CodeRiders is a trustworthy software outsourcing partner for many companies abroad. Business owners from various industries trust our software development team for their most complex projects and do not worry about work quality. How can a software vendor achieve international trust and respect without good employees? We appreciate our hard-working professionals. Therefore, we have a special session on our blog where we introduce our employees via interviews.

This time, it is Shant Kevorkian's turn, one of CodeRiders' talented full-stack software developers. Shant has been working with us for almost 4 years and is one of our fast-learning software developers. He can learn and use new technologies in a short period of time and communicate with customers easily and transparently.

Shant will share his story of becoming a qualified software developer, as well as his thoughts about the most important questions in IT.

- Please speak about yourself, your story, and your journey to becoming a professional software developer.

- My name is Shant Kevorkian; I am originally Lebanese Armenian, and since my childhood, I have had a lot of passion for the tech industry. At 16 years, I became more interested in how applications and websites were created and I decided to myself to start learning to program. That got me to pursue my higher education in Computer Science in 2015. Since then, my journey into coding has begun. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 2020 and have been working in the software development industry for 4 years. Meanwhile, I started doing some small projects on my own to strengthen my skills in the field of programming and began my first internship as Java Software Engineer, where I created an internal program that helped other engineers to write clean and efficient code.

- You relocated to Armenia from Lebanon. Can you tell our audience about the motivation behind your relocation?

- I had two major reasons:

1st: I am Armenian by ethnicity. I graduated from an Armenian school in Lebanon and have always stayed close to my ethnicity.

However, I did not visit the country, and always wanted to visit and see how they lived there.

2nd: Economic situation in Lebanon is not very good these days.

On the other hand, Armenia is very famous in the international IT industry as one of the best tech hubs in the world.

These two combined reasons motivated me to move to Armenia and work as a software developer in Armenia.
- You are a multilingual person. You are fluent in Armenian, Arabic, English, and French. Does this fact help you in your career?

- Yes, of course. Being multilingual is a big plus and makes you more flexible. In my earlier years, when I worked at a local restaurant, this was a huge advantage for me. I helped the management team a lot because we had a lot of guests who spoke, for example, only French, English, or Armenian.

The language of software outsourcing is English most of the time. So, if you want to write code for various companies coming from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, English is a necessity. Other languages are nice-to-have skills for software developers. For example, if I work for a French company and they suddenly know that their software developer from Armenia speaks French, it is, of course, a very pleasant surprise. The same for Arabic-speaking countries.

- How did you end up at CodeRiders?

- At the end of 2020, I traveled to Armenia to pursue my career. My childhood friend, who is also currently my colleague, Garod Ajemian referred me to CodeRiders, where the management welcomed me for my second internship. During my 3 months of internship, I learned a lot about web development, especially PHP and jQuery, plus an introduction to Vue.js (JavaScript framework). At the end of my internship, CodeRiders offered me the chance to start working with them as a full-stack software developer.

- Which technologies are you specialized in, and why did you choose specifically this tech stack?

- In my first project, I used PHP for the back-end and Angular.js for the front-end. I specialized in PHP and Angular.js for almost a year, building new interesting features and maintaining intact security and databases. Afterward, I moved to build websites with WordPress for 3 months, where I specialized more in PHP and JQuery. Currently, I specialize more in React.js (JavaScript library), Nuxt.js (Server-Side JavaScript framework), GraphQL (a query language for API), and Node.js (a JavaScript backend framework).

- Please speak about your current project.

- Currently, I am working on a social platform where I am building very interesting new features from scratch. The stack I am working on is Nuxt.js version 3 with Vue.js Composition API, GraphQL, and Go (also known as GoLang). The team consists of 8 members, 2 from CodeRiders, 3 ex-Google engineers, 1 manual Quality Assurance specialist, plus the CEO and the CTO. The project is a new startup, and, unfortunately, I cannot go too much into detail due to the signed NDA. I hope after the successful completion of the project, we will be able to tell the case study of this fantastic project on our website.

- Please speak about your favorite projects of all time.

- Until now, I have worked on a variety of projects utilizing various technology stacks and software development methodologies. My most liked projects are:

a) GitHub Application Plugin: Small (6 months duration) project where I was the only developer who worked on it. The project was something new and challenging for me. The tech stack used in it was Node.js (Koa.js) and React.js, where I created a GitHub Application to translate any files developers committed to their repository based on their configuration file. This project is the first one on my favorites list because it was very interesting to create something new from scratch that made some developers’ lives easier by translating files automatically to any language they wanted.

b) The current project: my second most liked project is the one I am currently working on. A very challenging new experience for me with some new tech stacks like Go. The reason this is my second most liked project is that it involves a new language, plus it also has challenging new features to create. I love solving challenges and finding easy solutions to difficult questions.

- Working independently or within a team? Which one do you prefer and why?

- My preference for working independently or in a team is based on the project. I prefer to work alone if it is a small project. If it is a large-scale project, working within a team is much preferred. I prefer working alone on small projects (especially when I create them from scratch) because I can decide how the architecture and the logic of the project will be. Large projects require more long-term decisions, and it is almost always better to decide the architecture of a large project with a team rather than independently.

- Can you please enumerate some pros and cons of working alone and within a team?

- Working alone:

Advantages:

· Flexibility in terms of schedule and work pace

· Complete control over decision-making and work process

· No distractions or conflicts from other team members

· More autonomy and independence

· The ability to focus on individual strengths and weaknesses

Disadvantages:

· Limited opportunities for collaboration and feedback

· Increased workload and responsibilities

· Potential for isolation and loneliness

· Limited opportunities for brainstorming and creativity

· Lack of diverse perspectives and ideas


Working in a team:

Advantages:

· Greater opportunities for collaboration and feedback

· Access to diverse perspectives and ideas

· Division of workload and responsibilities

· Potential for increased creativity and innovation

· Opportunities for skill-building and learning from others

Disadvantages:

· Limited opportunities for collaboration and feedback

· Increased workload and responsibilities

· Potential for isolation and loneliness

· Limited opportunities for brainstorming and creativity

· Lack of diverse perspectives and ideas

- One of the most typical things about you is your hard work. As your colleague, I can say that sometimes it feels like you do not get tired at all. You are always focused and rarely take breaks. How do you manage to work at that speed?

- My motto is and always has been “Solve problems alone if
you are sure you can solve them alone”. That way we understand the problem better and acquire a lot more knowledge and experience. However, sometimes we do need help. Getting experience from a mentor is another way to achieve a high level of knowledge. Therefore, in my honest opinion, we should balance the need for help from people to satisfy our knowledge.

- Will you remember an interesting situation or event during your career that stayed with you as a good lesson for future projects?

- Yes, actually. I was working on a project where I should have created some e-mail functionalities. I did my job and deployed the code without an in-depth analysis. The code worked fine, but I did not consider the old emails. As a result, almost 10-year-old emails were automatically redirected to the end users. It was unnecessary. Now, I know that before deploying anything, I should be 100% sure that every minor detail is taken into consideration.

- What do you appreciate the most at CodeRiders?

- Team CodeRiders has become like family to me. We appreciate each other's work, motivate each other, and, most importantly, respect each other. These are the key points everyone has in our team, and these are what keep us moving forward together.

- CodeRiders offers a hybrid working model to its employees. Can you please tell our audience which working model you prefer and why?

- I always prefer a hybrid working model over strict office or remote work. The feeling of having the liberty to work remotely or from the office gives a person mental relief. However, a person must understand the benefits of both working remotely and from the office. We must always balance to work from the office and remotely.

- Are there any software development technologies that you would like to learn in the future and why?

- I have always wanted to deepen my knowledge in the DevOps field. This year, I will start learning the DevOps basics and get more practical knowledge in that field.

- Let's end this talk with more information about Shant as an individual. What are your hobbies and interests?

- I love sports. I played various sports since my childhood. I did ping pong, basketball, and of course football/soccer. I love watching movies. This is one of my refreshing tactics. I also love classical music as well as some rock groups such as System of a Down, Linkin Park, etc.

To hire software developers like Shant, you can contact CodeRiders’ business development team here. Our professional business development specialists offer free consultations during which you can present your problem or request to us and get remarkable time and money estimates, as well as advice or recommendation regarding software development methodologies and other management questions.

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