the purpose.

As a fresh team lead, Yura still gains his experience by learning from every conflict resolution he faces and by learning from the exceptional staff surrounding him in the company.

Yura is aware of his weaker sides and he is willing to self-improve, so he compensates his lack of experience by collaboration with others, responsible decision making and delivering forward the resolutions with high integrity and with his kind and warm personal approach.

Tell us some more about him as a person.

Besides being highly professional, Yura is a warm positive person, always having time to give his attention to others and help. He is highly motivated and tries to motivate others by self-example, moreover Yura doesn’t like the terminology of being a team “manager” and prefers the terminology of team “leader” because it implies leading the team by showing best practices by self-example.

Can you describe how his typical day goes?

Waking up at 7:05 or 8:00 – depending on if a short workout is planned for the morning.

9:00 – Is a good time to finish breakfast and start reading the mailbox (& reply if needed) and get familiar with the upcoming day.

10:45 – daily morning standup meeting

11:00 – after the standup starting with the most urgent tasks – typically they are investigating and fixing newfound bugs and releasing hotfixes if needed.

12:00 – lunch break – but may shift considerably

13:00 to 16:00 – most of the meetings happen here – they are mostly one of the following:

• Game Kick-Offs before QA or Development and other game specific meeting
• Reviewing with each team member the progress and plan ahead
• 1 on 1 with a team member to assist and resolve any challenges
• Team meetings
• Collaboration meetings to share common practices to improve the development pipeline between the different departments
• Roadmap planning
• And more…

16:00 – working on the rest of tasks and common development time

19:00 – typical end of the day, even though sometimes more work is done before sleep between 22:00 and 24:00

What challenges does he face? What kind of projects is he working on?

His main challenge is the relocation to Bulgaria and establishing a new game development team. Relocation is not an easy task, first you have to leave everything behind: family, friends, apartment, most of your possessions, and then after the relocation you acquire everything anew, face the unforgiving Bulgarian bureaucracy, learn a new language and try to find a place for yourself. Meanwhile Yura also has to form a new game development department, find and interview new people, board them into the company, teach them how to produce games, listen for their needs and provide his support.

Does it happen sometimes that he helps his colleagues in the execution of their Tasks?

It happens all the time. Yura basically relocated to Bulgaria to establish a new game development team to share his experience, knowledge and best practices. By doing so Yura established himself as the main target for anyone to ask for help and advice, not only for his direct teammates, but also for colleagues from other departments, from Art, Product, QA up to NOC and CRM.

If you had to describe him with 3 words only, what would they be?

1. Ambitious
2. Smart
3. Friendly

Does he take part in the initiatives of the company? What kind of initiatives? Has he launched his own initiatives?

Yes, lots of them.

After finishing establishing a new game development department in Bulgaria, he pushes forward his other initiatives. Like initiative to replace parts of manual QA for games by advanced Automation tools. More production pipeline optimizations.
Additionally Yura launched his own Game Jam so the developers could have an opportunity to improve their skills and have fun.

What are his hobbies?

He is a very creative person, besides doing games he also likes to craft some small projects, by hand or by using his 3D printer and integrating Arduino into them. Also his creativity expressed by passion for drawing, semi-professional photography and videography.
Another passion of his is biology and nature, besides regular nature traveling, Yura volunteered for two years in a Hospital for Wild Animals, during this activity he helped hundreds of animals to recover and return to the wild.

What kind of music does he listen to? How does he like to have fun?

Yura likes to listen to music a lot, especially when he does something, and the kind of music very depends on the activity he does. For coding and work the best are soundtracks from games, they are designed to be background music and give a feeling that you are progressing well while not containing any lyrics that might mess with your head while coding.
For workout and sport activities better to listen to more modern music and higher bitrate remixes that pump up the motivation.
And last, just to enjoy the music, you can find music from all over the 70s, 80s, 90s and more…

Does he like gaming?

As a game developer, you have to be passionate about games! Yura is not an exception, he likes not only to play games, but also to try to figure out how some games are made, watch game design content channels, try to develop his own small games, and recently Yura launched his own Game Jam within his colleagues both in Israel and Bulgaria.

Few of his suggestions for games: Faster Than Light (2012), Papers Please (2013), Spelunky 1/2 (2008/2020), The Witcher 3 (2015)

Which does he prefer – Android or iOS and why?

As an end user, both platforms are totally fine in terms of their user experience. As a developer small personal preference to use Android in terms of how easy it is to plug and debug.

What are the programming languages he uses? Which are the ones he prefers?

Yura‘s coding “Mothers tongue” is “C#”, but in the last few years as more front-end oriented development he switched to JavaScript and recently to TypeScript as a combined power of JavaScript and OOP. But the coding language is not as important as the inner logic, architecture and the end result.