In this article, we want to introduce Aleksas Pantechovskis, our Developer. When Aleksas joined our agency as a WordPress Engineer in January 2020, we asked him a few questions to get to know him a little better.
By the way: The Syde Team is 100% remote
This enables us to bring together the best minds in the world in one team. You want to learn more about our way of working and the Syders? Take a look inside Syde!
This is Aleksas Pantechovskis
Aleksas is 25 years old and lives in Vilnius, Lithuania.
How would you describe yourself?
I have a great passion for software development, especially when the product that I am working on is used by other people and makes some kind of impact. For me, it is important to enrich the lives of others with my work. I want to create something valuable.
It’s cool that nowadays we can create many great things just by writing code. When programming, I love to focus on the quality of the code and automation of all processes (automated testing, deployment, etc.) But I also try to stop myself from over-engineering too much, to actually focus on solving the problem itself.
How do you spend your spare time?
Most of my hobbies do not sound very exciting, just the usual “geek stuff” like computer games, movies/TV series, and small programming pet projects like for example the simplification of some routine tasks, such as monitoring updates on a specified web page, or some JavaScript scripts to improve usability of an old forum by adding new features for users and moderators. When it comes to gaming, I play many different genres, mainly AAA titles.
Also, I participate in online communities and forums, e. g. Reddit, StackOverflow, and smaller Russian-speaking programming and IT forums ‒ by the way: Russian is my first language. This way I help others with their questions and problems and improve my knowledge at the same time. Hexlet Slack chat is another good example. It’s a big Russian community, initially dedicated to the Hexlet programming courses (a Russian analog of Treehouse), but then grew into something bigger. People stay there even if they do not take any of these courses currently, discuss different programming-related topics, participate in open source projects, etc.
And I like traveling. I always try to travel a bit during the summer. I have visited France last time and ‒ since it is a beautiful country and I enjoyed my time there ‒ my next travel destination will be France again, and more precisely: Menton. It’s a small city near Nice. There are many places to visit around like Monaco, Cannes, Grasse.
Aleksas’s way to Syde
I was interested in programming since I was a child, so I was gradually learning, reading books, taking online courses, participating in different contests, communities, personal and open source projects. In 2019, I finished my Master’s degree in Computer Science.
Before I came to Syde, I tried to work as a freelancer but I did not like it much because a lot of the time is spent looking for new projects, and I prefer working in a team because it opens more possibilities. A good team can achieve much more than one person, and it allows you to have more communication with people, and thus not feel lonely when working.
Syde was interesting for me because I liked the company values and the way of working. But at first, I was a bit worried about WordPress because it has a poor reputation regarding code quality. But then I learned that this mostly concerns the legacy code in the WordPress core, which does not really limit you much when developing plugins and other things on top of that. So, it is possible to write good code here, use modern tools and practices. And Syde actually focuses a lot on that, producing one of the best codes and products in this sector.
I really enjoy working at Syde. The team consists of great people, the working atmosphere is pleasant, and I appreciate the focus on code quality and architecture. I’m looking forward to challenging my programming and communication skills.
Questions to Syder Aleksas
We asked Aleksas a few personal questions to give you the chance to learn more about him:
What makes you really angry?
When people lie or cannot admit that they were wrong.
Which job did you do when you were in school?
Simple freelance projects, open source (sometimes it was paid too, e.g. Google Code-in or Google Summer of Code).
What was the last book you read?
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowski. I am not a HP fan, and usually do not read any fan-fiction, but this one is very special and unusual, at least in the first half before it started focusing more on drama. Also I started reading Dune recently. I am bit of a slowpoke regarding the classics, e.g. I have read and watched LoTR only several years ago.
If you had a superpower, what would that be?
To stop time, there are always more things to do.
If you found out that your present life is just a dream, would you decide to wake up?
Probably yes, because real life must be even better, otherwise I could just start dreaming again.
What do you like most about your city?
It’s big enough but not too crowded.
What are you really good at?
Programming, I hope. ?
Which of your favorite TV shows is not on the air anymore?
It’s always difficult for me to choose favorite books/movies/TV series. From the recent ones, Game of Thrones was great, at least before the last season. Also Twin Peaks, The Sopranos.
Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man?
Batman, he is the most believable because he is a trained geek with gadgets, not just got superpowers.
Do you want to join the Syde team?
We are hiring! You can find all the current vacancies on our job page. Take a look!
* Many thanks to David Iliff for the photo we used in the header section of this article.
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