Until 5 years ago, Svetla Ivanova’s educational and professional background had been entirely in the finance sector. After deciding to switch careers, she went from a finance expert to a software developer with the help of Telerik Academy. Shortly after graduating from our professional program for master junior talent, Svetla joined Bede Gaming and has been part of their software engineering team ever since.
How did Telerik Academy help you jumpstart your career?
Telerik Academy became the ultimate cornerstone to my dream job in software engineering. I had no previous experience in programming – even the “for” loop was a completely new concept to me. However, the training I obtained at the Academy, equipped me with everything needed to start a new job at a wonderful company and be able to overcome any difficulties I may face in my everyday tasks.
This was a significant life-changing experience. Professionally, I made a huge step from finance to IT, and started doing something I really enjoy. In the process, I also surrounded myself with a lot of fascinating people who never disappoint when I need a fun evening of discussions on interesting tech and non-tech topics. Actually, Telerik Academy has been one of my best investments so far.
What is your current job and key responsibilities?
As part of one of the feature teams at Bede Gaming, I participate in the development of high-quality software. This often includes working on various internal projects in our microservice-based gambling platform, exploring new approaches to different scenarios while choosing the most suitable technologies for the problem at hand, as well as maintaining and improving the code base. The best part of my job is the opportunity to be creative, to learn from the tasks and the people around me and to constantly evolve as a developer.
The atmosphere at Bede is very positive and much of this is due to the people in the company. There are a lot of Telerik Academy alumni, as well as university graduates with various IT degrees. Our dedication to well-written code results in maintaining a high standard in the development process. The company doesn’t lack skilled engineers, willing to share their knowledge and experience, and motivated people always striving to give their best. To top that, it’s a fun place to work at!
What are the most valuable skills you gained at Telerik Academy that you continue to use to date?
I’m mostly grateful that Telerik Academy taught me not only how to write code, but how to write code well. Courses like Object-Oriented Programming and High-Quality Code to name a few were instrumental. In addition, having the opportunity to meet all those ambitious fellow learners there motivated me to be even more determined and to continue to seek new things to learn even today.
What is your advice to others?
Stay focused and motivated. Telerik Academy Alpha may seem very intensive, and the investment of time and effort is considerable but in the end it all pays off and the satisfaction of what you achieve is great. Give your best, and most importantly share the experience with the people around you.
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An alumnus of the Harvard University and the German Film Academy in Berlin, Ivan Ivanov had a film directing career. When he decided to come back to Bulgaria, however, he realized he needed to pursue a more steady occupation. With previous experience in tech but no real-world programming skills, Ivan joined Telerik Academy Alpha to bring his personal story to a happy end.
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