The first post in the series “The Tech Minds Behind the Results”

We present the growth journeys of our junior frontend engineers, Saša Žikić and Strahinja Petrov. With a long-term commitment to become experts in frontend development – they shared with us their beginnings in the world of programming. Through persistence, dedication, and the ability to overcome challenges, alongside mentorship from senior colleagues and support from their People Manager, they have achieved significant success at Badin Soft. In this interview, you’ll learn about the projects they have worked on, the technologies they use, how they balance design and functionality, and much more. 

What were your first steps in IT like?

Saša: It all started by completing the IT Bootcamp course. I was interested in IT and programming before that, but once I started learning more about it, I was immediately drawn to front-end programming.  

And that’s pretty much it about my beginning, not a lot to be said about it. (laughs) 

I’ve been a frontend developer at Badin Soft for two and a half years. 

Strahinja: My first encounter with IT and programming came when I was preparing for my university entrance exam. The choice to take up FE came about spontaneously, I just started learning and loved it. After that, I got my first job opportunity. 

I’ve been in Badin for more than a year and a half now. 

What technologies do you use, and what are their advantages, in your opinion? 

Saša: I use JavaScript (Angular). I read a lot of documentation about Angular, it’s pretty extensive and detailed, you can easily find all the information you need. I’d say that’s one of the advantages. I believe that it’s similar to React and Vue, given that they’re fairly popular. 

Strahinja: I worked with Vue, but now I use Angular – a great advantage of Angular is that it has a big and supportive community. Given its popularity, it’s very likely that other developers have encountered similar issues and shared solutions that can be easily found online, such as on stackoverflow.com, Reddit (r/programming and related subreddits), and dev.to.   

I also find the Angular CLI (Command Line Interface) interesting – it allows us to quickly generate components, services, modules, and other elements. It makes development quicker and easier, which is a great advantage when you’re working with complex projects. 

Is the support of your People Manager significant for you?  

Saša: Our People Manager is Nikola Kuželjko, who was also our mentor in the beginning. Nikola has many years of experience with Angular and knows best how it functions in practice. His support means a lot because he shares his knowledge and experience with us regularly and helps us to maintain a high level of code quality. 

Strahinja: Since day one, Nikola has given us countless tips and advice about how to best tackle issues and challenges on our projects. 

When you’re starting your career, suggestions, advice, and help are incredibly valuable, as well as having the freedom to ask many questions. 

How would you describe your previous project, and how would you describe your current one? Is there a time frame of how long a project will last? 

Saša: My previous project was maintaining a web portal. I was on it for about a year. 

My current project is completely different – it was dynamic from the beginning, lots of things to be done, lots of new information, things were changing rapidly. At that point, I was new to Angular, which made it all the more challenging. As the project draws to an end, the tempo is somewhat slower, and things are a bit easier. 

As for the time frame, there is an estimate of how long it will take, but that also depends on additional requests, changes, and the client’s plans. 

Strahinja: On my previous project, I worked on an AI chatbot interface for an international client. 

When I started with my current project, I liked it because new features were constantly being developed – Initially, I worked on a smaller application, not the main one, but as Saša said, the beginning was very dynamic and interesting. 

Can you share some more differences between your projects? 

Saša: Well, the way they’re organized is different – everything from daily meetings, procedures, responsibilities. Someone is always in charge of updating tickets in Jira, which makes the whole thing well-organized. When it’s time to clock out, I don’t worry if I missed something; everything is clear and transparent, thanks to the tickets that were prepared in advance. By dividing our work like this, I can fully focus on making quality code and finishing everything on time. 

Strahinja: I agree with Saša, every project is organized differently. I can only add that the rest of the team jumps in to help if anyone misses a piece of information at one of our meetings, and it’s important for the task at hand. 

How important is design when you’re making applications, and how do you balance our functionality and aesthetics? 

Saša: Our task is primarily to make everything functional, but it’s very satisfying to make things that are also visually appealing. For example – the client can have a small request that doesn’t seem complicated at first but turns out to be a pain with all the changes we end up making. In these situations, we need to balance design and functionality, because the aesthetic part can sometimes take days to implement.  

Strahinja: I agree, I consider it to be a subjective thing – it’s not equally important to everyone. For example, I like having a design I can follow and use as a guide. 

Are there any new technologies or tools that you’d like to learn or master?

Saša: Projects often require a wide array of skills, so I use tools like Illustrator or Figma to create and manipulate SVG lines and shapes over existing images, which are designed to highlight or respond to user clicks. Additionally, I work directly with SVGs, performing tasks such as manually manipulating elements, grouping them, and fine-tuning their attributes for specific interactivity.   

In the beginning, we also worked with 3d models, using libraries like Three.js. 

Having a broad skillset is very beneficial, because you never know when it’ll come in handy. 

Strahinja: Recently, I wrote some scripts using Node.js to copy files to different folders. These scripts are not related to back-end development but are designed to manipulate file system for the application ‘build’ process. So, I would like to learn more about Node.js and how it works. 

How do you think technology will develop in the future? 

Saša: You’ll be better off asking a senior about this! (laughs)  

I think flexibility will become increasingly important – knowing the basics of programming, but not relying on a single language, simply because new technologies and frameworks are popping out every day. 

Strahinja: As we all know, AI is a hot topic right now, and I expect it to impact the IT industry in the coming years even more, including FE and I don’t see it as a negative thing – integration of AI tools in IT brings numerous benefits, improved efficiency is just one of them. 

How do you react when you face challenges at work? 

Saša: It can be challenging to change something you’ve worked on a lot and for a long time. It can be very stressful if you’re, for example, trying to change the existing code, without breaking something else. Especially with complex features which need to be removed – then the risk lies in how to best refactor it and what to do afterwards. 

On top of all, if there is a fixed deadline, or it needs to be done by the end of the day, now that’s stressful! As we all know, the deadline is usually yesterday. (laughs) 

Generally, I try to keep my composure, even in situations like this. 

Strahinja: My initial reaction is – okay, what can we do to resolve this? Focusing on the solution makes a challenge easier to handle. 

How do you see your career in the upcoming years? 

Strahinja: I see myself in the IT industry, as a FE developer, and generally, I plan to continue learning, improving, building on what I’ve learned so far. It’s hard to predict precisely, and it depends on the opportunities I’ll be faced with. 

Saša: To avoid repetition, I’ll just agree with what Strahinja said.