People of ZigiWave with Yasen

My background

I was born in the beautiful Bulgarian town Veliko Turnovo. My interest in computers and IT started at a very early age, more or less triggered by my parents who are both engineers. In 2001 I became a student in the Technical University in Sofia. I graduated the university with major in computer science.. However, I like not only the development side of things, but also working with people. This is why my first IT job was as a technical support engineer in a company called Tek Experts. Later I became a team lead there. Some guys from my team left and moved to Do I Wise. Later ZigiWave became a separate company and they invited me in the Zigi team. I decided it was time for a change and accepted. So I knew a few of the guys in Zigi before I came here.  

My role at ZigiWave

I started as an integration engineer. We research new systems, and new delegates which can be integrated with our platform ZigiOps, and we also research for new features that can be added. Our main task is not only researching, but also creating the technical documentation based on this research, so the developers can later turn it into code. Another part of the role is testing.  

Later I became a team lead of the integration engineers. Currently there are 5 people in our team, and we are growing fast.

I like my role a lot because I work with great people here. I am responsible for the integration engineers, we work together, they are wonderful and fun people, and I am very happy to be a part of this team.  

What advice would you give to someone just starting in ZigiWave

We expect people to be hungry to learn new things and be up to date with the new technologies. They need to be willing to develop themselves and grow.  

For a new person  I would advise them to be open to learning, applying new things, and developing professionally. This is from a professional point of view.  

Our team consists of interesting, open and fun people, so I would be happy to attract more such people here.

What is the most important lesson I learned from my job in ZigiWave?

When I came here, I knew Lyubo from my previous job. I found out he has grown a lot professionally and as a person.  

Then I met our co-founders Avi and Idan, and I realized they are the reason everyone here grows so much. The most important lesson is something I learned from the three of them: Avi, Idan and Lyubo, and it is that things should never be in stagnation. Everything needs to change and develop constantly. We need to be adaptive and flexible to what is happening around us, so that we can act in the best possible way in every situation.  

This method of always searching for the best solution, always looking for better ideas, is something new for me and I think there is much more I can learn.  

How do you deal with difficulties at work?

Our team is great, and we always help each other. So far, we have not encountered a problem that we are not able to solve together. If I am not able to deal with something, I can always count on my teammates. The developers often help us, Lyubo and Avi also help a lot in any problematic situations.  

What I like a lot is that there is great collaboration inside the whole Zigi team, and whenever anyone has any difficulties, there is always someone they can ask and be directed to a solution.  

We help each other by giving directions, but we also challenge and motivate each other to find solutions.

My life, in general

I strive to constantly learn new things and develop, so when there is a problem, I can make the right decision.

Since I have a technical background and a mathematical way of thinking, I look at problems as mathematical ones. Every single problem has a solution, so you just need to have the right approach to get to it. Of course, I also count on help from friends and relatives whenever I need it.  

My approach is similar in my job and in my personal life.

How do you celebrate success?

It depends on the success..  Our team is very united, and weve had a lot of celebrations, gatherings and parties. I like the team buildings our company organizes a lot. In ZigiWave we are young and we all like being together and having fun. This is for the professional successes.

For the rest, I usually celebrate with my family at home. I have 2 daughters  7 and 2 years old. With them I dont have as many options for bigger parties and celebrations as before.  

My favorite activities

My hobbies are on one hand IT, and on the other hand watching all kinds of sports. I am interested and enjoy following different sport games and competitions.  

I dont have much time for doing sports myself lately, but I love going skiing with my wife. Now the kids are learning to ski, too.

I like beer. A lot!  This is another hobby of mine.

We recently moved to a new house near Sofia, and there is always some work to do in a house. Thats another thing that helps me relax  working on house improvements or in the yard.

Recharging and de-stressing

My family helps a lot for this. Lately I spend most of my free time playing with the girls. My kids are really great, I love spending time with them. We also like to go out walking in the nearby parks and mountains.

My sources of inspiration

My wife, my colleagues, my brother, my family  everyone I love.

Books and movies I like

I am not a fan of blockbusters and the standard popular American movies. I like European movies, and ones that are not so typical. I also like psycho and horror movies and in European cinema there are some really good movies in these genres. They are quite different than the American ones.  

A curious fact about me is that I have worked in a video library, so back then I was watching a huge number of movies and I was aware of all the popular movies at the time.

I dont have much time for movies or books now with the kids. Currently if I would read a book, it would be related to my work and professional development. A few years ago, and as a student I liked classic books  Remarque and Dostoevsky, for example. Also criminal, psycho and horror books.  

The books that are modern today, for professional and personal development, for example, are too direct for me. In classic books, there are stories and lessons, but you need to make efforts to extract the lessons and the conclusions. I prefer that, rather than some digested info in the form of 5 rules for, or A diagram of, etc.

Favorite place in the world

Mountains and mountain huts  I love them, I love the serenity of the mountains. I dont like travelling a lot, I am not one of these people who have travelled the world.

A day in my life

I wake up very early, because I need to prepare myself and help my wife prepare the kids for school (the older one) and kindergarten (the little one). When they wake up, they are grumpy, and they dont want to go anywhere .So it takes time in the morning to get them ready. Then we drive them to school/kindergarten, and I go back home to start work.

First, I check the daily tasks for me and the team, and as a team lead, I check if someone needs help with their tasks. We do quick sync calls if necessary. I try to spare time for everyone who has questions during the day. It is my priority to respond quickly when someone needs help, so I do not block their work.  

In the evening, when I finish my tasks for the day, we pick the kids from school and kindergarten, and things get crazy again.

We try to put them to sleep early, but this never works, because they want to play. Once they are asleep, my wife and I watch a little TV, and we usually quickly fall asleep, too.

The things Im looking forward to

Family gatherings and holidays are something I always look forward to.

For holidays I usually go to my hometown to visit my parents, or we gather at home with my wifes parents and sister.

In the longer term  to finish our house improvements, as we are still repairing some parts of it, as well as make the yard better for the kids to play there whenever they want.