Welcome to our "Women in tech" series, where we shine a light on the inspiring women at Pwrteams who are shaping the world of technology with their creativity, determination and expertise. In this space, we explore their professional journeys, the milestones they’ve achieved and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Today, we’re delighted to introduce Tamara Furmanova, Back-end Software Engineer at the TUI dedicated team at Pwrteams Ukraine. Read on to discover insights from our conversation about her professional journey, continuous growth as a developer and the importance of teamwork in achieving shared goals.
I’m a Software Engineer at the TUI project and have been with Pwrteams for about five years. Before that, I started my career at Ciklum. I’m married, have a red cat and currently live in Kyiv.
My first degree was in finance, and I even worked as an accountant for about six months, which was enough to motivate me to explore another career path.
My main inspiration to move into tech came from my sister (a front-end developer). I was fascinated by how technology worked - it seemed like magic to me at that time, and deep down I really wanted to be part of it. Besides, the mindset and atmosphere in IT felt so much freer compared to finance, at least back then.
I began my QA journey around 2017, then learned automation using Node.js, and eventually fell in love with back-end development. That’s how I ended up switching to Java, and that’s where I am now.
My team is called "Vancouver". We develop back-end services based on AWS that contribute to creating and delivering products (like tour packages) for end users - the ones eventually sold on the TUI website.
I feel like I got a lucky ticket when I joined the Vancouver team at TUI right from the start. It turned out to be a great experience both technically and personally. We work with many different services and approaches, some of which I had never used before, and I’ve learned a lot along the way.
But what really makes the team special is the people. Everyone is responsive and easy to work with. After spending so many years together, we’ve started hanging out together beyond working hours, even offline, and I’d like to think we’ve become friends.
First, I usually go through chats and emails to catch up on anything I might have missed. Then, of course, we have our daily stand-up calls since we follow Scrum practices. After that, I pick a story from the backlog and get to coding.
It might sound simple, but in reality, coding involves a lot of discussions and problem-solving. We often have calls and meetings throughout the day to clarify details, share ideas or find the best approach together.
I believe the most important skills are the ability to learn quickly, strong communication and a good understanding of the overall picture of the project.
In the beginning, when I transitioned from QA automation to a development role, I faced obstacles almost all the time. But I studied a lot, sometimes worked late to meet deadlines, searched for examples and used simple logic to understand how the final result should look.
But most importantly, I always knew I could ask anyone on the team for help when I got stuck, and they would support me 100%. As I said, the Vancouver team is the best.
First of all, of course, the biggest step for me was moving into development and effectively getting up to speed with new tasks, tools and technologies.
The second one would probably be earning my AWS Developer Certification. Even though it might seem like just another certificate – we all collect quite a few of them – this one really made a difference for me. The preparation process was challenging and time-consuming, but incredibly rewarding, and it helped me gain a lot of new knowledge and understand how AWS computing services and the back-end overall work, which I applied in practice to my project.
I haven’t really faced gender-related biases, at least not in my current team. Even though most of our engineers are men, I’ve never felt the need to behave “like a man” at work or something like that. We’re all different and bring our own personalities and strengths to the process, regardless of gender, and there’s mutual respect within the team.
I think the role will become more focused on architecture – designing and building solutions to meet specific business requirements and achieve concrete results, rather than just coding.
There are plenty of resources available on the web, so it’s hard to choose just a few. I think Google is your best friend (and be careful with AI tools when learning; it’s always best to double-check information against official documentation).
Some of the resources I’ve used include:
Completing certifications also helps a lot. They’re a great way to strengthen your knowledge base, build discipline and gain a deeper understanding of specific technologies.
You can start to explore the topic first – maybe take a brief course on YouTube or Udemy to get a taste of the field.
But the real journey begins with a strong decision – a realisation that it will take effort, time and determination to reach your goal.
Another practical piece of advice is to communicate openly with your team and employer about career opportunities. In my case, it fit well within the project. The rest is just learning and doing the work.
Interested in building your career alongside skilled professionals like Tamara? Check out our current vacancies and take the next step in your career with Pwrteams.