Employee Success Story: From Aspiring Developer to SpringBuilder Head of Product

SpringBuilder’s Head of Product Narek Harutyunyan joined Ucraft quite a while ago in 2017, first as a front-end developer. Since then, he has experienced quite a journey at the company and is now the face of SpringBuilder, as well as the Product Head.

In this interview, Narek gives us more insight into the company and its environment and answers essential questions such as: what is Ucraft, how does one achieve success here, how to maintain a work-life balance, and much more.
 

1. Tell us a bit about your journey into the world of coding. How did you decide to become a developer, and what made you join Ucraft?
   Before coming to Ucraft, I worked in several different fields, including car service, sales, printing, etc. One day my older brother came over and suggested I learn to code. Although it was new to me, I did have some basic programming knowledge that I decided to use as my foundation for acquiring further skills. This is where my journey began.
   
   After some time, I got better at coding and decided to call up Gev (our CEO) and tell him that I know a little Javascript and ask him whether there was an internship at Ucraft. And that’s how it all started. Also, I had the best mentor ever - shout out to Tigran Mamyan.
    

2. How would you describe the work environment at Ucraft in three words? Also, what is one thing that can only happen at Ucraft?
   The work environment at Ucraft is fantastic. It is very friendly, respectful, and dynamic. Coffee break discussions are a particular team favorite!
   
   At Ucraft, you can ask for assistance from pretty much anyone, and every member of your team is always ready to advise you on how to solve a problem. A good chunk of my current knowledge and expertise can be attributed to the excellent advice my team members gave me along the way. At Ucraft, there is no problem that can’t be solved.
    

3. How do you define success? What qualities can make a person successful at Ucraft?

   In my opinion, if you want to be successful, you must set concrete goals to achieve. The more you work on achieving them, the more successful you become. If you are a friendly, hard-working team player, you will definitely succeed at Ucraft!
   
   
4. We know that you’re a diehard Juventus fan! Tell us a bit about your passion for football and your favorite team.

   You’re absolutely right! I am a huge fan of Juventus and Italy’s national team. I also love to play football myself. During a good game, you forget about everything else: the only thing you stay focused on is scoring and winning. It’s an indescribable feeling. 

   What about Juventus? Some time ago, a talented football player named Alessandro del Piero made me fall in love with the sport - even more so in 2006 when Italy won the World Cup.
    

5. If you could be a superhero, who would you be?
   This is a tricky question. I guess I would like to be Iron Man since his strength is a combination of money and power. 
    

6. Speaking of superheroes - we know that you’re a dad of two amazing little girls and their superhero, accordingly! How do you manage to keep the balance between work and your family? Is that hard?
   Sometimes it’s hard to maintain a sensible work-life balance, and I catch myself staying at the office for quite a while. However, I try to spend as much time as I can with my two little princesses - and it never ever feels enough! Even if I spend all day with them. 
    

7. Can you share a fun fact that not many people know about? 
   Once, we accidentally deleted a live website. Although we managed to bring all the components back from our backup files, those couple of hours were really difficult for the team. It all happened because of the command MDB, which would delete all information from the database. We used to joke a lot about how we wanted to remove the MDB keys from our keyboards. Oh well, it all worked out in the end.