Gauss from "not a phone person's" perspective

Meet Matej, a front-end developer who returned from the capital of Croatia to work in Slavonia. Although he hasn’t worked at Gauss for a long time, he quickly managed and fit in and even progressed. He will be happy to help and mentor new colleagues and show the traits of a potential team leader.

Matej is excellent in a team that works with custom solutions for clients.

Matej spends a lot of time with his team for custom solutions.

Why did you join Gauss and what has kept you here?

During the time I spent in Zagreb, I was looking for a new job, and then a friend of mine mentioned Gauss to me. He told me about the technologies they work with and their projects, which got me very interested. I wanted a new challenge and the idea of coming back to Slavonia was appealing, so I applied.

After several days at Gauss, I realised how casual and friendly everyone was, which is just one of the factors that kept me here.

What advice do you have for prospective Gauss candidates?

From a developer's perspective, you do not have to be a ”rockstar programmer” to succeed at Gauss. Always try to do your best, learn new stuff, share your knowledge with other colleagues and be proactive. You will get a chance to prove your knowledge, team personality, and your efforts will be recognised and rewarded.

I consider the excellent value of Gauss to be good interpersonal relationships, flexible working hours, and teamwork.

What has been your favourite project at Gauss?

That would be an application designed to give you a score based on your answers. It sounds really simple but it goes in-depth (literally). This specific project allowed me to learn a lot of new things in a javascript framework, as well as coordinating the project with a backend developer. It also gave me valuable insight on which frameworks should I use in specific cases.

The unique feature of this project is the impact on the general population, i.e. it is related to the help of the event industry when organising events during a pandemic. Additional responsibility during the work on this project was in the segment of protection of public health and safety of the population while the implementation of measures during the pandemic caused by the Covid virus 19 lasts.

In the background of the picture, Matej and his namesake are focused on the perfect code

What is your proudest moment at Gauss?

Every little discovery or problem resolution is a kind of “victory” in this kind of job. But to pick one particular moment, it'll be presenting a project of ours that had been in the works for months, in front of the manager and the client. It turned out to be a great success, and everyone was delighted with the results. It was also my first project at Gauss, which makes me even more proud of it.

How do you spend your time outside of the office?

At Gauss, I have balanced work and personal time, which means I don't have to bother about work stuff outside the office. Most of the time, I will hang out with my family and friends. Every few months, I like to travel somewhere nice and explore. Occasionally I play casual football and have a beer after the game.

However, this does not mean I have never worked outside work time. The company gives me favours in a lot of ways, so if I ever need to fix something urgent outside the office, I do not have any problem with that, everyone understands and you can arrange it with colleagues.

How do you define success in life?

Looking back a few days, weeks, months, or even years, and noticing how much I have improved over the given time in any life area. I am always striving to be better but also giving my best to be content with my present self.

I believe that one of a person's most tremendous successes is to be satisfied with continuous progress at work with a balance with private life, which is sometimes challenging to achieve.

Like most of his colleagues, Matej likes to spend his vacation on the Adriatic Sea

Are you an iPhone or Android type of person?

If I have to, I would define myself as an Android type of person. But, even if it can seem odd, I am not a phone person nor do I know a lot about phones, but I do think that Apple products are way overpriced. Android does the same thing at half the price.

What did you want to be when growing up?

I actually don't know or do not remember anything special. But I know I have never had the ”I want to be a fireman” kid phase in my life. I am pretty happy with my current self, so I guess I wanted to be this when I grow up.

What's your motto or personal mantra?

Shia LaBeouf screaming ”Do it!”