Welcome to our “A day in the life” blog series, where we take a closer look at how specialists across Pwrteams work, collaborate and navigate their everyday routines. Each edition highlights a different role and offers insight into daily responsibilities, career paths and what it truly means to be part of our teams.
For this chapter, we spoke with Daryna Pyshchyk, Senior Backend Developer at Pwrteams Ukraine, who has been part of the company for four years. With a background in software engineering and early experience in web development, she gradually built her career around full-stack development with a strong focus on backend technologies and Node.js.
In this interview, Daryna shares more about her career journey, daily work routine, challenges and what she enjoys most about being part of her team at Pwrteams.
I’ve always seen myself as a software developer. I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and after that, I started my career in web development, working with JavaScript.
Over time, I grew into a full-stack developer with a strong focus on Node.js backend development across different projects. I spent several years at the same company, but eventually felt ready for a change. I wanted a new challenge, a different project environment and more room to grow.
That’s when I started actively looking for an opportunity to fully focus on backend development and continue building my skills in that direction. Luckily, about four years ago, I came across an opening at Pwrteams. I really liked both the project and the conditions, so I accepted the offer and joined the team.
As I work remotely, I usually start my day by checking work chats and emails. After that, I usually check GitHub notifications and the Kanban board we use for work organisation and I may do some code review if needed. Once I review my current tasks, I make a small plan for the day.
I also try to spend around 30 minutes every morning checking recent updates and publications about technologies or other topics I am interested in, just to make sure I stay up to date with current trends.
Through the day, my main work is bug fixes or feature development related to our TypeScript/Node.js part of the system. That usually takes up most of my working day. If needed, we may also have a discussion or a meeting regarding some issue. Rarely, there can also be critical issues that require immediate attention, which is unfortunately an inevitable part of a developer’s work.
There may also be a meeting or two during the day, such as team syncs, planning sessions or feature discussions.
On Mondays, I also attend English classes provided by Pwrteams to keep my English skills sharp for communication with the team and customers.
Of course, I try to take small breaks during the day as well, whether to grab a coffee or have lunch, which is one of the nice things about working from home. Sometimes, if I feel like it, I also go and work from my favourite coffee shop.
I really like my job in general. I enjoy writing code and solving problems. There is a certain satisfaction in seeing how the things you develop help other people.
And as weird as it may sound, I also really enjoy fixing bugs and doing investigations to understand why something is not working as it should. Even if the reason turns out to be something very simple, I still find the process interesting. Sometimes I feel a bit like a detective trying to reproduce an incident and figure out what went wrong.
I believe communication is the main challenge in any job that involves collaborative work. People will always have different assumptions or different points of view. For me, it took some time to learn to communicate effectively in a work environment.
Nowadays, it is not as challenging as it used to be, but it is still not something as structured or predictable as a codebase, so it can still be difficult sometimes.
In general, I have improved my existing development skills, including my knowledge of the frameworks and languages I use. Looking back, I can definitely see progress in my coding style as well. I have also improved my expertise in backend architecture and design, as well as in AWS infrastructure.
The current project I am working on is probably the most complex one for me in terms of backend organisation, as it combines multiple different approaches. Because of that, it has given me a lot of opportunities to learn and grow professionally.
I also think I have become more knowledgeable about the business domain I work in, which is real estate. And of course, my soft skills have definitely improved too.
I feel very good in my current team. Everyone is friendly and helpful. I believe that over the years, we have built trust and established a good communication flow. I feel that I can freely come up with ideas and be heard.
Besides that, I still keep learning new things from my teammates.
I really appreciate all the opportunities Pwrteams gives me, from the possibility of working from my own apartment to being able to work on a project I genuinely like without needing to worry about anything beyond my work tasks. I know that in any situation, there is always someone I can ask for help.
Also, when I decided to continue my studies and pursue a Master’s degree in Software Engineering, everyone on the team was very understanding and supportive. They helped me organise my work schedule in a way that made it much easier to combine work and studying.
In general, I believe the company creates an environment that helps you grow and become a better version of yourself in the way that suits you best.
Liked this glimpse into Daryna's journey? Check out our open positions and see where your next step at Pwrteams could take you.