From Localization Engineer to Backend Developer: This is Svetlozar‘s Journey
“Freeletics is a company for those who enjoy being comfortably uncomfortable and above all want to challenge themselves every day. My journey to Freeletics has been anything short of boring. Currently, I’m involved in solving interesting problems — both code and non-code related, and I’m very curious and excited to see what comes next.”
Where he started
Svetlozar has had a dynamic journey to Freeletics. He comes from Ruse, Bulgaria, where he focused on his secondary studies in mathematics. While most of his classmates went on to pursue a career in software, Svetlozar took a different turn. Growing up, he was exposed to a lot of Japanese television, and towards the end of his studies he developed an inner desire to pivot into Japanese studies. “I had a goal and a dream. It didn‘t matter if I needed to invest more time to achieve it. Although the easy path would have been to enroll in a software-related major, I realized I really wanted to pursue Japanese studies. To do this, I had to first improve my English so I could take the entrance exam. I failed my first attempt and that taught me so many valuable lessons. The biggest perhaps was that failure can be an opportunity instead of a final outcome. This is only a matter of perspective.”
Eventually, Svetlozar found his way into the Japanese Studies program in Bulgaria and became an expert in everything from Japanese language to sociology, history, and culture. He was even fortunate enough to spend a year abroad at the Osaka University and write an academic paper on Symbolism in Shinto, written completely in Japanese. By this time, he received his N1 certificate in Japanese-language proficiency and went on to be a Japanese teacher and translator. He loved his work, but eventually wanted to get back to the software world. Combining his passion for Japanese and technology, Svetlozar decided to work as a localization engineer.
In this new position, Svetlozar‘s main focus was to localize content from English to Japanese, update API documentation strings, deploy code, and fix errors and bugs to streamline this process. “At first, I liked that the position was so versatile — I could use and continue improving my language skills in a professional context, and I could also learn lots of new things about relevant technologies.” During these years of personal development, Svetlozar set his sights on another goal: becoming a Ruby developer. This goal required taking night courses to learn the new programming language, which ended up being very exciting. Ruby opened doors to new opportunities, a large community network, and even the chance to organize the Ruby European Conference, EuRuKo, in 2016. With his passion and new language proficiency, Svetlozar left his position in Bulgaria and eventually found his way to Munich.
Journey to Freeletics
After several years of gaining experience in web and backend development, Svetlozar felt that he had overstayed his welcome in Bulgaria. “I wanted to travel, see more of the world, and most importantly, eat delicious food — especially ramen.” And so the job search began. He used his Ruby network and was happy to be connected with Freeletics Engineering Manager & Backend Lead Engineer, Monica Giambitto. “In the end, I interviewed with Freeletics and two other companies. Somehow I knew that Freeletics was the only place I would be satisfied with.”
Looking Ahead
Today, Svetlozar is happy with his decision to move to Munich and join the Freeletics team. While he loves to be constantly challenged in the startup environment he works in, it is the vision of the company that really drives him forward. “At Freeletics, I am directly involved in creating technology that changes people’s lives for the better. What makes me excited is mentoring people, showing up for the underrepresented, and helping them be a better version of themselves. I love that our products are relevant for everyone, regardless of their background. I am proud to be a part of this,” he explains. Looking ahead, Svetlozar wants to focus on building ethical technology. We are excited to see how Svetlozar‘s new ideas will make our app even more innovative in the future, and how we can reach even more people to change their lives for the better. Thank you for sharing your journey with us. We are inspired.
