What led Šimon to programming and how did he become a mentor in the IT academy during his university studies? What is he currently working on, what does he appreciate about the company or what does he do when he is not working? Find the answers in our interview :-)
Šimon, to start with, tell us how long have you been working for us?
It's been 3 years and 4 months now in October (2021).
And what did you do before taking a job here?
Before working here, I was a student. I first started studying linguistics in college because I wanted to work in an English environment. I even worked for a while as an interpreter for Sloup small businessmen (note: Simon is from Sloup). But after half a year, I quit my studies and transferred to a school with a major in Information Management, where I also had a few courses in programming. I became more interested in it.
What was your path to LOGEX?
Because I became interested in programming during my studies, I wanted to find a job in the field. In school, they don't exactly teach subjects that are useful in practice for a junior. It took me a while to find a company that would accept me as a junior who would have to learn new technologies. Finally, LOGEX gave me this opportunity and I was happy to get started. For the first three months, I had to work on my own project, which I then used in my bachelor thesis. This was consulted for LOGEX by my current colleague Radim. I defended my bachelor thesis and continued my studies.
You worked only part-time for a while thanks to your university studies, didn't you?
Yes, it was 3 years of part-time work and I switched to full-time, 3 months ago when I finished school.
Also besides working and studying, we know you were a mentor at the IT academy. What is it like teaching other students programming?
It's true, I was a mentor in an academy that was created a few years ago and made it their mission to retrain people from other fields to become IT specialists, specifically programmers. A developer friend brought me in at a time when they were short of tutors, so I ran the project phase for six months. This meant that I was put in charge of students who had been attending the academy for 8 months and mentored them in coding their own projects, specifically in JavaScript.
You work as a frontend developer. Can you describe what project you're currently working on?
I've been through multiple projects in my time at LOGEX. I'm currently working on one called "Medicine Value Analytics", which helps analyze the effectiveness of medicines for patients with serious illnesses. I am working on the already processed data and its appropriate representations for our clients (i.e. hospitals and medical facilities) and modifying it according to their needs.
What do you like about LOGEX?
The thing I like probably the most is our charitable aspects. For example, the recent Step Challenge, where for every kilometer we ran, we added 1 crown to a charity fundraiser where we collectively choose what we specifically donate the money to. The another event that we participated in as a company two years ago was the You Dream We Run event in Blansko - a 24-hour run ( The largest outdoor charity event in the Czech Republic). I like these events and the direction towards charity the most.
On the other hand, what would be good to work on?
I can't say anything bad about the people. Perhaps the biggest problem I see is that we have grown very quickly as a company, which makes it quite difficult to do alignment across the company in terms of technology and products. But it's being worked on.
What did you want to be as a child?
I wasn't really clear on that, but going back to primary school, that's where I wanted to be a chef because I loved food and I wanted to prepare it. That lasted as a hobby, but I ended up not doing it for a living. In high school, I started playing computer games and I wanted to be a developer of the games instead. And then I started studying linguistics, I wanted to be an interpreter. But eventually I went back to what I wanted to do when I was younger in high school, programming.
What do you do in your spare time?
I still play computer games, but I also play competitive chess for Sloup, but that's at a lower regional level. Team-wise, we made it to the regional championship last year, so that's a nice achievement for Sloup. As you can probably tell, I'm from Sloup in the Moravian Karst region, so sometimes I still have a bit of a problem getting used to Brno. That's why I often go back there when I have free time and spend time in nature and enjoy the peace. And of course, as a proper Czech, I don't despise our good beer😊
Summer has just gone, so how did you spend it?
I finished my engineering degree 4 months ago, which we celebrated on holiday in Croatia on the island of Hvar, which is a beautiful place and I love going back there. After that I went on a few small local trips, like to Prague or with colleagues in the Giant Mountains, where there were about 15 of us in total (note small LOGEX holiday😊).
If you had to say one thing that you are in LOGEX for and what we could use to attract other new colleagues, what would it be?
Definitely the people. There's an incredible amount of brilliant and smart people here who are very helpful and happy to discuss, and it doesn't matter if you're talking to people from your own team or others. In Brno in particular, the people are amazing, everyone is pretty open and everyone who can will help and is very happy to pass on their experience.
That's great to hear and thank you so much for the nice interview 😊
