17 Jul 2023 Aspire to Tech: Software Engineer

Career Spotlight – Sofya Noskova

What is your role? What is your title? Where are you located?  How long have you been doing it?

I am located in Vancouver, working as a Software Engineer for Fatigue Science. I have been with the company since 2021 as part of the department that develops mobile applications for the company.

What makes your job interesting?

I personally enjoy the unique challenges. For example, figuring out how we can best integrate Bluetooth technology into our mobile app. Developing mobile applications presents many different challenges such as the different needs of Android or iOS. I think this makes the work interesting, because sometimes problems look unsolvable, and we work at it for months before finally cracking them. When we get to deliver a solution to a customer, it’s a great feeling.

What is the most fun? What is the most challenging?

The challenges are also fun! In my job, I need to learn something new every day. I like to keep up on the latest news, because I find tech itself to be very interesting, and staying current on the latest trends in tech is an important part of my job. It’s captivating for me. So being able to apply new knowledge is what I find the most fun.

It’s also really motivating for me to work in a multi-cultural environment, because people from all over the world, bring their unique perspectives. I have a very cool team around me at Fatigue Science, which encourages collaboration. I am also a fan of tech and science in general, so one of the aspects of my job that I find rewarding is that I get to work in a science and tech field.

How does your role help drive the company’s success?

Directly, my department is creating a new version of applications customers can use to access Fatigue Science’s services. By making our services more accessible, I feel I am directly helping us move forward by expanding our userbase. I personally try to inspire my teammates to always follow the latest advances in mobile development, and to stay up to date on what is happening so the company can stay agile. As a team, we can theoretically share knowledge and learn together much faster than any one of us could alone.

What does a typical day look like for you? What do you actually spend your time doing?

I start my day by reading industry newsletters, then I go to the office. I feel that it is good for me to come into the office because I find communication better. Then, I move into my work for the day. When I am tackling a new problem, I try to not dive right into the coding right away as I prefer to create some schemes to analyze, and to look through some similar solutions and better solutions first. It’s only after I have read up on it that I move it to implementation.

Mornings are usually focused on investigation and meetings – collaborative work – but I reserve the second half of the days for concentrated work for when I have already collected and organized my information. I find that’s very helpful to split your day up in between your collaborative meeting time and then time to focus on the work you need to do.

Tell us about your career history?

I graduated from University as an Electrical Engineer, but due to economic issues in my home country, many people did not have the opportunity to pursue exactly what they wanted to right after we graduated, so I switched career paths to become a software developer as that was an emerging and in-demand sector.

First, I was working in web development for several years, then I was a manager at a web development company. When I was a manager, I missed development. I really like development, coding, and engineering challenges. I did not get enough satisfaction, being a manager, so I decided to come back to development. In 2018 I decided to try something new – not web development, but mobile development. I was interested in mobile devices, so I started working in that area. I completed some courses, and leaned on all my previousdevelopment experience, and I started to write mobile applications. Since then, I’ve stayed in mobile development while continuing to upgrade my knowledge by learning different languages.

What was your very first job and how did your career path take you to where you are today?

My very first job was making small HTML pages on the internet. It was HTML and CSS – very simple stuff like that. Then I continued to work in programming. It was all very new at that time, with all these technologies in programming. I was a little bit scared that I would not be able to understand some of this new tech, but fortunately, I had a great teammate, a person who said something to me that I still repeat to myself today when I am feeling stuck trying to solve a complex engineering problem. He said, “all complicated stuff was created by human beings. You are a human being. So just continue, and you will understand and solve the problem you’re facing.” Those words still support me and motivate me to dig deep into development to find solutions to complicated problems.

Where might you go next? What’s your next role?

At the moment, I think I will continue to work in mobile development – working on upgrades for the next five years at least. It is a great field to work in and I enjoy being able to create the best experience for our mobile app users, so I will continue to grow in this field.

What motivates you for your future career? Will you stay in tech?

I will definitely stay in tech. I really am a tech person. I like everything that is connected to technology and science. It really inspires and motivates me that our company is related to science. I am doing work that benefits people and improves their lives, which is also a source of motivation for me.

Any final words of advice, or advice for young people?

I’ve shared one piece of advice from my colleague that still keeps me going when I have really hard challenges, so maybe I will share the advice of another colleague; All problems are solvable in tech – maybe not in life, but in tech – if a problem seems unsolvable, you might just need to stop, rest, and come back to it, but never give up.