#dtseczpeople: David

Hello David, please, tell us a bit more about yourself, your position, your background. 
Hi, when it comes to my profession, I usually say I’m a programmer to a general public. But when I joined DTSE, programming became just a minor part of my job. I’m a DevOps Engineer supporting our Digitalization teams. Our data scientists create mathematical models to predict future from the historical data, services that use artificial intelligence to search documents for information or chatbots to replace user interfaces and answer different questions. I mean how cool is that! The responsibility of the engineering team I’m part of is to get their applications and make them work on servers in the cloud. Ideally smoothly as possible without consuming too much of computational power. 

Great! Thank you. I would like to add that one of your colleagues that you work with closely – Jakub Kohút – said about you that you are a tremendous help for him. He mentioned that you adjusted well and learnt quicky. Now your first year with DTSE is over, if you were to express it in one word, what would it be? Why?  
That’s very kind of him, shout out to Jakub! He was the only engineer in the when I joined. Engineering is not a simple thing to do alone, it is best done in a team, where the workload can be distributed, discussions take place, you have people to validate your ideas with, etc. He managed to do it solo for several months and he has my utmost respect for that, it must have been really challenging. A year after I joined, we are now 9 members in the team, some with engineering skills, some leaning more towards development and data science. It seems to be a great symbiosis and Jakub looks much happier and more optimistic as the time goes by. 
 

I consider myself a generalist. Instead of picking a single language and technology and get insanely good at it over time (which is what a specialist would do), I’m open to a challenge to learn and use different programming languages and technologies. Some of them I like more, some of them less, but sooner or later you start to see the similarities and patterns across them. This is a useful trait to have in the ever-changing landscape of information technologies. The paradigms shift, the industry standards continuously improve. Many tech projects in the digital ecosystem are born, evolve, die or just become forgotten by the mainstream. Some of the technologies I’ve been using few years back are now either obsolete or fundamentally different. That, in my opinion, is the reason why I can learn quickly now. Especially in a company that encourages curiosity and promotes self-education. Every employee can use 10 % of his working time to study anything related to his position.  In one word, the last one year was fun! 

Awesome. Jakub added that you are a team player, someone who explains things well, someone who likes to discuss different matters and that you greatly helped him even with the hiring process of new colleagues. What would you say your latest accomplishments are? What do you appreciate about yourself?  
As I mentioned earlier, the team grew so significantly lately. Together with Jakub and our team leader Štefan, we choose the opportunity to hand-pick the best people we can get. We discussed with management and HR what the best job descriptions are, created specific technical assignments, reviewed the submitted solutions and took part in the interviews. I believe that these efforts paid off, because every single newcomer proved to be a great addition to our collective. Assembling such a great team was without discussion one of the biggest accomplishments. Everyone involved in the process did a great deal of work. 

What do I appreciate about me? I think I can be patient. This might sound trivial, but it is critical for many abilities. For example, I think I’m able to explain technical things to other people quite well. I design and implement solutions to problems, which are not necessarily the fastest to do, but rather long-lasting and future-proof. None of that is possible without a great deal of patience. 

If I remember correctly, another Jakub (Mišinger) introduced you to the company, right? The picture he drew for you about DTSE, was it accurate? 
There are many Jakubs in the company, I hope it’s not too confusing to the reader :) The image Kuba Mišinger drew for me was spot on, it is very close to what I expected. The whole DT group with over two hundred thousand employees worldwide is of course an enormous corporate, but DTSE is a much smaller company. It feels like a state within a state. The company culture is pleasant, and we have a form of sovereignty. Sometimes you encounter some corporate downside, but not too often. Most of this stuff is filtered out by the management. 

When you are home, what do you miss about the office?  
I miss my colleagues, obviously. Of course, we can hear and see each other on computer screens, but this can never fully replace the real-life human contact. When I’m in the office I can catch up with the others on what’s going on in their life. We also have a PlayStation gaming console in one of the meeting rooms. Defeating your boss or department manager in a game of Mortal Combat is something you just can’t put a price on. 
 

This may be a cliche question, but what do you appreciate most about being part of DTSE?  
I really appreciate the collective here. I felt like I was part of the gang the moment I joined, everyone is extremely friendly and helpful from the day one. And we get to know each other regularly on parties, offsite events and conferences.  

It has been an eventful year in your personal life as well, your baby was born at the beginning of this year, right? How has it been for you and your wife? 
Yes, we had a son at the end of last year and it is the best time of my life, really. It was of course challenging for my wife, but she’s strong and handling it with grace. I’m trying to be as helpful as possible, but I can’t be there always during office hours. What really helps is that I don’t have to go to the office every day. Since Covid we’re in the hybrid working mode and I only need to be in the office one day per week. Thanks to this I can work four days a week from home, saving time on commuting and being able to see the family when going for lunch or coffee. This perk is just priceless. 

Since you were born in Brno, what tips about places to go would you give to your colleagues? Your favorite spots? Any restaurants?  
Oh, there are just so many! If you want the best beer, you should go to Bláhovka or U Semináru. If you like Japanese food, you should try Manya, that’s a hidden gem. And if the weather is nice and you want some non-formal atmosphere, you should pay Na Dráze a visit.  Brno is really filled with so many cozy restaurants, coffees, pubs, bakeries... It’s a gastronomic heaven. 


BONUS QUESTION:
We asked a colleague of David about what they appreciate the most about him?

David is intelligent, a quick learner, a good teacher, he likes to discuss things, he likes to argue about his work, but most importantly he is collegial. I honestly cannot imagine a more ideal colleague. I had a lot on my plate and projects got stuck. After David's arrival, we took a fresh look at the tasks at hand and things started moving ahead and our team grew. He then took the initiative to interview the people we hired/ didn't hire, so he did the interviewing for me - which I really appreciate, because interviews can be hell.  
He's a team player and that's what I appreciate the most about him, he's good to work with.