Petar Tsvetanov

Stay curious and learn from the others!

This October marks Petar Tsvetanov’s 10th anniversary at Melon. Working as a Senior .NET developer for so many years is quite an accomplishment, but he says that a bigger milestone for him is his personal development.

“For 10 years, Melon has grown a lot. Now, we are twice as many people in three offices in two countries.”

Petar says that such growth speaks volumes about the culture of communication and the management of the company. Especially during the past year and a half of remote work. He believes that as an outsourcing service business, Melon should follow and stay up-to-date with all the new trends. “To attract diverse long-term clients, we need to be constantly expanding our technological stack,” he says.  

“The ultimate developer’s goal is a successful product widely adopted and enjoyed by the end users.” 

Even though Melon is primarily a software development outsourcing company, there are some products built throughout the years. The most successful one is Melon Learning: a learning management system (LMS), designed to manage corporate online trainings accessible anytime, anywhere. Petar is involved with expanding it, developing its functionalities, and making it more suitable for the users. 

A couple of years ago, when his team improved the software, it was a challenge for him to get а hang of the then “modern” frond-end technologies. Learning new things and acquiring different technological skills is what Petar loves the most about his job. He is a Full-stack .NET developer but in recent years, he has also become accomplished with front-end technologies and is getting to know machine learning. He says that many new features of Melon Learning are to be released. It’s one of the products that have sparked his interest, and that’s why he is prompt to develop it further. 

“Melon helps me focus on my interests and gives me the chance to learn and grow. I like that I meet nice and fun people here.”

Petar has changed a lot during these 10 years and the biggest lesson he had learned is that even though the technical part of a software development project is important, communication with the client is even more important. “We have to understand what they need and what problems we should solve, we must speak the same language and build a bond. Sometimes, products turn out successful even when the technology has its limitations”. He likes that Melon works with many long-term partners that trust the company. 

Petar appreciates the knowledge-sharing sessions that Melon organizes. “Such presentations help me expand my technological stack and knowledge,” he says.  Petar misses the pre-pandemic team buildings. The whole company hasn’t gathered for a long time now but his team recently spent a day in the Vitosha mountain near Sofia. 

“I can get to know the people I work with and get familiar with the new projects in the company,” he says. 

Considering his 10 years of experience, his advice to the new people at Melon is to stay curious and learn from the others. They should keep in mind that here is always somebody who would gladly help them.

“This is a part of the company’s culture. People are friendly and they are always willing to assist you.” 

For a year and a half now, Petar takes part in the job applicants’ interviews. He thinks that his colleagues rely on him and seek his help which makes him feel as a valuable part of the company. 

A fun fact he shares is that at the beginning, one of the companies that merged into Melon was in the advertising and design business. “I still remember seeing a big professional camera in our first HQ,” Petar laughs.