iOS Developer with over 8 Years of Experience. Meet Filip

His smile is one of the biggest in the office. As well as his mobile development experience. Meet Filip – a Senior iOS Developer whose career started from a painful fail which made him a better programmer. Check out his story.

When did you realise that you wanted to be a developer?

Actually, it all started when I was in my first year of Nanotechnology studies at the Gdańsk University of Technology. Everyone around me was saying how great that field was, that this was the future and I would be a part of something great. Yet during my first year I wanted to find my first job or internship related to this field and it turned out that the only option was an academic career. No one had openings related to nanotechnology.

Since I wasn’t interested in a teaching career there were absolutely no opportunities for me to get my first job. And who knows if that may have changed before my graduation. On top of that I wanted to have my first job or internship as soon as possible. I didn’t want to treat my studies as a five-year party. I wanted to accomplish more during that time, use this time to already start my career. So I decided to look for another option. I changed my major to Applied Computer Studies and I have not regretted it ever since.

Now you are an iOS developer. Was iOS always your dev path?

Yes. From the start, I wanted to be an iOS developer. And I didn’t even own any Apple devices then. Keep in mind that I was a poor student. 😉 It was a result of my little job market analysis. After searching tons of offers I realised that iOS developers are in huge demand, the salary range for iOS jobs was pretty impressive too, and the companies around me were really developing interesting apps. So that made me decide to go for iOS development.

What was your first software development job?

In my second year of college, I got my first IT job thanks to the recommendation of my lecturer Michał Miądowicz. I was hired by a huge software development company. I was so excited that I got to sit in this glass top office building in Gdańsk. I thought that I was the king of the world who made it to the top. But that was so not true. I worked there for only 3 months. After that, they decided not to extend the job contract with me. I was not good enough. And as you imagine it was extremely painful. But that was a life lesson for me. One of the greatest lessons I had.

I realised that there was so much for me to learn. I was not as great as I had thought and I should have focused more on learning. It turned out pretty well actually. If I had stayed there, I think I would not have grown as a programmer. I would have rested on my laurels, when in fact that was only the beginning of my career and constant self-development process.

So I lost that job and then finally started to study hard. The problem was that, as I mentioned, I did not have a Mac and still had to work on it. I could not afford to buy it so I had to borrow it when I had some recruitment projects to do.

Now you have over 8 years of experience and have been working at Bright Inventions since 2019. What new things have you learnt at Bright?

Obviously, I have learnt a lot of technical stuff here at Bright Inventions. But I do not think that is the key. I much appreciate the whole soft skills side of the development process that I have uncovered here. I much improved in terms of time management, communication, problem-solving, and more. I did not think I would learn all of that in a software development agency. You learn some technical stuff almost everywhere but soft skills are really unique knowledge to possess. It turns out that having only tech skills does not define you as a good programmer. And I know that it can be a controversial statement for some developers.

What do you like the most about the project you are involved in?

I work in a team that develops ePOS solutions for an international company from the FMCG industry. The greatest thing about it is that you get to work on the project that is really used by users across Europe. And at Bright we have a close relationship with the client and even with end-users. We talk with them, get to know their problems, needs and expectations.

As many developers would probably agree – you often work on software that you are not even sure if it is used and if it really offers something meaningful to users. You just deliver some code and are far away from the business side of it. Maybe sometimes while working on milestone number 3 you will finally get some feedback about the first milestone which will change absolutely nothing about your work. That is the case for many software development companies and I am glad that at Bright we do not work like that. We are partners to our clients and bring something more to the table than lines of code. We get to work on the solution, business expectations and we can choose technologies and frameworks. Here you really influence your project.

At Bright Inventions we develop native mobile apps, but you worked closely with React Native before. What is your opinion about native vs hybrid apps development?

Both approaches have their pros. And cons of course. 😉 I would not strike hybrid out completely. We work on native apps because we deliver customized solutions which involve implementing the best possible user experience practices. Also, we develop lots of solutions based on Bluetooth and here native is a better option. Or frankly – the only one.

However, there are situations when it might be right to choose a hybrid model. For example when you want to develop something really fast and you focus mostly on the functionality, not on design and UX. And if you base your solution more on business logic than external systems, it might be a fine option as well. It could work for apps that are meant to be used only by employees of your company and will never be seen by your clients. Their purpose is to make processes more efficient but they do not need to follow all design product best practices.

What trends do you see for software developers and iOS devs in particular for 2022?

In general, we all see that VR and AR have started to be treated more seriously. Google or Facebook want to move us to the virtual world. Who knows, maybe a fake world will be more exciting to us? A couple of years ago AR or VR was treated as some geek curiosity and now it is entering the mainstream. And I am not only about the already famous Facebook Metaverse. Check out how many new VR games have been released recently. The gaming industry is actually the first that really made VR/AR more approachable.

When it comes to iOS, I think 2022 will be the year when we finally see what Apple has been working on in terms of cloud computing solutions. And we all know that they are far behind competitors like AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. So I am excited to learn what they will offer us. Cannot wait to have a glance at their new Xcode cloud product that will be released in 2022. We will find out if it brings something new to the table that AWS or Azure do not offer. Unless Apple presents some x-factor to cloud computing, it will be difficult to chase the competition.

You are going to conduct iOS workshops for devs outside our Bright Team. What will they be about?

I will conduct workshops about new iOS feature - Live Activity. The workshops are designed for experienced juniors and fresh regulars. They will be held in Polish. Feel free to join.

Finally, what do you do after hours? 😎

I enjoy playing board games with my wife. Also, I love to build Lego constructions with my son. Nothing complicated, we just build for fun. 😉 So I guess spending time with my family is a priority.