— Hey, hello, hola!
I’m a new frontend developer at Binary Studio and this here is my introduction letter. So let me introduce myself — my name is Volodymyr Kushnir and I’m new (3 days old at the moment of this writing).

LONG STORY LONG

First steps & 1990s

I was born 30 years ago in Ternopil to a family of tailor and tailoress. 6 years later my brother joined us. Around that time, I’ve got my first computer — it was a clone^[1][2] of ZX Spectrum and featured a basic BASIC interpreter so I could write simple calculators and that was amazing (no iPhones back then, mind you).

During dinner my mother used to say two random two-digit numbers and I tried to multiply them faster than my father did. During scheduled electricity outages we lighted the candle and played checkers. Kudos to my dad, he was solid and never lost intentionally (even though I cried), so the final score must be, uhhm, 500:5? Also they forced me into an art school, against my will. I didn’t want to be no artist, I wanted to be a ninja turtle!

2000s

By the end of high school, I already knew that I’m going to be a software developer, so I enrolled into Ternopil National Technical University just to drop out shortly after. I’ve worked as a designer in a small print studio. In my free time I did layout a teen magazine with Adobe InDesign. At some point, stale pictures just weren’t enough, so I learned Adobe Flash and ActionScript and then, naturally, switched to JavaScript.

I was 21 and just landed a job at Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze Ukraine — one of the largest suppliers of wire harnesses for the automotive industry. There were no job descriptions or strict separation of responsibilities within IT department, so I had a chance to do a little bit of everything, starting with a network and ending with an application development using ExtJS as a primary framework.

2010s

That was a great time — I continued to work for SEBN-UA, was able to travel, seen some of the Morocco, Mexico, many of the European countries as well. I’ve even spent 48 hours in the Frankfurt airport without Schengen visa being unable to leave. I’ve met new people, made new friends, learned new things.

Oh, and I’ve met my wife 👩🏻 at SEBN-UA and I’m happily married for two years now. I wonder how could it be that the most important decision of my entire life simultaneously was the easiest one. Fascinating.

Well, recently I’ve thought that it has been a while and I’m actually staying at the same place for a ⅓ of my life, probably because I haven’t seen no better. So I’ve decided to go out and take a look. Which brings us to…

NOW THAT I AM HERE…

…I have brought all my goods and bads with me. I am a debater (for better or for worse) and I agree with almost every word that 16Personalities have put into that description. The only thing I might add here is the list of my likes 😃:

HUMOUR PATIENCE DOGS MOVIES AAPL FC BARCELONA JÄGERMEISTER L’VIV FRISBEEMIDNIGHT BLUE ELECTROPOP CUCINA ITALIANA ‘80S SELF-EDUCATION DEMOCRACY ATTENTION TO DETAILS GRAMMAR SPELLCHECK SEMANTICS MINI-SERIES RYAN GOSLING EMMA STONE

and dislikes 😞:

OWN BAD HABITS POLITICS RACISM ASS-KISSERS VODKA INCOMPETENCE ENVY GOLFCHARTREUSE INSECTS METRO PREJUDICE REALITY-SHOWS JŪRMALA

To me, the most important things are competence, constant improvement, and passion. That is an environment I would like to work and live in. I mean the feeling that you have while you walk to the office early in the morning — kind of "do cool stuff with a bunch of nice guys and gals today", instead of just boring "work today". That’s priceless. I've been looking for that feeling for quite a long time, and it seems like I just may have finally found it.