I graduated from university and began my coding journey. Initially, I worked with WordPress, but a few months later, I started a project using jQuery and CodeIgniter.
Surprisingly, the framework is still active: the latest version was released on September 5, 2023.
Over the next four years, a lot was going on. I worked on several projects, but there are three I would like to mention.
One is called VisioSmart. This was a complex system involving a frontend (jQuery/CodeIgniter), a backend (Java), a face recognition application (C++), and physical mirrors that had hidden cameras inside.
The concept was simple: when someone approached the mirror, the camera would recognize their gender and age. Depending on these factors and the mirror's location, we could display highly targeted advertisements.
For example, imagine a bodybuilder approaching the mirror in a gym. It would be reasonable to show an advertisement for protein nutrition.
However, the main cool thing about it was the "wow" effect, as people did not expect mirrors to display advertisements.
The second project was MirrorBird, which was essentially the same concept but on an international level. This time, I used Laravel version 3, which has become my go-to framework.
Additionally, I ran a side project which was a site dedicated to learning English. Surprisingly, it still works — probably someone copied it and used it for some dubious SEO strategies. At its peak, I had around 4,000 unique visitors per day, but then I abandoned it.
Apart from these three projects, I occasionally had to work with WordPress, fixing landing pages or posting news.
For the next two years, I finally went into the international arena. I signed up on UpWork and landed my first project there.
It was a CRM system, built from scratch. I designed and wrote both the backend and frontend myself.
It was exciting: it was the first time I integrated with so many third-party providers, such as Twilio, Gmail, Mailgun, and others.
However, working on such a large project alone was too difficult, so I got some help and worked with a partner.
During this time, I experienced my first burnout, which led me to leave the project. Unfortunately, it was not a good exit.
Over the next four years, I worked at a relatively small IT company in Moscow. We had four frontend developers and a really nice office.
We handled dozens of projects, ranging from a parental control application to an AI-powered personal stylist. During this time, my main go-to framework became VueJS, which I still use today.
It was also during these years that I realized my growing interest in the UI/UX field. So, around that time, I took a short internship at a real estate marketplace as a UX researcher.
However, it turned out that half of my tasks involved making cold calls and trying to bring users into our office for usability testing. I didn't enjoy this and decided to end the internship.
At the beginning of 2020, the COVID epidemic began.
The city became desolate, and we started working remotely. Two major events during this time defined my future.
First, a couple of months before COVID-19, I began working on my own product. I spent more than more than 800 hours on it, got some customers and eventually sold it. It was a beneficial deal for me since I realized that I couldn't manage it on my own. Today, the product is known as Pulsetic.
Second, I started running my Twitter account and slowly grew my audience. I believe this was one of the best decisions of my life. Having friends all over the world, maintaining a newsletter, and building a personal brand are truly priceless.
During this time, I released my first book called 100 UI/UX tips
At the beginning of the year, I started my YouTube channel. Before that, I spent four months renovating my apartment. Actually, it wasn’t mine; I was renting it. So yes, I spent all the money I earned from selling Pulsetic on renovations, assuming I'd be living there for at least a few more years.
But on February 24th, another black swan event occurred. It was hard to believe that such a war could happen in 2022.
I had never traveled before. A week after February 24th, I migrated to another country and started a new remote job at an advertising company. Needless to say, it was the most stressful time of my life.
I was literally sitting in a public café with my Rode mic, discussing work with my colleagues from the US, while being in another country for the first time in my life.
But at the same time, this significantly changed me. I realized that there are no boundaries, and everything can change in a day—for better or for worse.
In 2023 I left the company since I couldn't bear working on an outdated legacy app, especially in terms of UI/UX.
Then I started working as a freelancer at an educational company called Edthena. Have you ever worked at a company without any calls at all? Now I know it's possible and effective as well.
I am currently without a job. I decided to take the plunge and dedicate all my time to content creation. Previously, I could only dedicate a little time to this, and I think the quality of my content suffered. You might call me an imposter.
Now I'm working on my own, as a content creator.