Zorion

Chief Technology Officer

VP of Engineering

ready2order

Managing fully remote Agile teams that are responsible for different products including the core POS application as well as internal middlewares for business processes. Responsible for Engineers, QA, DevOps as well as Delivery Managers. In charge of hiring and building up the teams. Coordinating with key stakeholders for different projects. Providing coaching and mentoring to direct reports.

Head of Engineering

Reciprocity, Inc

Managing fully remote scrum teams located on various of different timezones. Managing the direction, culture, setting right processes and improving them. In charge of growth of the teams and hiring. Working directly with team leads - providing coaching and mentoring. Coordinate deliveries across different departments.

Engineering Manager

Building features on Risk and Compliance Management platform used by enterprise companies worldwide with technologies such as Vue, React, Python, Node.js to name a few. Leading a fully remote scrum team on building next-gen products. Coach and mentor engineers on the team. Managing the direction of the team and improving processes to optimise deliveries.

Senior Software Engineer, Team Lead

Sibit d.o.o.

Bulding web applications, e-commerce and other web solutions with technologies such as HTML, CSS, SCSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, PHP, MySQL, C#, ASP.NET CORE, SQL Server.

Senior Software Engineer

GO Solutions

Providing services in regards to web, mobile and desktop solutions with different technologies such as SCSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, React, Vue, Ionic, PHP, MySQL, Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB to name a few. Hiring external experts for the need of particular projects in different fields including Development, Project Management, Marketing, Sales and Copywriting.

Harvey Norman

Web solutions from design phase and all the way to finished developed phase with technologies such as HTML, CSS, SCSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP.

Software Engineer

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Working on different web solutions with technologies such as HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript, jQuery, PHP.

CTO | Author of Engineering Leadership newsletter - Helping you become a great engineering leader!

I am an engineering leader with a passion for solving complicated problems with innovative concepts. I love learning about new technologies, sharing my knowledge and teaching others. 

I have a proven record of successfully managing fully remote Agile teams, setting the correct direction and culture as well as creating right processes and continuously improving them. I have overseen hiring and building up the teams as well as have strong emphasis on coaching and mentoring to direct reports.

You can reach me at info@gregorojstersek.com.

As engineers, estimations are the worst for us! But for the business, they are incredibly useful.

I'll tell you one of my bad habits that I used to do, especially at the start of my career.

Me on the planning: This is very easy to develop!
Me: Working overnight to prove to everyone it wasn't that hard!

After many failed estimations, I learned that it's not the end of the world if something takes more time than it's actually estimated. As long as there are valid reasons for it and the overall project is still on track.

Some tasks may take longer, some tasks may take less time than estimated. You get better at it, but you'll never be perfect.

Always keep learning from it and improve.

You got this!

Gregor Ojstersek

My TOP 3 traits for recognizing the potential in engineers.

It has nothing to do with where you are currently with your technical skills. It has everything to do with your attitude and your mindset.

These are my top 3 traits I am assessing:
- sense of ownership and responsibility,
- drive and motivation for improving,
- team player and making others around them better.

I believe that with these 3 traits you can be a great engineer. Also not just that, you can be good at anything you put your mind into.

I value attitude and mindset over technical skills when recognizing the potential in engineers.

My top traits for recognizing potential in engineers have nothing to do with technical skills. They have everything to do with the attitude and the mindset.

I’ll tell you why.

With the right attitude and mindset, you can learn all of the necessary technical skills needed. And not just that, you are a great person to work with and you are making others around you better because of it.

That’s very important because I am looking for people who will be able to inspire others and help others grow, not just contribute with their technical knowledge.

Remember, if you get better at coding for 20%, you will provide 20% more value. But if you help 5 other people to get 20% better, you will provide 100% more value!

I have just sent out a newsletter to 53.5k+ engineering leaders called "How to recognize the potential in engineers".

You can find my TOP 3 traits for recognizing the potential in engineers + how I recognize these traits!

You can read the newsletter article here: https://lnkd.in/exSSgaGr

Going from impostor one day to feeling like a superhuman the next day!

That's the feeling when you have been stuck on a coding problem and you wake up the next day and solve it very quickly in 10min!

The first feeling may be frustration, but remember, this is normal and it happens to all of us, no matter of seniority.

What you should do when you feel stuck:
- Embrace that coding can be challenging sometimes and that everyone gets stuck.
- Move away from the problem and when you get back you will feel refreshed.
- The second pair of eyes helps - pair programming does wonders.

There are a lot of UPs and DOWNs in engineering, but that's what makes it truly an exciting industry to be in!

Going from impostor one day to feeling like a superhuman the next day!

That's the feeling when you have been stuck on a coding problem and you wake up the next day and solve it very quickly in 10min!

There are a lot of UPs and DOWNs in the engineering industry, but that's what makes it truly an exciting industry to be in.

I am still feeling this quite regularly, no matter if I have been over 10 years in the industry.

Tomorrow, I'll send out a newsletter called "Going from impostor one day to feeling like a superhuman the next day".

I will share my personal overview of how this has been part of my growth as an engineer, as a manager and how this still affects me at current times as well.

Want to be a part of 54.3k+ engineering leaders?

Make sure to join here: https://lnkd.in/eNSKBMUf

What is your top tip when dealing with imposter syndrome?

These two principles saved years of development time for my teams!

The principles are:
YAGNI (You aren't gonna need it) and KISS (Keep it simple, stupid).

They work well for a LOT of different situations, some of them are:
- implementing new features,
- creating documentation,
- using tools.

Remember, more code means more problems, simplifying is always the way to go!

P.S. Read more about the importance of simplifying in my recent article "Simplifying as much as possible is the way to go in the engineering industry" here: https://lnkd.in/es4NRRzn

Great teams build great software!

The better the teamwork in the organization, the better is the:
- culture,
- codebase,
- product.

And most importantly, happier are the customers!

Every decision that we make, should be made for the better of the team and the overall organization.

There are a lot of different things that you can do to inspire great teamwork inside your engineering team!

Here are the ones that I believe have the biggest impact:

1. Setting correct expectations
I find this extremely important because we inspire the actions of individuals by the way we measure their success. It’s important to define exactly what success looks like and people will automatically focus on showcasing the actions that are in line with the success.

2. Give frequent feedback
I believe that frequent feedback is one of the best things you can do for your team. It ensures that your people know how they are doing in their roles and are not second-guessing themselves + they receive actionable insights for their growth.

3. Be a great role model for your team
Do exactly what you expect your people to do. Uplift and empower your people, help and support them and overall just be there for your people.
You can be surprised how big of a difference it makes when you actively show the right behaviors. It’s much clearer for everyone to embrace them!

What would you add?

P.S. You can read more about how important teamwork is in Software Development in my latest article "Great teams build great software".

You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/e9dbSx73

Engineers that are great team players are the ones that I value the most!

But, how to become a better team player?

For me, being a team player has really become very natural. I’ve played a lot of team sports growing up, especially basketball.

Later in my teenage years, I also became quite an avid gamer, playing online competitively. I mostly played FPS (first-person shooter) games. Call of Duty is the one I spent playing the most.

We used to compete in 5 on 5 matches, where there was a lot of teamwork needed and especially everyone had their specific role.

I believe those 2 things have made me become a very team-oriented person.

Based on this my top 3 tips would be:

1. Find a group activity
Find something outside of your day-to-day work, where you collaborate or work together to achieve a certain goal with a group of people. This can be: playing sports, video games, board games, side project, freelance work, etc.

2. Focus on empathy, helping others and team goals
Become the person that can put yourself in other people’s shoes. Focus on anticipating issues, problems and offer your help to resolve them. Try to make the overall day-to-day work easier for your colleagues and overall team.

3. Solve problems that nobody wants to
When you hear recurring issues inside the team, the best thing you can do is to try to solve them. Your colleagues, manager and the whole organization will appreciate you for doing this.

What would you add?

P.S. You can read more about how important teamwork is in Software Development in my latest article "Great teams build great software".

You can read more it here: https://lnkd.in/e9dbSx73

This is how I recognize the sense of ownership and responsibility in engineers.

There are a number of different indicators which showcase a good sense of ownership and responsibility. Here are the most prominent ones for me:

1. They are volunteering for projects when nobody wants to take the initiative
There are always recurring issues coming up and they may be hard to tackle. The person that will tackle them and put in the effort to resolve them, will provide a lot of value to the team and overall organization.

2. They are making suggestions for improvements and then take the initiative to implement them.
It shows that a person wants to make things better across the team and organization and not just focus on their own tasks.

3. They are proactive
They don't wait for tasks to be assigned to them but they are proactively searching for the most impactful things to work on.

4. They are the one who actually writes down the plan when the team is discussing about it
That’s very important because it shows to me that the person actually was able to gather all opinions together and formulate a plan, which the whole team agreed upon.

P.S. You can read more about how I recognize the potential in engineers in my latest article "How to recognize the potential in engineers".
You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/exSSgaGr

This is how I recognize drive and motivation for improving in engineers:

1. They are passionate about new technologies or new concepts
You can just feel it talking with them, that they like what they are doing and are always on the lookout for how they can improve their knowledge and skills in various of different areas.

2. They are regularly sharing their knowledge with others
They love to do good code reviews and they are teaching, helping others and sharing their knowledge. That can also be via organizing learning sessions for the team or across the organization.

3. They like to read or listen
They are always looking for a new book to read or a new conference to attend in order to learn and improve.

4. They like to write
A great indicator is if they are writing a personal blog or a newsletter. It tells me that they love sharing their knowledge and helping others to grow as well. Especially because they are taking their own personal time to do it.

What would you add?

P.S. You can read more about how I recognize the potential in engineers in my latest article "How to recognize the potential in engineers".
You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/exSSgaGr

This is my 5-step framework that helped me to manage up successfully throughout my career!

Step 1: Build your credibility
It’s hard to manage up successfully if you don’t showcase yourself as a credible individual that is a great professional and gets stuff done.

Step 2: Build a good relationship with your manager
This will make it so much easier to be able to collaborate and work together well.

Step 3: Focus on great communication
Not just verbal communication, but non-verbal is very important as well.

Step 4: Find out the problems that your manager is facing and put the effort to resolve them
Every person has problems and so does your manager.

Step 5: Always keep your manager in the loop and be transparent
Don’t try to hide things from them, rather make sure they are well-informed.

I have just sent out a newsletter to 51.9k+ engineering leaders called "How to manage up as an engineer or a manager".

You can read about the 5-step framework more in detail + I also shared the mistakes that I made when I didn't manage up correctly 🫣

You can read the newsletter article here: https://lnkd.in/ej2NKYgZ

As an engineer, I always thought that sharing my problems or issues with the manager was the last thing I should do.

What I did was, I used my 1:1 meetings not to help me and my career growth. I used the 1:1 meetings to give a status update.

I was missing out on so many different learning opportunities, which I could use the 1:1 meeting for:
- I could talk about career goals,
- work through plans for the promotion or
- ask for specific coaching and feedback situations.

Lesson learned: Keeping all the problems to yourself just causes stress, it slows down your progress and it doesn’t keep your manager in the loop.
It’s a lot better to use 1:1 meetings to help you be successful in your role and with your overall career growth.

P.S. You can read more about how to manage up well with the 5-step framework + I also shared 2 more mistakes I made when I didn't manage up well.

You can read it in my latest article here: https://lnkd.in/ej2NKYgZ

There are a lot of UPs and DOWNs in the engineering industry, but that's what makes it truly an exciting industry to be in.

I am still feeling this quite regularly, no matter if I have been over 10 years in the industry. And that’s normal!

Everyone feels like an impostor sometimes. It’s a sign that we are growing and learning. What’s really important is that we embrace it and control it so that it doesn’t get to us.

In this article, I am sharing my personal overview of how this has been part of my growth as an engineer, as a manager and how this still affects me at current times as well.

I have just sent out a newsletter to 54.4k+ engineering leaders called "Going from impostor one day to feeling like a superhuman the next day".

You can read the newsletter article here: https://lnkd.in/ecWwDTSu

Special thanks to DoubleCloud for sponsoring this newsletter article!

There is one really valuable skill that will make you a good engineer.

Become good by learning to find essential information quickly.

There are many ways to do that, some are:
- scan the documentation, the codebase or your notes,
- search for answers on Stack Overflow, ask ChatGPT, use Copilot, etc.,
- surround yourself with experts and ask them.

It's not important to remember all of the functions and syntax of a specific language or framework.

It's important to be able to find it quickly.

This is the #1 trait I look for when hiring a junior engineer for my team.

It's the drive and motivation for learning!

That kind of energy is contagious and everyone benefits from it:
- People will be excited to help you.
- You will learn as many new things as possible.
- Everyone else will be more motivated/driven, because of you.

P.S. This is also one of my TOP 3 traits for recognizing the potential in engineers. You can find the other 2 in my latest article "How to recognize the potential in engineers".

You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/exSSgaGr

Technical Interview: Solve an impossible LeetCode problem.

The work you do on the job: Center the button and change the color.

Have a great Friday!

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