Andrii Hutsaliuk, Technical Support Specialist: “The implementation barriers exist only in our heads”

— What did you dream of being as a child?

— I did not have a specific dream regarding my future profession. In the eighth grade, I wanted to play futsal and get a grade. But the idea of moving to Lviv and ​​entering the Faculty of Physical Education was not close to my heart. A little later, I began to get interested in the field of IT, but even here I still did not know exactly what I wanted. I entered a technical school for studying geodesy, moved to Kyiv, graduated from the university, and even managed to work in my specialty for a couple of years. I soon realized that I needed to develop and move on. At that time, I had a certain amount of knowledge in Linux, setting up computer systems. That is, I already had a minimum base for entering IT.

— Did your parents support you as a person? Were they strict with you?

— At school, the teachers always compared me with my brother, which I didn’t like — he always had it the easy way. Of the two of us, only I was asked to show the report card, my performance was always controlled. So my parents were stricter with me. Interestingly enough, with the onset of puberty, my brother and I caught up in academic performance.

— Are you close to your family?

— I started living by myself in the tenth grade, my parents are three hours away by train. Despite the fact that we live in different cities, I try to support them by deeds not words. My task as a son is to make my parents feel needed, to be busy with something in retirement. I try to support them in their endeavors, offer different ideas. For example, my mother took a course in computer literacy, I think that if she wanted and had time, she could take courses in QA. Thus, she will feel that she matters, her skills are in demand. It cannot fail to inspire. In addition, she is engaged in various handicrafts. I think she could work in IT pretty easily; the only thing she is having a hard time with is English.

— Speaking of inspiration: many drive it from changing views and traveling. Where would you like to go?

— When I had the opportunity to travel, quarantine began suddenly and at the wrong time. For the last New Year, I planned to go to warm countries for the sake of beaches and the sea. I’d like to give myself a trip to Europe as a birthday gift, but right now it’s not clear what will happen with the restrictions. I don’t want to buy a ticket to a country they won’t let me in.

— Do you remember your first day at Innovecs?

— Certainly. Innovecs and my previous place of work are like chalk and cheese. First of all, I saw a warm, sincere, human interaction. I was given a degree of freedom that I had lacked before. No one has ever stepped on my toes. We do not have obnoxious debriefings, as was the case in the last job. I started my career at Innovecs working closely with recruiters. From the first day, it was an open and trusting relationship, where there was no room for intrigue or hostility.

Sometimes I sit in a warm, cozy office, look at the bad weather outside the window and realize that everything could be completely different. Without leaving engineering, I would have to do all sorts of work in rain and snow, sometimes even at a height. Every time I am more and more convinced that I am in the right place.

— Has anything changed in your life since joining the company?

— Upon joining the company, my life can change constantly. The point is that Innovecs is interested in the growth and development of its people. Nothing prevents an employee from moving to another department, changing a project, learning new technologies.

— If Innovecs were a person, what would it be?

— Innovecs is someone young, fast-growing. A person who easily adapts to difficulties and always wants more. In fact, all company’s employees share the same traits, the main one being openness. At events or even during lunch, you can meet people from other projects who are all sociable and happy to discuss different topics.

— Where do you see yourself in five years?

— I see myself as a Senior DevOps at least. I clearly understand that such a plan is feasible. I want to start my journey in this direction and become a junior already this year. In my opinion, five years is enough to learn and succeed in this area. At Innovecs, a year counts as two — life here is so dynamic, it is in full swing, and everything changes very quickly.

— Are you lazy?

— I am, however, laziness can be beneficial. For example, lazy people need to optimize processes, thereby simplifying their own work. You can give a detailed explanation to someone so that there would be no need for additional questions. In other words, the lazy approach is to think it over in advance and calculate possible scenarios.

— What do you dream about?

— I started thinking about my housing. For starters, I would like to buy an apartment in Kyiv, but it would be nice to have living space abroad. The IT world exists beyond borders, which allows you to work from anywhere in the world and not be tied to one place of residence. I also want to implement my project and make it profitable. To do this, I need to arm myself with knowledge, get expert advice and start building a team. IT guys are bad if they don’t want to launch their own startup. The field of technology is developing very rapidly. Things that were previously seen as impossible have already become commonplace. Implementation barriers exist only in our heads.

— What is happiness for you?

— Happiness is when you succeed in all spheres of life: family, work, business, spiritual development. Now everyone has the opportunity to engage in self-knowledge, oriental practices, take care of mental health. For some, the material side is more important than everything else. But when it’s all gone what remains? Communication human to human. I think that the quarantine has forced many to rethink their values, priorities, as well as the attitude towards each other.