After almost a year and a half, my time at Kodius has come to an end. It was an amazing journey, full of great experiences, learning and fun. So I’m writing this farewell post in the hope of showing my appreciation for everything I experienced in my short time being here.
I’d like to start off by talking about that which makes every company — its people. If I have to use one word to describe them, it would be — good. Be it programmers or colleagues, party makers or friends, they’re good at it. And if that’s not enough, they’re just all-around good people. Need someone to help you with your work? Check! Need someone to keep you company when you go grab something to eat? Double-check! Need someone for a beer after work? Triple check! Need someone to help you eat a cheesecake you made? Well, that’s not a tough one… All those exciting (and less exciting, but fun nonetheless) games of table football, all the ingenious jokes (mostly at Vuka’s expense), all the “famous” posters (also at Vuka’s expense), and much more, come from the hands of team Kodius. As a famous cliché goes, you come for the work, but stay for the people (although the work is also top-notch, which I’ll get to).
Before I start talking about work, I’d like to say a word or two about the aforementioned table football. It is, after all, such an ingrained part of Kodius’ culture. Be prepared to get really good really fast. There is always someone ready to play, and you’ll always be welcomed to hone your skills. But be prepared to bring the trash talk. You don’t have to be better at the game, you just have to talk bigger trash. Trust me, some have built their careers on it. If you don’t feel like playing, you can always watch The Final. It’s a famous derby between Vuka and Tin on one side (usually the winning one), and Zvone and Krešo on the other (usually the funnier one). It’s played every day, but it never disappoints. I don’t know when was the last time I skipped watching it. And one final advice — when Brane plays, just stay away from the table.
Now, back to business. One of the advantages of development agencies is that many projects are of short to medium length, meaning you get to try out the newest tech. Kodius takes full advantage of that, so while working here, I had the opportunity to explore and work with many technologies, some of which are the cutting edge of web development. As always, there are the usual suspects from the JavaScript world, React and Vue.js, but I also got to work with Typescript, TypeORM, React Admin and Material UI. And when it comes to CSS, I was using Bulma, Tailwind CSS, and JSS. But most of my time here, I spent working with Elixir. It’s a relatively new functional language, which we were using to build the backend of the application. And to top it off, the API is using GraphQL instead of REST, so, as you can imagine, there was quite some learning to do. But since I love learning new things, I enjoyed every second of it. It also helped that we were mentored by one of the leading world experts in Elixir. So I got a unique opportunity to dwell into the depth of not only knowing what to do, but how to do it properly, and why. Besides all the help from colleagues, there are also a bunch of books related to the used technologies, which was a great way to complete the knowledge gained through experience.
So, if everything was so great, you’re probably wondering why I’m leaving. It’s a fair question, and it would be only fair of me to answer. A unique opportunity came up, which I believe will be right up my alley when it comes to my professional development. To make it short, I’m going to a company which is developing its own software, which, I believe, will give me an opportunity to specialize in the type of skills I prefer. But Kodius was an entrance into the world of programming which I could’ve only wished for — awesome people, cutting edge technologies, and a lot of great opportunities to learn and explore. After working here, not even sky is the limit (hence the cover image).
I was very fortunate to be a part of this team, and I’m very grateful that they gave me a chance to prove myself. I’m definitely planning on stopping by the office now and then, to see what’s new, grab a drink, and play a game or two of table football. Until then, guys, keep up the good work, and have a nice day! :)
