Meet Merix: Wiesław - Backend Developer

Wiesław, our PHP specialist, is the main game player in the office. Therefore, nobody will be surprised that he belongs to Merix Card Game Club. And since we are talking about games, I can’t mention the fact that Wiesiek is a proud volunteer of the Zagrajmy Foundation (en. Let’s Play Foundation). And again, this is not surprising because he is probably the nicest guy on Earth. It seems impossible to upset him - Wiesiek can be calm even when his teammates are throwing paper or anti-stress balls around the room! On top of that, he also is the biggest star of our Instagram thanks to #GeekShirtFriday. There is a very mysterious part of Wiesiek - no one has ever seen him bringing food to work. In fact, no one even saw Wiesław eating or drinking (except for corporate events)... maybe data and code are nourishing enough?

• Tell us something about yourself.
  I’m 27 years old and am working in MerixStudio for one and a half year. I like all sorts of multiplayer games (but I prefer the board ones).

• What are your main responsibilities at Merxistudio?
  I’m a PHP Developer and primarily work with Symfony2 framework. I also happen to develop projects based on Zenji.

• How do you work? What is important to you while working?
  I’m in the backend, so my job starts when the app is written and drawn in mockups. The later I start, the more convenient my duties are because I can cover a wider range of functionalities found in the program.

• Tell us something about your beginnings in the company.
  When I started I didn’t know much about technologies used in PHP, so the first two weeks I spent on Drupal training (but with little success - I remember that I was not doing very well). Then came the time for the first project in Symfony and things followed their path.

• What have you learned while working at Merixstudio?
  Apart from many technologies, I found out that the application project can undergo a lot of changes during its life. Sometimes designers can get very creative, and you have to deal with their ideas, other times after the implementation of solutions you will find conceptual errors and will need to add/modify/remove some functionalities. Nowadays I usually can catch these things early in the software development process. In addition to that, I try to write applications while keeping in mind the most commonly reported amendments.

• What do you like most about working at Merixstudio
  The atmosphere and the distance between home and the office (it takes me 10 minutes to arrive at work - saving time and money is undeniably useful).

• What was the biggest challenge you faced while working at the Merixstudio?
  The biggest challenge was definitely the mojeKGW.pl project. The first version of the specification had roughly a hundred pages and working on the backend began long before the development of mock-ups (which resulted in amendments during later stages). Moreover, in the course of work on the project we had few personnel changes in our department, so there were a lot of thing going on at once. ;)

• Which project do you like the most from the ones you worked on in Merixstudio?
  I think, I really like the project I’m working on right now, which is the new version of the website for Star Sailors League. We use Symfony and Sonata, the technologies that I deal with the most, and I know very well. Because of that, I find it very pleasant to work on it.

• What was your first contact with web technologies? When did you make a decision that you want to work in IT?
  I first came across Internet applications during college, and more specifically when I was working on my Engineering Thesis, which was based it on the Java server. Then I found a job where I worked with another web application in Java and after that everything snowballed. During the next course, I switched from Java to PHP.

• Why PHP/Symfony?
  I learned PHP and Symfony due to the market demand. However, I really like the framework because its well-designed architecture and extensive expansion capabilities of the modules provided by the community. I also can’t forget about the excellent documentation, which, unfortunately, does not come as a standard in the industry.

• What do you think is most difficult (and most interesting) in your work as Backend Developer?
  The most challenging and also the most interesting is optimizing applications. And I mean both tuning the code to reduce the number of database queries/the computational complexity and using external cache tools.

• First thing you do when you arrive at the office.
  I try to avoid the ball that Kaziu will inevitably throw at me. :P

• iOS or Android?
  Definitely Android - I like to have the opportunity to write applications for the phone without having to buy a new computer for this purpose.

• What do you do in your free time after work?
  Usually I switch from the computer at work to the computer at home and play some online games with friends. When there is no one at hand, I read. On weekends, I meet with my friends to play board games.

• Your favorite hero from childhood is...
  The main character of Jurassic Park, Alan Grant. As a child, I really liked dinosaurs and watched the movie "only" a few times. But I've read the book (not everyone knows this, but Spielberg's work is an adaptation of the techno-thriller by Michael Crichton) at least ten times.

• Favorite place in Poznań.
  My bed, especially in the morning.

• Beer of vodka?
  Juice. ;) I avoid alcohol and don’t like spending money on it. Most of my friends also share my opinion, so I don’t feel secluded. You can have as much fun without the booze.

• Sport?
  I said goodbye to sport in the last PE classes in college. You can say that I’m playing e-sport in the League of Legends. I have no favorite team because I always thought that it's better to play myself than to watch others play.
• Dog or cat?
  Cat, for the same reasons that are behind their existence on the Internet.

• Which website do you visit the most?
  9gag.com

• Favorite app.
  Jak dojadę takes the lead. I also use Chrome and Facebook a lot, but I don’t think of them as typical apps.

• Dark or light side of the force?
  I prefer red lightsabers, but stats don’t lie - I’m usually the good one when I play cRPG games.

• If you could only visit one website for the rest of your life, what site would that be?
  Probably the mentioned 9gag, due to the infinite resources of jokes. I would also consider YouTube and its large cross-section of content or Facebook that allows me to contact with my friends.

• If you could have your dream job, what it would be?
  I would still be a developer. ;) But maybe I would work with 3D, like creating games or simulations?

You will find more interviews in the people&events section on our blog!