Lukasz Robak

I started writing my first software when I was 14. I incorporated my own software company during my first year of university - at 19. The elements that have always had a fundamental place among my hobbies are analysing new IT technologies and planning than realising programming projects.

For me, the company was a kind of platform that enabled me to get involved in selected (at any given time) the most technologically interesting IT projects.

The basis of many years of fully satisfying activity was my original software, used for comprehensive support of company management, which includes many modules such as: commercial system, management of warehouses, finances, customer orders and a system for automation of orders to suppliers, support of production processes, integration with accounting systems and B2B and B2C systems. The total amount of base code for the systems is at the level of several million lines of code.

Due to the vast and constantly implemented number of legal changes, maintaining these products at the highest level and in compliance with regulations is complicated. It was only possible thanks to good working time organisation. There is many small and medium-sized companies among my company customers (around 15,000 licences for my software sold during the course of my business), and my portfolio also includes long-term contracts with the largest enterprises on the Polish market, including the IT and banking sectors. This is further supported by the many letters of reference I have.

Thanks to the stable operation of the company, I gained the opportunity to implement many individual IT projects - which was my main objective. This was because it was possible to use the most interesting developing technologies and learning about them primarily from the practical side.

Since both my daughters have completed their studies in the UK and have settled here permanently, my wife and I have also decided to relocate. The Polish SoftWork company was therefore sold, and I began my stay in Scotland by completing another 4-year full-time BSc/H study, at the University of the West of Scotland, on the course of Business Technology. This gave me the opportunity to update my practical approach and knowledge, confronting them with current theoretical approach. I have found the time I have spent studying to be very valuable for my future career. I gain a better understanding of social differences, the opportunity to gain an interesting insight into the new lifestyles of the younger generations of my colleagues and to become accustomed to different types of accents.

My continually improving level of English certainly does not yet meet all my expectations, although it does not affect my ability to communicate in practice. For my first and the second year of study, I was awarded with the 'Court Medal' - as the best student in the Business Technology course.

Over the years, I have developed an effective self-organisation. In addition to the demands of my studies - I am fully convinced to get sandwich year after the 3rd year of my study in term to start working if possible.

It seems to me that my career to date confirms my consistency and decisiveness. In a still - relatively new to me - country, I want to find a place in a team dealing with the most technologically interesting, large, and long- term IT projects possible, where I will be able to seek further opportunities for my development - preferably with the full use of my knowledge and experience.

I started my education in a different age of computing, even before the internet was possible. Thanks to that, I can personally state that the knowledge arising from realising the real business IT contracts is even more important than the education diplomas, or at least they're equally significant and correlated.

I was in a couple of courses in different Warsaw universities, where I was looking for the best-delivered IT knowledge - which was hard to obtain at the time, especially in central Europe. Most significant of which are:

1992-1997 University of Warsaw to the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics

1991-1992 Warsaw University of Technology (electronic course)

However, most of the technology I know and can work with arises pretty much thanks to a lot of business contracts completed successfully during my career, both as a project manager and IT professional:

• 31 years' experience in IT
• Professionalteamworkskills
• Professional communication
• Used to work on pressure
• Highly efficient self-organisation
• Database programming (Sybase ASE SQL, MongoDB, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostreSQL)
• Software development skills (Python, C C++, C#, SQL, Xml Xtd Xslt, Javascript, Typescript, PHP, Java, Bash, Xml-RPC Soap RESTful, Html CSS, dev-ops Agile, Node.js, Meteor.js, Flutter)
• Servers & networks administration (Linux, OS/X, Windows, Computing clusters VPN firewall, Docker Openvz vmware parallels VirtualBox)
• Follow technology trends
• Project management
• Sales management
•  

According to all the above, I'm capable of working as a system engineer, PM, or specialist in the chosen technology needed at the moment. I would deliver significant value as an employee and would like to work with dynamically developing projects and teams.

The most up-to-date education is:

2021-(now) University of the West of Scotland BSc/H 4 years Business Technology course

I chose this specific course because it still delivers all the technical knowledge. Still, I can also learn to better understand the tech-business part of my existing knowledge - to leverage it by adding all the modern theories I should, in my opinion, have.

I can also point out that I have been awarded two court medals for the best student on the course for the 1st and 2nd years of my study. I am also working hard to gain another one for 3rd year, which will be known after the 3rd year is completed.

• 2023 Court Medal (UWS) for the best overall student on BSc Business Technology Level 8 
• 2022 Court Medal (UWS) for the best overall student on BSc Business Technology Level 7