Marek Chovan
Front-end Developer (mostly)
30 year old guy from Poprad, Slovakia currently living in Brno, Czech Republic.
I started my dev journey in 2020 when I worked as a Windows administrator for Diebold Nixdorf. I was bored at home because it was the first wave of the pandemic so I bought a Udemy course to make 2D games in Unity. I loved the creative aspect of it and I quickly started developing my first game. I overscoped terribly and never finished it, but it wasn't for nothing. I fell in love with programming.
After finishing a number of small games (mostly for me and my friends) I started learning HTML, CSS and JS. My goal was to officially get into the world of programming and land a web-dev job as quickly as possible. I moved to Brno, a city known for its huge startup ecosystem and friendly atmosphere.
I started learning React as it was the most popular JavaScript framework and nobody was looking for devs with only vanilla JS. After a month of searching I got what I wanted. A junior position in UlovDomov, a real estate platform focusing on rentals. I had to learn TypeScript to get through the interview process and I've loved it ever since.
Since then I've learned a lot of new skills, worked on various projects, imported hundreds of npm packages and never looked back. When I'm not at the computer, I'm probably playing my guitar, trying to figure out how to become the new Ed Sheeran without being able to sing. I also try to stay fit and work out regularly.
Experience
Front-end developer • Pelmet s.r.o.
In Pelmet we're working on a new video streaming platform. It's the first time I've been using Next 14 with all its new features in a commercial project. Since this app is expected to have huge traffic numbers, we're especially focusing on performance and testing. I'm learning a lot about Playwright and Jest and how to use them effectively.
Front-end developer • UlovDomov.cz
I came to UlovDomov as a complete beginner and I've grown there so much. Learned Next.js and its various functionalities, rebuilt the search page with a new map. Dived into the world of Backend with Express and GraphQl, and REST too.
Front-end developer • Eventsframe
I worked in this startup with my friend while also working for UlovDomov. Figured out how to manage my time more effectively, learned various helpful practices and fixed a huge amount of bugs. I also found out I hate gigantic repositaries written in vanilla JS.
