Me & IT

History

Experience

1997–1999: Beginnings

I bought my first computer in 1997 and – in the era of Windows 95 and Pentium processors – it was an old PC AT with Hercules Graphic Card, RAM 1 MB and HDD 40 MB. The hard drive was the first victim of my tests, as I started my IT journey from disassembling everything I could. Only after that I found that dismantling a HDD into pieces is not a good idea, but it was too late and my first HDD was ruined. Therefore I spent the initial period (until I could afford to buy the second HDD) on two floppies meticulously learning DOS.

Nevertheless, I was already 22, so the first two decades of my life were absolutely analogue.

At the beginning, I was fascinated by hardware. Due to financial shortages, I helped my friend by testing old motherboards. This job allowed me to constantly improve PCs and go through different versions of 386, 486 and Pentium CPUs.

After two years of my computer fascination, I became a quite proficient user of Windows, experimenting also with Linux and OS/2 Warp 3 operating systems.

Hardware tester

Proficient user of MS DOS & MS Windows

User of Linux Red Hat & OS/2 Warp 3

1999–2003: First jobs

In 1999 I graduated in environmental protection and started postgraduate studies in bryology. The studies involved complex statistical analyses, computerized mapping of plants, and attempts to explore more advanced techniques, such as cellular automata. As part of the studies, I was teaching Basics of IT for biology students at University of Wroclaw. The courses involved Windows NT, Microsoft Office package and Statistica software.

In the meantime, I worked as a tester in Przyjazny PC (Friendly PC) magazine, testing both the paper and CD versions of the periodical, as well as writing some articles and editing the glossary. I also worked as an editor of texts and graphics.

Tester of Friendly PC

IT Teacher

User of Statistica

2002–2006: Choosing the career path

I didn’t finish the postgraduate studies, however, I learnt a lot during this time, both in the main areas of the studies (botany, chemistry) and in IT. Immediately after the studies, I started working in Salus Insurance Agency, where I was administering all computers and servers, configuring video surveillance systems and performing OSINT activities.

In 2003, I started to help my wife in her translating business and shortly this became my main profession.

In the meantime, I was a deputy chief editor of an independent internet radio station Ulicznik, keeping an eye on streaming and creating the websites in HTML + CSS + PHP etc.

In those years, I became an activist in Wrocław Educators Association, where I created websites,  but also administered hosting and other IT services.

Administrator

Web designer

OSINT

2003–2022: Translation business

For nearly 20 years, I was working with my wife in a perfect team of two translators/editors. The job gave me strong text-processing skills, including OCR. I became familiar with CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) solutions and QA software for linguistic quality assurance. From time to time the tasks also required writing macros in Visual Basic for Applications to streamline the most repeatable processes.

Our main areas of expertise were medicine and pharmaceutics, but I also translated a lot of texts from technical areas, such as professional audio equipment, industrial machines and European patents.

Throughout the period, I kept the company books myself, using several accounting software solutions.

In the meantime, I became an administrator of a tenants association, where, apart from using my soft skills, I was also responsible for creating GDPR policies, administering computers and providing basic helpdesk services in relation to Windows & Office, but also to accounting software.

Translator

Localization specialist

QA of texts

Simplified accounting

2022: (R)evolution

Summer ‘22 brought the idea which had long been germinating in my mind – to change the profession and give IT the chance. After meticulous analysis, I decided to become a software tester and started learning new skills. So here I am.

Software tester