Working as a software developer for over ten years, today Roman Mokrii is an important part of the MWDN family. And it’s not just because he is productive and efficient in resolving work tasks. Roman is also the soul of our company when it comes to team-building, as he plays guitar and knows many songs by heart.
Keep reading to figure out how Roman came from accounting to programming, his favorite technologies, and what he thinks of switchers.
- Roman Mokrii, 38 y.o.
- Full stack developer at MWDN
- Has 2 girls – Stanislava (10 y.o.) and Vladislava (7 y.o.)
- Likes socializing with friends, enjoys nature, plays guitar and board games.
My path to development
I was interested in programming as a kid and even won competitions on programming among students in my native town. However, my parents were sure that Ukraine needed accountants more than programmers, so after school, I entered the Kharkiv National University to study Economics.
The only reason I believe the five years at the university were not a waste of time is that there, I met my future wife and mom to my two daughters.
I worked as an accountant for five years, and only when I became a chief accountant I realized that this profession didn’t suit me at all.
At that moment, a friend of mine offered to teach me some coding and join his team as a PHP developer. It took me four months to learn the theory and get some hands-on experience for passing tests and an interview to get my first job as a PHP developer in Gameloft.
So, I started my career as a developer on August 13, 2012. Since then, I have been studying all the time, with occasional breaks for lunch. MWDN is my second IT company. I have been working here since October 1, 2020.
My thoughts on switchers
Some people decide to switch to IT exclusively because of high salaries. As a rule, their first question when they find out you’re a developer is, “How long does it take to start earning thousands of dollars a month?” I try to explain to such people that they can earn good money in other fields as well.
There are also people with burning eyes! For them, money is just a nice bonus that they get doing what they like. I always try to help them by giving them a piece of advice or consulting them in one way or another.
Favorite stack of technologies
- Front-end: Angular
- Back-end PHP: Symfony, Laravel
- Back-end Nod.js: Express, Koa
My back-end technologies are the result of what I was asked to learn in my previous job. Angular is my personal choice. Firstly, it offers the maximum embrace of front-end technologies from HTML/CSS to reactive programming and decorators in JS. Secondly, it helps you to structure projects due to the strict requirements of the framework regarding code organization.
Favorite books
Non-fiction: Clean Code by Robert Martin.
Fiction: the Oikumen trilogy by H.L. Oldie (a duo of sci-fi authors from Kharkiv)
I love reading and always have. For me, reading fiction is a way to relax and expand my imagination horizons.
I’m more of a practitioner so I prefer to do programming rather than read about it. Although lately, I catch myself thinking that I don’t always have enough theoretical training. Perhaps it is a new stage in my self-development where I will read more professional literature and less fiction.
February 24th
On the afternoon of February 24, we went down to the basement of our house and we stayed there until March 4. During this period, I tried to get out from time to time to cook something or get some clothes, but my kids stayed in the basement for almost nine days.
On March 4, we left for Zmiiv where my parents live (it’s a small town 42 km from Kharkiv). During these eight months, I haven’t left my family for a single day.
What makes you happy these days?
These are my family, my friends, and my team. People whom I care about and who care about me.
Is now a good time to start learning to code?
There is never a bad time to learn new things. Whether it is programming, foreign languages, or wood carving – it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you should like what you’re learning.
MWDN in three words
One is enough. It’s a Family.