Name: Filip Kuzmic
Job Designation/ Role: Software Engineer, Frontend
Company: ZenPro (a platform by Zenius)
Country: Serbia
Total years of experience: 2+
A Dental Prosthetist who really liked programming: Filip has had an amazing journey to becoming a Frontend Developer.
Filip’s realization of a dream
He grew up in Batocina, a small city in Serbia, and got his high school diploma as a Dental Technician in Kragujevac, a bigger city nearby. After high school, he pursued Dental Prosthetics in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Nis.
Filip could see signs of being a tech enthusiast from an early age but knew little about how the software operates. In college, he met some software engineers who were passionate about music and formed a band. He credits his bandmates for helping him turn his enthusiasm into an actual career.
“It was very interesting to bother my new Software Engineering friends and bandmates with tons of questions about everything related to their profession. As time went by, my questions started becoming more precise and their answers more elaborate.”
He started small, by designing a web page that could change its background color with a simple button.
“Creating the page made me feel like the smartest person in the world, and also the dumbest one, since I knew that I know nothing still and have a lot more to learn. That feeling was "the hook" that got me into Software Engineering for life and a feeling that I still have to this day when I create something complex.”
Filip found his passion and knew what he wanted to do but completed his Dental Prosthetist's degree nevertheless. Software Engineering is a field that provides continuous room for improvement, something that attracted Filip like nothing else.
“I am a man of many interests, music production, singing, songwriting, medicine, dentistry, etc. - but Software Engineering is the only thing that, no matter how much you know, you always want to learn and improve more.”
After having a few job experiences and a few freelance gigs under his belt, Filip noticed that he was more productive when working remotely with people who also worked remotely.
“It is strange, but I think people work harder when they have somewhat more freedom to do the job their way, from their own house.”
Filip’s take on remote work
Filip thinks remote work brings the best out of an Engineer. It helps you develop a great sense of responsibility towards the project and teammates and also sharpens your communication skills. That comes with the great benefit of working from your environment and setup.
“You can listen to your favorite music without the fear that you'll bother someone with it. You can work sitting down, standing up, squatting, or laying on the floor (never tried it though). You can work whatever way you like.”
He also says remote work requires you to be VERY responsible and be 100% available to other people if they need your help.
“If you are tired in the office, you will look for a way to do less work and go home as soon as possible. However, when you work remotely, you will try to find a way to change something (maybe play music, or stand up for a while...) to get hyped up again and refresh yourself to do more work.”
Filip’s journey in ZenPro and a typical day at work
Filip took no time to hop onto an opportunity to work fully remote with people from all over the world when approached by AllRemote’s recruitment team. He started working on ZenPro from the very first line of code with other colleagues from Zenius.
A typical day for Filip involves getting up in the morning and checking his phone and emails for urgent calls/bugs/tickets. If he has none, he plans his entire day on an hour-long walk. Before ZenPro’s daily standup, he makes sure he has tackled his hunger pangs by fixing himself a good breakfast and a cup of coffee. He then continues to work for 3-4 hours and calls it a break for lunch and a cup of coffee that usually goes cold since he forgets about it.
The following hours are filled with developing, testing, calls, and meetings, testing, changing music, developing, consultations, developing, changing music, meetings, and developing. He wraps his work around 8 or 9 pm and heads to the gym.
A part of why Filip enjoys working at ZenPro is the culture. He says it is extremely friendly and relaxed at the same time professional. They are people from different cultures with one thing in common: a sense of responsibility. This allows the team to resolve all tickets in time without any pressure from superiors.
Filip’s challenges of working remotely and how he overcame them
It wasn’t a smooth start to remote work for Filip, he initially struggled with getting stuck inside the house and gaining some weight.
“I saw that I needed to get up and move and organize a better and healthier routine for myself.”
With time, remote work helped him develop a great sense of responsibility, communication skills, dedication, and the importance of a good routine. He calls himself an introvert and says remote work helps him be himself.
“Because of remote work, I have been able to polish my English.”
He advises all Software Engineers who are working remotely to take a break every now and then.
“If you are a Software Engineer and you see that your concentration is getting close to 0% and that you can't write a simple function to calculate 2 numbers, it's time to stop, get up, and go outside for 30 minutes because you were probably sitting in your room for past 10 hours and you didn't even notice.”
