Employee spotlight: Marko Bošković

A brief history of employment with Barrage - how did you first learn about Barrage? Why did you join Barrage, and what has kept you here?

My colleague from back in the day when I went to college connected me with Feđa. We went for drinks and talked about my vision for the future and we figured out that we have a lot of things in common. One thing led to another and that’s how I joined Barrage.

People and the vision of what the company can become are what brought me to Barrage. I saw an opportunity to learn and advance my career and in the last 6 years I’ve been doing so, a lot of new people joined the company - we grew from less than 10 people to over 100 people now.

Seeing great potential in our team, I consider myself privileged and proud of being a part of this company. We achieved a lot so far, and I believe the best is yet to come. I think it would be silly for me to change the company as I’m very happy here.

What are your favorite tools and why do you prefer using them?

In my early days of development, I was focusing on frontend and I saw that my passion for design and aesthetics is going to have a key point in my career and that's why I choose frontend development.

Regarding the tools, I’m mainly focused on Vue.js and everything revolving around the Vue.js ecosystem. Also, Nuxt.js, as a framework built on top of Vue.js, gives us an easier implementation of server-side rendering as well as static site generation. I would also mention Vite.js, which is a frontend tool based on ES Modules that gives us a better development experience while building websites and web apps. SASS, PostCSS, Figma, Typescript as well - just to name a few.

However, recently, what I struggle with the most has to do with the fact that there are a lot of times when we need to adopt new tools into our process and it's really hard to balance projects for the clients as well as implement new tools.

What is the future of frontend/future trends, in your opinion?

Regarding the future of the frontend, there is a lot going on. IMHO, the front-end is one area where every day there is a new framework/library/tool which can be a bad thing as much as a good thing. I believe that everything will be on the web, from AR/VR to some next-gen thing we haven't yet thought of. For now, I see a lot bridging the gap of native to the web with help of web assembly. Giving us better performance.

Future will probably be more decentralized using Web3 for better security and privacy.

What is your proudest moment at Barrage?

There are a lot of great projects that we achieved and deployed to production over the years, a lot of people who came into the company who I have personally mentored. Seeing that they are now really good developers, I'm proud that in some small part I have contributed to their development. 

Also, I'm proud that last year I became an advisory board member in the company so that's an acknowledgment from the management that I'm doing a good job. Hopefully, others might find inspiration in it and go in a similar direction.

As a team leader, what do you value most about your team?

What I value the most about my team is the team itself, the people. In the end, it's all about them. You can be the greatest developer of all time but if you are not a good person and act like an a******e, you are not a fit. Everything is learnable if you have enough willpower. I see growth and learning as some of the few key points that describe our team. If there is any issue within the team or anything that needs to be resolved, they communicate with each other trying to achieve the same goal. Connecting with each other outside of 9 - 5 drastically improves teamwork. In the end, love what you do and have fun while doing it.

What would you do if you weren’t doing this?

As a young boy, I always wanted to be a pilot or an astronaut but due to some health issues, I wasn’t able to.  Maybe as if I had been more persistent as a teenager, I could continue in sports and become an athlete (anybody who knows me is now laughing, but I was more of a sports person back in the days, hahaha, and I love to compete). 

When I think about it, I wouldn’t switch jobs with anybody because I love my job and the position I'm currently in. I don't think any position in the company would fulfill me like this one. Maybe if I could do more UI on some projects but in the end, I am more drawn to frontend than to design so I'm really happy with the position I am in and I wouldn't change it.

What is success for you?

This is a tricky question. For me, success is evaluating yourself every few days/months/years and keep improving each time in one or more aspects of your life. Never stop learning. I could go on and on in detail about this. But in short, that's about it.

What do you like to do on your days off?

When it's summer, I will probably go to Kopika beach here in Osijek and play volleyball. Play tennis. (Matej one day I’ll beat you xD). If there is a good techno party, I would go dancing. In wintertime, I’m mostly at home in front of the TV, watching Netflix, or browsing/testing new web tools. Or, if I manage to find a good location, I like to go snowboarding.

What is on your bucket list?

Traveling-wise - visit Zanzibar - that's like the number 1 destination that I want to go to. I’m a great fan of traveling but not of bucket lists. I look at it as a list that is limiting you just to tasks you set for yourself, and you might miss some great opportunities by looking at a specific list. I usually focus on something, do it and then move on to the next.

What did you always want to try and never did?

Skydiving for sure. Also snowboarding and surfing on the same day is crazy though as a kid I always wanted to try that. I always wanted to try scuba diving and I may soon have the chance to do so.

Any random facts you could share with us?

Random facts - the distance between the moon and Earth is about 30 Earths. 

A fact about me - I used to watch every single Jackie Chan movie when I was a kid.

What is your favorite meal? And do you know how to make it on your own?

My favorite dish is sushi and yes, I know how to make it on my own. It’s not great like in sushi restaurants but it does the job.

If you suddenly acquired a fortune, what is the first thing you would do?

And I would buy an Audi A7 - since this is my dream car and I love driving. Guys from Audi, if you are reading this, sponsor me, thanks!

After a few laps around the city in my new car, I would probably get unpaid leave for about a month and travel. I love to work so more than a month would be too much. I would also invest in crypto and Barrage, and give some to my family members.

What gets on your nerves the most?

Oh, people’s inability to think logically. People give in to emotions instead of using logic. It seems as though they enjoy going against themselves. I’m not saying you shouldn't have emotions but you shouldn't let them control you.

Meet the rest of the team!

We love having people like Marko in our collective. Driven individuals are the ones that build the motivational culture we nurture at Barrage.

If you would like to be a part of that culture and get to know the rest of our team, check out our open positions.