My career path has been anything but linear, which is a polite way of saying I used to sail a 200-metre bulk carrier across the Atlantic and then, in my first year of IT studies, talked my way into Nokia's Academy bootcamp. I didn't have a grand plan - I just wanted to see if I could build a different kind of life than the one at sea. It was selective. It was also two days in one: university from eight to four, Nokia from four to ten, for three fairly compressed months. After that they hired me as a software engineer. I like to think the bridge and the codebase ask for the same habit - understand the situation, don't panic and leave things in a state the next watch can actually work with.

I’m a Software Engineer working on operations and management software for our baseband products. Day to day I move between design, C++ implementation, automated tests and code review. A typical week is less “write a function, close the ticket” and more “understand the requirement, check how it lands in a bigger system, implement it carefully and make sure we can prove it works.” I collaborate with people across modules and countries, which is a polite way of saying I spend a fair amount of time translating between specs, code, humans - and their AI analysis.

You know, I don’t think it’s that the job is good or that it’s bad. If I were asked what I value most, I’d say the people. People who help you out when a problem has you stuck and the ones you meet across teams and countries - those chance encounters shape the work more than any ticket ever will. When you care about doing a thing well, you need the right person across from you, so to speak. I was lucky to find that here. That’s what I enjoy most: the craft, the humor and the fact that today we’re building software - and tomorrow, who knows.

Don’t wait until you “feel ready.” In this kind of environment, nobody has the whole system in their head on day one - if they say they do, offer them another coffee and ask a follow-up question. Be curious, read other people’s code, and get comfortable with Linux and the basics of a language like C++, because that is the daily craft. Coming from Poland, I would also add this: it is perfectly fine to be direct. Ask the “stupid” question early. Stay humble, but don’t sit in silence hoping the design will explain itself. Some of the best engineers I work with are simply the ones who keep going until they understand it - and who are generous when someone else is still catching up.