During upper secondary school, Andrey Aleksandrov thought to himself that coding could become his profession. So, he went on to study information technology at LUT University. In November 2017, Andrey also started working at twoday as a software designer alongside his studies (twoday was then called Visma Consulting).
As a student at LUT University, Andrey says that work experience directly supports studying, and it has been easy to pass exams when you have direct experience with concrete customer projects. When working with customers, internal motivation is also strengthened when the end result has an impact on the customer, the employer and the users of the developed service.
“I aim to develop and maintain an extensive competence profile, so versatile work assignments in projects are a great advantage.”
He has worked on both front-end and back-end development, DevOps, web and mobile development. Of course, he has already gained more experience in certain areas, i.e. he has a deeper understanding of these – Andrey’s specialty is his web competence.
Challenges are tackled together
Andrey considers the work of a software designer to be a good driver for learning new things and solving a variety of problems. As technologies evolve, coders need to evolve as well, and Andrey thinks that twoday has understood this.
“The employee gets the feeling that their skills and competence are beneficial to both the customer and their colleagues, as the company houses experts from various fields who can ask each other for help.”
Andrey says that information is exchanged extensively and that he consults and exchanges ideas with other experts almost on a daily basis. Once you know where a person who knows the subject sits, you can always go ask them for help.
"At the end of the workday, the best thing is to see that the snippet of code that was still an unresolved challenge the previous day, or even in the morning, got solved.”
Andrey wants to challenge himself to learn quickly, not only in his job but also in his leisure time with the online game CS:GO.
Victory should be based on skill, not chance
Andrey, who likes to hone his eSports skills, says that his game selection is influenced by how much he can contribute to winning the game through his own skills. Therefore, since 2013, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) has been one of his most played games.
The game is fair, and the role of random chance, which we all surely know from card games, is minimized. You can memorize the stages – and after well over 2,100 hours in the game, you can be sure that this is the case with Andrey as well. Strategic competence is emphasized.
He goes to the LUT Gaming Lounge almost weekly to play with his team and says that their team has already won the local annual CS:GO tournament twice. Andrey has also won a solo competition, so whoever challenges him in CS should prepare for the very real prospect of defeat!
The best thing about playing online is the feeling linked to the broad variation in your opponents and their strategies.
“You can learn how a computer-controlled opponent plays in just a few rounds, while online opponents always require you to adapt your own play style. It feels better to win against real people.”
Community through a headset
In the close-knit gaming community, you can generally find someone online who can play with you, whether you are in LUT University's gaming facilities or at home with your headset on.
Andrey thinks that CS:GO is social just like other team sports but is played on a very different field. When playing, you learn the strengths of different people, and a good team knows the play styles of its members. There is a lot of discussion during the games, and it is important to know how to give vital information quickly to a teammate due to the hectic nature of the strategy game. Victory – and defeat – may depend on a fraction of a second.
While Andrey's CS:GO team is skilled and even successful, they do not have big ambitions to compete for millions in prize money, at least not yet. They simply enjoy the game as a hobby.
Andrey likes to challenge himself to learn new things and wants to do meaningful work, the outcome of which matters. He can both work and play eSports from behind his self-assembled keyboard, and it is definitely a pleasure to work with him!
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