Panel: Charles Max Wood

Guest: Georgi Parlakov

This week on My Angular Story, Charles speaks with Georgi Parlakov who is an R&D Developer at Petrotechnical Data Systems who resides in Bulgaria. Chuck and Georgi talk about his background, past and current projects, and so much more!

0:15 – Advertisement: Get A Coder Job!

0:49 – Chuck: Hello!

0:53 – Georgi: Hi!

1:00 – Chuck: Introduce yourself, please!

1:08 – Georgi: I have been an Angular developer and love it every step of the way.

1:20 – Chuck: I stared talking to past guests of Angular, and I find that ½ the people are in the U.S. and the other places, too. Different places but what is your experience as being a developer in the other parts of the world are similar.

2:12 – Georgi: I got into programming but I didn’t want to be at a desk all day. I had some friends in the software industry and I liked what they had. In Bulgaria the people in the software industry they have a 2x or 3x standard of living. I really wanted to begin to try to get into software engineering. I didn’t have any technical background. I went to some interviews and I saw that I needed a lot of knowledge to gain. I learned about the Telerik Academy is doing. They have a large academy and that year I learned a lot and I jumped to this opportunity b/c it seemed like magic. Someone is going to teach me how to be a developer and not charge me? I got into it and it was fun, challenging, and rewarding for me. I dropped my current gig and I went to being a developer.

5:14 – How long is the program at the Telerik Academy.

5:20 – Georgi: It’s about a year. Evenings and then you need to go fulltime.

5:45 – Do they teach you JavaScript?

5:50 – Georgi: Yes. Also, DotNet. Java was mentioned in 2011.

6:17 – Kendo UI have widgets for DotNet.

6:28 – Georgi.

6:35 – Chuck: What got you into JavaScript?

6:44 – Georgi: The previous job I had they used Angular. At that time I was doing...which is a service site rendered HTML. We were using some jQuery and Knock Out, I was learning about Angular and was interested. It was an Angular job and it was technically interesting. They talked about 3D rendering. At least that’s what I got from the conversation. Doing the job we got a few new hires, and they started a project in Angular. We learned from each other, and inspired by people like YOU, and from the Angular talks at conferences. I was inspired.

8:21 – You get into Java and Angular did you get into API?

8:31 – Georgi: Yes.

8:38 – I like how Microsoft names stuff.

8:47 – Georgi: I am listening to...if you have a cool project alias then the project name becomes WCF or something long and tedious.

9:09 – I love those guys.

9:15 – Georgi: I am listening to them b/c someone recommended them. They put the bar really high with their mood and content.

9:40 – Chuck: Carl owns a production company. They do a great job.

9:52 – Chuck: What was it about Angular that got you excited?

10:05 – Georgi: It’s similar to the backend stuff and people get into Angular g/c it’s similar to NVC. I got a lot of the documentation b/c it’s written well. At that time my daughter was 6 months old and I was reading her the Angular documentation. I really enjoyed that. Angular was brand new at that point and I didn’t have a mentor at that time. The learning experience was great, and the flow was fun for me b/c it was challenging.

11:33 – Chuck: The experience is good.

11:42 – How did you get your first programming job?

11:45 – Georgi: Basically out of the academy – 2 months out. The people believed in me and I am thankful. I was only 28 years old and I wasn’t the normal person.

12:22 – I got my first job at 27.

12:30 – A lot of people are transitioning. I did an episode with Tina from South Africa. She moved to England and then to the U.S. She has a Ph.D. in Physics and she transitioned into programming in her 50’s. People think: I am “old”, and it really doesn’t matter.

13:27 – Georgi: People complain while they are sitting down on their butts. I want people to know that you can do it. No matter your age or your experience. The coding knowledge will give you a lot of freedom in the future, because it’s doing magic. Everyone should learn how to code as a hobby in addition to your normal job.

14:55 – Chuck: It might be things like AI and how we interact on our devices. It will be a life skill what we consider to be mundane jobs at this point.

15:18 – Georgi: People say AI could take my job, but also AI will create jobs.

15:36 – Chuck: People theorize about this. Every time people advance in technology it does create more jobs. I worry about the psychology of here is money as a handout.

16:29 – Georgi: We get our self-respect b/c of what we accomplish in the job. Most of us work 8 hours with these certain people and these problems. It’s good to like and even love what you do.

17:00 – Chuck: What have you done with Angular that you are proud of?

17:05 – Georgi: Learning from scratch and learning the basics; eventually advancing my knowledge. Lately I have been going to Meetups and do a presentation there. The theme was...

I wanted to contribute back to Angular, and my computer at home is PC. I had troubles with...

I am an Angular contributor and I am proud of that. I am not a docker nor was I expert angular person, but here I am.

20:25 – Chuck: That’s what peoples mindsets are: I am not this___, I am not that____, etc. If you want a job and you are 90 years old – got for it. You don’t have to be a genius, but you can find something to contribute to the community.

21:17 – Georgi: We have a lot of Angular from my work, I wanted to give back some. Also, and make a name for myself. Again, it was fun and challenging and nice to do it.

21:44 – Chuck: Now that doesn’t hurt b/c you can put on your CV.

21:55 – Georgi: It only shows the top 100. I am not there, but oh well.

22:09 – Chuck: Every little piece helps. You know, it’s a good way to get involved and so much more. What are you working on now?

22:28 – Georgi: The project I am working on is not using Angular. Besides that I am doing a video course on functional C# and it’s a work in progress.

23:10 – Chuck: Anywhere people can find your course?

23:15 – Georgi: It’s less than 50% done, so no.

23:30 – Chuck: What’s it like being a developer in Bulgaria?

23:35 – Georgi: Bulgaria, has a higher living standard for the software industry.

24:55 – Chuck: Is most of the documentation for computers out there in English in Bulgaria?

24:58 – Georgi: No, not the general population speaks English. It does make it a tad harder to transition if you don’t know English. But some of the academies do

25:50 – Chuck: I was a missionary for LDDS in Italy and so my experience as the younger generation speaks English but not the older generation.

26:39 - Georgi: English is 2nd language in Amsterdam.

27:11 – (Chuck talks about international community and developers.)

27:38 – Our team was ½ and ½ out here in Bulgaria. We did meetings in English most of the time.

28:07 – Chuck: Are you located in Sofia?

Georgi: Yes.

28:15 – Chuck: When you get outside of the city is there a programming community?

28:20 – Georgi: Yes, definitely. Again, though, it does change. When they graduate from the Telerik Academy...

29:27 – Chuck: I live in Utah and we are between NV and WY and CO. There is an area (North of Salt Lake City) that has a healthy tech scene. It depends on where you are in UT for a strong/weak teach center.

30:31 – Georgi: I would think the younger kids would like to do it and they need to do it here in the bigger cities. That is not unusual.

31:00 – Chuck: Yes, people pick up the skills and get hired and then they go and work remotely. Do you have a Medium account?

31:20 - Georgi: Yes, through Twitter and Medium.

32:20 – Picks!