New Roadie arrivals 04/22

Niko Kavenius | Managing Consultant, Design

Hi Niko, how did you get good at what you do?

Frankly, It's a series of arbitrary events that has brought me here. I’ve been lucky enough to get various opportunities in my life, and I’ve been crazy enough to take them. I don’t have a fancy degree, but I’ve taken a lot of master classes by working with great people around me. I think I’ve always been ready to fail and learn from the failures. That has allowed me to be part of several successful stories too.

Why Columbia Road?

I’ve been following Columbia Road’s journey for a while now, and I’ve heard really positive things about the company before I joined. The great atmosphere, warm hearted people and good values were probably the key factors for me after all. I really enjoy the vibe with people from all over the world, sharing the ambition and the desire to create meaningful things. I was really confident that I could learn alot from these people. The future of the company looks really exciting and bright, and it’s great to be part of it!

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

Nowadays I feel like I’m at my best when my pulse is calm. Spending time in nature and our island cabin with my family always brings me joy, and gives a good balance to working under pressure. Yet, I still get easily excited about different projects and solving complex problems with inspiring people. I head to the sea whenever it’s possible. I love sailing, scuba diving and swimming. My dearest hobby is maritime search and rescue, and in the winters snowboarding.

Ivan Nebokrai | Consultant, Technology

Hi Ivan, how did you get good at what you do?

My journey started during my studies at university. After about one year of diving into aircraft and rocket construction, it turned out to be unprogressive. I found that locally, no one wanted to develop this industry even though in other countries it is one of the most innovative.

This made me unmotivated to keep studying these subjects and so I started looking into other fields. I was eager to work on the edge of technology. In the end, my mind stopped on software development – it is a very versatile industry: you can work for marketing, health industry, games, banks etc. In parallel with finishing my aircraft engineering degree, I was obsessed with programming languages, trying a couple to see what you can do in the initial stages. 

After receiving a bachelor's degree my wife and I went to China, studying our respective fields. Mine was Computer Science. Not that it was much progress back then. Mostly self-studying: online courses, articles and pet projects that made me able to start doing actual work for one of the outsourcing companies in Ukraine.

The next steps were nice and clear: get structured knowledge, participate in learning programs as a mentee and then as a mentor, interview conduction, taking an active part in the projects.

Why Columbia Road?

People and communication, I would say in short. One of the most important things I’ve learned during my experience is that communication is the key to success.

To me, no skill (soft or hard) can give you such progress and performance as the ability to talk to others, understand people around you and freely share thoughts and ideas. No matter how skilled you are, for example, in the back end, there is no point in it until you can share your experience with others.

Also, we are social beings a communicating with others is essential for our well-being.

Now, after I’ve fully joined Columbia Road I’ve gotten to see other great qualities: friendly atmosphere, willingness to help, lots of fun, laughter and jokes.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

I will keep this short because If I’d describe my interests it would not fit in any reasonable measurement. The short list: cooking, languages, reading, gaming, board games, cats, hiking, psychology, chess, piano, survival, meditation, photography. Those are only the current ones. And how much there is yet to learn!

How would you fancy working alongside these amazing people at Columbia Road? We're constantly looking for new talented and nice people to join our crew! Take a peek at our open positions 👇