Netguru is a software company. We help our clients grow their business by helping them create digital products and services. Developers are at the center of our organization, so let’s have a closer look at their role in the projects we develop for our clients.

Making sure your teams works like a well-oiled machine is no easy task. That said, it’s a task you should be committed to throughout the project to make sure the efficiency is maintained, instead of only achieving it temporarily. Maintaining the efficiency of our teams is one of the most important roles of a Project Manager in Netguru. While we tend to it in every project, there is no universal recipe for it, as each of our team setups is unique.

Stanisław Zalewski is a Senior Python Developer, responsible for building high quality Python applications that meet clients’ needs, supporting colleagues with his knowledge and experience, and helping with recruitment to the Python team. He feels right at home here and works towards a promotion to the leader position. He didn’t join Netguru the usual way, but through a merger between Netguru and Bitcraft, Stanisław’s previous company. According to him, the change was fast and smooth, and he’s happy to be where he is today.

Great and successful developers are often responsible but not necessarily so. Responsibility means that you know yourself and your own limitations while also maintaining awareness of what the project requires. I will try to explain who exactly is a responsible developer and why it’s fortunate to have one (or more) on board.

Balancing time, money, scope, resources – those are just some of the Project Manager responsibilities. PM has to ensure that difficult projects are handled and positive results are obtained. We have to take care of proper communication between the team and the Client. Challenges are part of our job too.

After my very last recruitment call, the time slowed down. Even though it's been just a few days before I received the decision, I couldn't stop constantly refreshing my email box. And, oh my god, I eventually saw the awaited message. Joining Netguru was my big goal, so I don't need to describe how proud and happy I was when I saw the offer. The curiosity level went high immediately when I started to think about the upcoming adventure - how does it feel to become a new project manager at Netguru? And here I am to tell you what my first week looked like.

"It depends".  That's an answer I hate and love at the same time. In this case, it fits very well. The approach to developing your skills depends on: The skill you wish to build, the level of expertise you want to achieve, your current level of experience as a Project Manager, the dynamics of your projects/organization, the amount of time you have, the budget you have. For this article, I'm focusing on the differentiation by the level of expertise: Junior Project Manager, (Regular) Project Manager, and Senior Project Manager.

A month ago, we took part in Burning Minds. It’s an internal conference, organized once a year along with our team retreat. Knowledge sharing is really important in our culture, as one of our values says that we should grow ourselves and people around us. 

Mateusz Jankowski is a Senior UI Designer & Team Leader at Netguru, one with vast experience gathered over years of working in advertising and design. His job isn’t limited to producing amazing visuals. As a leader for his team, he’s also responsible for good communication (within the team and with the client), alignment with the client’s vision and goals for the project, and delivering added value to match Netguru’s standards for customer excellence. These are not easy tasks. Luckily, Mateusz has a lot of experience under his belt, and has spent his career mastering the skills he currently uses every day. Here’s the story of how he started out as a designer, went through various challenges over the years, and ended up at Netguru.

Sometimes, our dreams of a perfect job don’t come true, yet what we end up doing is a much better fit than what we thought we wanted to do. Damian’s story is a little like that: he intended to study art, didn’t, and now he’s very happy as a Senior Ruby on Rails developer. He has been one for about 10 years now, and for the last four he has been working exclusively remotely. We’ve spoken to Damian about his career, plans for future professional development and his everyday reality working at Netguru.

Why is feedback important ? Feedback is a very catchy word nowadays, everyone is talking about it, but using it in a way that brings actual value is an art. An art that can and should be mastered as it really does make a difference. In its essence, it’s just any information you get about yourself - how hard can it be?! Well, it can be very hard to deal with feedback and this is why, based on what I’ve experienced and read, I want to give you a few tips and tricks that will help you master the art of feedback.

Hello again! It’s the third time I get to share with you some tips and tricks on time management and I am certain that by now you’ve had enough time to introduce some improvements to your inbox, calendar, or Slack. In those blog posts, I focused more on apps, but this time I have general advice on time management for you. 

Time flies, and I don’t even know when 10 months in Netguru have passed. From the professional point of view, it was the most challenging and exciting time in my career. When I gave up my previous job as a Business Strategy Analyst, I would never bet that one year after, I would be working as an IT project manager, coordinating multiple teams of more than 30 developers, and co-operating with one of the biggest and most innovative real estate franchises in the world. 

Being a part of Netguru is an amazing adventure. I joined the company as very fresh junior PM, without experience in taking care of my own projects or mentoring anyone. The company was around 80 people and 5 PMs. After 4 years of being here, not only has the company reached 600 employees (with close to 50 PMs on board!), but also I feel that I grew at least at the same pace as the organization! Along the way, I became a leader and had the privilege of helping other managers to grow into their full potential. Some of them are also leaders right now. I also became a senior, but I still feel like I am just getting started!  

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected employment of software developers is over 4 times bigger than that of other occupations. In the current talent shortage scenario, companies are doing their best to attract and retain software developers. What does this mean for you, the candidate?

It’s been quite a while since talked about our failures here. Since then, we've made some new mistakes but used each of them as an opportunity to grow and we would like to share with you the lessons we learned. In Netguru, we strive to deliver the best work possible, but, we admit, we sometimes fail and, as long as we don’t make the same mistake twice, we accept it as a part of the learning curve. Today, I’d like to tell you about the popular mistakes a PM can make (and we know because we’ve made them all) so that you can avoid them in your daily work.  

Managing projects can be a bit confusing - you are juggling a lot of tasks, and it’s hard to name one main thing you are responsible for.  Let’s try and see what makes up a PMs week at Netguru - hopefully, this will let you understand the role a bit better!

Let us tell you a story about a small startup that once only dreamed of growth and scaling up… and then succeeded on such a level that it even developed a full-fledged community of its own - in a way that extends far beyond the business itself.

Great news! Netguru has been ranked as one of the most desired IT employers in Poland alongside such giants as Facebook, SpaceX and Netflix, according to Bulldogjob, a leading portal providing knowledge about companies, positions, and work conditions in the IT industry. 

This post tells my story about becoming a project manager in Netguru and gives you a sort of a “recipe” how to do so.