Aleksandar started in Endava 3 years ago and is now a Senior Developer and Sitecore Enthusiast.

Aleksandar is a Microsoft Evangelist with more than 8 years of experience in Software Development. He started in Endava 3 years ago and is now a Senior Developer and Sitecore Enthusiast.

What can you tell us about your career path within Endava?

I have over 8 years of extensive experience in Analysis, Design, Development, Testing, Implementation, Support and Maintenance of several major Web and Client/Server and WinForms Applications for both business environments and commercial projects.

I started working in Endava 3 years ago as a Developer. My previous experience in the IT world helped me easily adapt to the company culture, however, it was challenging. A funny example is how I also learned new technologies that our client requested, even though I knew almost nothing about them at the time. And yet, I faced Sitecore as a powerful CMS. For me, it was absolutely fascinating to develop and integrate systems in it. It was an honour to be one of the first developers in Macedonia to work in Sitecore solutions. One of the projects I worked on was globally the first multitenant, multi-regional Sitecore PaaS Solution hosted in Azure.

Looking back, in Endava I have been involved in projects with different backgrounds, spanning from Applications Management to Development. My first project at Endava was for our biggest client in Skopje where I was a team leader of 5 people. During this period, I managed to deliver high-quality solutions and had time to mentor my teammates. Together, with the great help of many coffees and pizzas, we managed to overcome all the difficulties and deliver all the projects that we were involved in.

In the field of Asset Management, as part of the Delivery Team, I was leading the part for Research and Development. Here, I managed to widen my professional experience by working as a DevOps Engineer. The project was designed in Sitecore and the team consisted of mixed discipline members working on Applications Management, Development, Testing, and Architecture.

During my time in the Applications Management team, I also learned how to work under pressure, meeting tight deadlines and was also able to grow my soft skills significantly.
Besides working hands-on, I also was involved in presales where I used to prepare the technical strategy and documentation for pitches, from which, two projects were accepted.

Of course, my other passion is innovation. I often participate in hackathons and innovation labs organised by our company or together with our clients. These events help me get a taste for the latest trends by playing around with the cutting-edge technologies and gadgets but have in the meantime also fun with my colleagues. Exploring cognitive services and building hardware around them is always challenging and exciting, as we already built applications using Amazon Alexa or GPS Tracking for ships.

What do you think drives and guides you in your career?

In Endava you can be yourself and are always encouraged to explore your potential to its fullest.

Endava gives you the opportunity of being part of major projects where you can develop thoughtful, efficient and elegant solutions. To be around people who settle for nothing but the best, and to exceed even your own expectations is something that drives my day-to-day professional life.

Another major motivator for me is the opportunity I am offered to share my knowledge within Endava. I am doing that through ‘Pass It On’ training programmes and practice-focused events. In Endava we have a good grasp of technology and this drives me to continuously learn. Here I also discovered my passion for public speaking and I am pursuing this by also participating as a speaker at events organised by the .Net User Group, Developer Association in Macedonia and of course our Endava Tech Flow events.

Being Senior.Net Developer surely comes with a lot of challenges and responsibilities. What was the most important lesson you learned over these 3 years?

Over the past years, I have learned that if you want to be a great Software Developer you should constantly improve yourself, be passionate about your work, be open-minded and data-driven.

When you are in a position where decision-making is part of your job, you need to be thoughtful about people and the organisation. You have to be able to share and shape mind-sets in order to manage complexity. While working with your teammates you ought to create shared context and success, offering in the meantime a safe place where honesty rules.

What can you tell us about your life outside of work?

My life is my family, my wife and my son. In my opinion, family is not an important thing, it is everything. Looking into my son’s eyes, I can see his pure unconditional love, and this gives me the power to overcome and forget all my problems. Every struggle in life, every sacrifice I make, I do it for my family, for my son’s future. I hope that will teach him how to shape and succeed, just as my father taught me.

I used to cycle a lot. I loved it because of the speed, the danger and the effort I put in. When riding, the adrenaline increases and that made me feel alive, now the passion evolved into exploring the world with my son; while I am teaching him about adulthood, he teaches me how to enjoy the simple things in life like playing in the sand or running after a dog.

If you were to start work at Endava tomorrow, what would be that one piece of advice you would give to yourself?

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for things to happen or as Roger Staubach said: ‘Confidence doesn't come out of anywhere. It's a result of something... hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.’

ALEKSANDAR

Nick

Andrei