Sofia Lobenko, Middle Python Developer

Sofia Lobenko, Middle Python Developer at Exactpro, talks about the team that supported her as she progressed along her career path and the day-to-day software development "puzzles" that she gets to work on.  

– I started my career two years back, while I was in my final year of getting a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering. From the position of an intern, I went all the way up to the middle developer role. I have to admit, I was not alone on this path: I'm deeply grateful to Sergey Raevsky for the mentorship, his approach to viewing code as a whole, as well as his attention to detail; I’m also grateful to Ivan Scherbinin for his guidance and patience, as well as for being kind and supportive. You have both had a profound impact on my growth, thank you.

I've had the chance to dive into various projects and each one threw its own set of challenges my way, which gave my skill set quite the workout. My job now is development of stock exchange models and I'm doing my best to infuse my knowledge and my vision into making the software we develop better.

Software development is (almost) never boring, it’s like tackling an endless puzzle – sometimes, you think about the solution for days, doodling diagrams and algorithms all over the place. Other times, you write code in a flow, coming up with solutions on the go. It takes a lot of concentration, but the feeling of finally figuring out a difficult task is amazing.

In my everyday life, I enjoy grabbing out a pen and a notebook to scribble quick sketches of the outdoors or of the architectural stuff I stumble upon when I'm travelling or just walking around the city. Plus, I've got this sweet spot for board games – thanks to Exactpro's Wednesday board games club: I've had a chance to meet a bunch of colleagues and even made some great friends along the way.