The time has come to introduce Anis Zuko, Principal Frontend Engineer at Symphony Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the six years he has been with Symphony, Anis has climbed several important career ladders, taking on roles with more responsibilities and testing his limits in the professional and personal realms. While Anis worked as a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, he was the first to create a 3D model of Isa-bey’s Tekke in Sarajevo, one of the first and most monumental objects in this city. His background in 3D modeling and graphics was a good push forward to focus more on frontend compared to backend which, in the end, determined his current, fully frontend-focused role. During our chat, Anis takes us through the major milestones he had over the years and everything he learned in between.
How it all started
Anis's first encounter with Symphony was through word of mouth and many positive stories told by his soon-to-be colleagues. Before joining Symphony, he had already built a strong tech background and a certain level of seniority. At the time, Symphony had a startup culture, and the challenging projects were the crucial factors that kept Anis on his toes. "Coming from enterprise projects, it was a really refreshing experience and an opportunity for me to expand my skill set. I was given a chance to express my aspirations and the stream I wanted to catch on while Symphony has given me the necessary tools to move in that direction through numerous knowledge-sharing sessions, meetups, and paid educational leave." - Anis added.
For Anis, the key to a successful professional path is seamless communication, and that is what he noticed in the Engineer-HR-Management relationship in Symphony right away. "I felt supported from day one in the sense that no good result was left unrecognized, and that hasn't changed since. After so many years and different projects I've worked on, that support and the people I work with is what keeps me grounded and excited to bring my best to the table each day."- he emphasized.
When it comes to his Symphony experience, Anis shared that he simply got everything he needed in one place. “It is a secure and relaxed environment, giving you the space to grow and evolve without pressure. That Symphony culture has always been at the forefront, even when the company grew to over 550 people.” - Anis wrapped up.
The Software Engineer - Tech Lead - Principal journey
When it comes to technologies, Anis started as a fullstack .NET Engineer and switched entirely to frontend and AngularJS on a new project in Symphony. The shift was organic for him due to his love for 3D and the ability to see what you create and pay attention to all the intricate details. On his new journey, he received enormous help, advice, and support from the community. As he pointed out - “Having colleagues to discuss certain ideas, research new technologies and approaches along with my strong pull towards exploring and learning new things make my journey here both pleasant and successful.”
Anis climbed to the Technical Team Lead role in a short period of time and we asked him to make a parallel between the mainly technical role to leading teams and finally becoming a Principal Frontend Engineer.
Anis shared, "The Tech Lead role made me move away from pure development and pay attention to the bigger picture. It helped me learn more about prioritizing and assigning tasks so that the whole team is equally involved. Of course, you still code, but the scope of responsibilities expands as you get more involved in strategic meetings, tech discussions on the architecture, challenges, and ultimately getting to know every team member and making sure they understand the scope and are up to the task."
On the other hand, the Principal role brings a different perspective and set of responsibilities. Anis enjoys communicating and sharing ideas, so his participation in the recruitment processes, tech discussions, process optimization, and development became a natural part of his scope of work.
"One thing that is extremely important in the Principal role is standardization and ensuring all the documentation is neat and up to date. In that way, every team member knows exactly what their task is and what to work on next. The project I worked on for a North American Heavy Industry Leader developed documentation that became a reference point for other projects, and I am particularly proud of being a part of the team that developed and maintained it. In the future, I would like to deepen my efforts in improving processes even further and strengthen our roles as consultants and solution builders. As I've climbed the career ladder, I realized that working on high-level segments truly inspires me, and that is the path I want to continue developing on." - he added.
Deepening partnerships and next steps
Currently, Anis and his team are working with one of the largest European Fashion Retailers, helping them move away from an old monolith solution to a new headless architecture that enables faster digitalization processes and adds value to the end user. In addition, his team is responsible of improving processes, optimizing performance, analyzing and solving issues of other teams, and providing best practices, documentation, and POCs. Anis is also a member of the core frontend architecture group, deciding and leading architectural changes on the project.Being a Principal Engineer, Anis encourages team members to contribute even more and not hesitate to share their unique viewpoints regarding technical solutions. He is continually inspired by the way people think and unite those different perspectives to solve a common issue.
Being a Principal Engineer, Anis encourages team members to contribute even more and not hesitate to share their unique viewpoints regarding technical solutions. He is continually inspired by the way people think and unite those different perspectives to solve a common issue.
We asked Anis to tell us what he would say to his former self if he had the chance, when he was just starting his tech journey, and he shared - “Work hard and go the extra mile while surrounding yourself with positive and inspiring people. Strive to be independent and set firm goals in the technical and personal development aspects. And finally, do not view your colleagues as rivals, but immense sources of knowledge and ideas you can share together.”
"In the end, it is all about the experience you gain. It teaches you to weigh in the importance of tasks, optimize time management on solving problems, and learn to maximize your good points while strengthening your weaker ones. On the path to discovery, I must not forget to mention that none of my success and constant progress would be possible without the generous support of my family." - Anis concluded.
