"I felt fully supported by the team and also the client, which motivated me to do my best."

Joined Capco: 2018
Role:         Senior Consultant, Banking Software
Primary skills: Web Applications Development, Artificial Intelligence
Interests: Cycling, traveling, running, blogging

As a teenager, I was racing on mountain bikes, training three to four hours a day, six days per week and skipping parties to become a professional cyclist. I participated in European championships, a World Cup and won dozens of local races, but in the end I never got a professional contract. Today, I realize that those years taught me to be patient, steadfast and hardworking - qualities that helped me during my university studies in computer science.

My cycling career also gave me the opportunity to race with competitors from all over the world, and it still fascinates me how sport can bring together individuals from different countries, cultures and religions. This experience encouraged me to travel more over the years; to visit new places and get to know people from different countries. I quickly realized, that you need to spend some time abroad to dive deeper into local culture. 

As a software developer at a very small Slovak company, I had few options to achieve this. When a role at Capco came up, I realized it could be a welcome opportunity to work on diverse projects with people from all over the world and to travel to different client’s sites. Going in, I was a little bit anxious that - as a larger company - the Capco environment may be too formal for me. I was pleasantly surprised how natural and friendly everybody was, during the interview process (and thereafter).  I was hopeful that it would be the right move for me.  

I can remember my first step forward within Capco. My coach asked me to join his project team as a software developer. The client was a Swiss provincial bank and the goal was to create a web application that shared information across two screens at the same time - one for the client and one for the financial advisor at the bank, as part of the mortgage approval process. The application needed to collect data about client, his properties and then visualize potential interest rates, monthly payments and other financial parameters. It gave me my first opportunity to use Angular and Node.js, both of which I had wanted to get familiar with for a long time. After more senior developers left the project, I lead the project to its final phase. The whole experience improved my hard and soft skills dramatically. I felt fully supported by the team and the client, which motivated me to do my best. I was proud of the solution we created for our client, which was not only very trendy and user friendly, but was also not easy to implement. The app helps to enhance interactions between financial advisor and client, which I know from my personal experience is very beneficial; the bank is more attractive to potential clients while those clients can make more informed decisions too.

My next project was a real milestone in my career. I was hired on a project as a backend developer. Output of the project was a web application that monitors communications between several internal bank systems and validates it. This was the first time I had been on a huge project and team, involving dozens of people from Capco. We were using different technologies, namely Java 8 and Spring Boot. Once again, I benefitted significantly both personally and professionally from the experience.

When it comes to recharging my energy during my free time, I find cycling or travelling to be very effective. I try to practice mindfulness - to fully focus on the activity I am doing in the moment – and not think about the past or future. When I ride my bike, I fully focus on my performance, road, world, and people around me. The peak of these mindful activities is meditation, which I practice almost every day.

My interests are broad and have shaped me as a person - from economics and history to science and much more. I enjoy learning about all aspects of our world, which fills me with a sense of openness, love and understanding of other people. I also get inspiration from my close friends and a few people I follow online. Each has some personality traits or patterns of behavior that motivate me to be a better person. My friends’ understanding and acceptance of me as a person is also very motivating.