Road from Developer to CTO
When you start your way in IT, you do not know where it will lead, whether you will be a manager, an architect, CxO or someone else. I will tell you about my experience and the position of the CTO.
How have you started your career?
I am in professional IT science two thousands, so we decided to work as freelancers. My first job was creation WSYIWYG editor of formulas for mathematical forum, during that time period flash was one of the main technologies.
What are the main points in your career that lead to CTO position?
I think this event is not revolution but evolution.
The company in which I acquired knowledge of building systems and writing technical documentation is Telesens. We were engaged in the creation of billing systems for mobile communication companies according to the RUP methodology.
One of the pleasant sensations is to enter the UMС salons and see the system interface, in the development of which you took part.
A completely different story is Mirantis. Here we first worked with public and private clouds, the quintessence was the construction of a private cloud, until it became mainstream. In this company I’ve started thinking on algorithms and solutions that later we implemented in other projects.
If Telesenes was the era of billing and Mirantis was changing the paradigm from grid computing to private cloud computing, then MediaSapiens was needed to upgrade managerial skills, the area was quite simple — custom websites, they were not sophisticated in terms of functionality, but they did not reach complex architectural forms. In this company I had to contact more with HR and set up delivery processes so the company became profitable. This was the first company in which I was in CTO position
What is your main domain of expertise?
In my career there have been many different projects like gaming, medical information systems, agritech, and even analysis of pig behavior. For example, the Rosling Institute, which created the sheep Dolly, is trying to figure out how to raise pigs that do not bite off each other’s tails, assuming that this behavior is transmitted through genes. It is difficult to define the main areas.
What is the responsibility of the CTO?
In different companies, this position should have different qualities. In small companies it is head cook and bottle-washer. In large companies, this position is more representative.
Now I determine the direction of the company’s development and what approaches to use within the company. For example, I decide what technologies to use on the projects to solve problems as efficiently as possible. I maintain a balance between chaos and order on projects. The company develops due to the light chaos. This is suitable for tasks that are not conveyorized. These things are not tangible. You have a vision of what you want to get, and you do micro-steps every day to achieve the goal. I am also responsible for the profitability of delivery and work efficiency.
How can a person become a CTO?
It is necessary to go from start to finish. It is a fusion of managerial, technical and representative functions in the company. Most of the CTO that I know did not go to this purposefully, it happened by chance. Naturally, some qualities are missing and they are developed in the process
