Meet Tomasz Szkaradek - Head of People Operations at The Codest. Discover Tomek’s career journey from a Ruby Manager to a member of the core group. How did he manage to master his managerial skills and become a leader? Find the answers in the following article.
My career journey that led me to the present began in 2016 when I started working in Codest (The Codest before rebranding) which was a product created by Codest. I had the gut feeling that this place would allow me to grow, acquire new skills, and try my hand at new ventures. At this point in my career, I did not want to only be a software developer - I felt that it was time to explore new things and as I saw room to grow in Codest, it was a place where I wanted to stay.
I strongly believe that change drives development - Codest was the pure definition of that saying. Lots of new things were happening there, which is why I was able to try out new things and see which role suited me best. What's more, promotion in an internal organization is much safer - you don’t enter a new environment, but still have fresh responsibilities and tasks to complete - in my view that’s the best approach to grow.
I started as a Ruby developer at Codest, as I was seeking new challenges and a company with a cool product to develop. At first, I was just a software developer in a project, but after some time I became a leader of the project. For a long period of time, I really wanted to manage people - then I got the chance.
At first, I faced lots of challenges, but just as with everything else in life, you learn from your mistakes and you gain experience. I saw huge progress in my managing and mentoring skills after just a couple of months of hard work. The main challenge I had to confront was being both a software developer and a manager at once. As my team consisted of 7 people, there were often a lot of things to handle at the same time.
In June 2020 The Codest came to life. Due to my technical and managerial experience, I’d become a part of the core team. During that time I had to make lots of strategic and business-related decisions that definitely enriched my skills and experience over time. I was managing lots of crucial areas of the company, such as working on projects, managing people, and taking care of recruitment.
With the passing time, I had to switch my priorities and focus more on the managerial side of my work, rather than on being a programmer. Since the beginning of 2022, my role at The Codest has become less technical - at present I focus on balancing the business needs and potential of the company.
Undoubtedly there were a lot of them, but If I had to choose the most common, I would definitely mention the lack of time. I always see something to improve and test, in order to find the best solution. It can be time-consuming, which is why I strongly believe in the power of task prioritization. In that way, I was able to minimize the occurrence of context-switching that I would fall for quite often just to keep myself busy.
When you do a lot of things in an organization and handle many different areas, there is a high chance of dealing with completely new problems. As it can be a stressful and time-consuming situation, while trying to figure out the right solution, I always try to look at the positive side of it. I have to admit that it can also be an interesting experience that can completely change the way of your long-term thinking.
The last thing that was one of the biggest challenges, but also a valuable lesson, was the dynamic growth of The Codest. We were constantly recruiting new tech talents for our projects and seeking new ways to improve our organization. We had to be quick and efficient in our actions to come up with the best solutions - this was an intense time for all of us, but it taught us many unique lessons that we follow to this day.
From my experience, I can say that one of the best decisions I’ve made regarding my career path was trying to develop myself inside the organization I was working in. Why? Stability, predictability, and knowing your surroundings are some of the top traits that can help you in enriching your skills. In that way, you have more room to maneuver.
First, try to use your surroundings and improve aspects of your current organization. Try to become better at new things or improve your current ones. Then if there are new exciting challenges for you, look wider and search for new opportunities.
The sky is the limit! I’m a huge fan of this saying. For now, I’m focusing on developing The Codest. We have a bright future ahead, with lots of ideas and amazing people on our team. I want to fully use the potential of this organization and be able to implement new exciting projects!
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