In the interview for Website Planet, Piotr Nowak, CEO of Nopio, presented the mission and vision of our company. He also presented his predictions about the development of the industry, as well as explained the phenomenon of industrial polarization.
I recently celebrated my second anniversary of working here at Nopio. It’s a big occasion for all of us: for me, because I’ve never worked in one place for that long of a time before, and for Piotr and Monika (the founders of Nopio) because I was their first full-time employee.
Interviewing for Nopio
When I moved to Poland, I had a long term visa and over three years of experience in web-development and intermediate English. What I didn’t have was an EU work permit and any knowledge of Polish. So when I started looking for a job in Poland, my prospects weren’t that difficult, but the search wasn’t that easy either.
I was very lucky that Piotr and Monika were looking for an employee at the same time and in the same city as me. We instantly clicked after the first interview and I knew that I wanted the job regardless of some of the drawbacks I faced, which included the company having a very cramped office space back then, and having rather awkward second interview with Piotr and Monika. Fortunately for me, I got the job. And since then, I’ve been having a wonderful time working here at Nopio.
Working for a Small Business
Working for a small business is definitely not for everyone. Some people like to be a cog in the wheel for larger companies, and think that being interchangeable can make life less stressful. Others think that projects couldn’t be interesting if a small number of people are working on it. I personally know a person who likes Scrum meetings and the bureaucracy of a big corporation. Obviously, tastes differ.
I’ve perfected how I prioritize my work over the years by adopting the words of Scarlett O’Hara, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
Of course working for a small business can be stressful, especially when you’re the lead on a complicated project. But I wouldn’t say that the job takes up all of my free time or that the pressure for me to perform is too high. The only real stress I have on a daily basis is solving a client’s needs and ideas as soon as possible. I’ve perfected how I prioritize my work over the years by adopting the words of Scarlett O’Hara, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
I enjoy working for Nopio because nothing is better for me than working with people who are good at what they do and are constantly trying to improve things. And what’s especially good at Nopio is that they have an opportunity to do so. We’ve never experienced problems that larger companies tend to have, such as high rates of turnover, messy workflow, or overconfident bosses, and I’m very happy going into work every day.
In my two years here, I’ve worked on several projects of different sizes and technologies. I’ve even done some complicated JavaScript magic a few times, which makes me very proud! I’m a back-end developer through and through, and JavaScript was definitely not something worked with too often.
Growing Within the IT Industry
The other thing I really like about my job is to see how Nopio grows and take a part in this process.
…if you consider wrecking your brain on solving interesting problems as ‘having fun’. I certainly do.
Two years is a long time. Honestly, I lost count how many projects we finished since I started to work here, but I know for sure that every client was happy with the result. We also have several long-run projects which won’t be finished anytime soon. I’m currently working on one of them and that’s where the real fun is. Well, if you consider wrecking your brain on solving interesting problems as ‘having fun’. I certainly do.
We’ve changed our office twice as our team is constantly growing. We’ve also adjusted our working processes as we now have several developers assigned on most of our projects. Because each of us has our own field of specialization while working as a full-stack developer, we’ve all learned (and are still learning) a lot from each other. While we haven’t exactly perfected our workflow and technology knowledge, we accept that it might never be that way. Changes are always going to be made because of the nature of the IT industry. What matters is that we stay on top of it.
A Friendly Environment
Nopio has a rather unusual way of hiring new people. Unlike most other companies, each of us takes part in the interviewing process and every opinion matters. This way, we ensure that every applicant is someone who has all the necessary skills needed, and is also a person that we’ll be comfortable working with.
Implementing this interview process allows Nopio to create a team of people who are more like friends instead of just colleges. We also spend our free time together in a lot of different activities from playing tennis to having a nice evening in a pub.
I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen with Nopio in the future, whether it’s growing in large numbers, working on more complicated projects, or moving forward in other fields of the IT industry. Whatever the future may bring, I’m absolutely certain that all changes will be positive, and I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.
Interested in the topic of growing your company? Check out our tips for scaling a business.
