IPKO
Learning the Foundations of Engineering and Responsibility
I worked at IPKO, a major telecommunications company serving close to one million mobile users and hundreds of thousands of internet and TV customers. Joining IPKO marked my first real, large-scale professional experience—and one that shaped me deeply, not only as an engineer, but as a person.
I started this role at 19 years old, stepping into a highly structured corporate environment where reliability, scale, and responsibility were not abstract concepts, but daily realities.
Entering the Industry as a Young Engineer
I continued the early stage of my career at IPKO focusing on frontend development, working with HTML, pure JavaScript, and PHP. This was my introduction to building production systems used by a massive customer base, where mistakes had real consequences and availability truly mattered.
Early on, I learned the importance of discipline, attention to detail, and accountability. Writing code in this environment meant thinking carefully about stability, maintainability, and performance—not just getting something to work.
Expanding into Backend and Full-Stack Work
Driven by curiosity and a desire to understand systems more deeply, I gradually expanded into backend development, working extensively with Oracle databases and server-side logic. Over time, this naturally evolved into a full-stack role, allowing me to see how frontend interfaces, backend services, and data layers interacted in a real-world enterprise system.
This period became foundational for my technical growth, particularly in SQL. Working with Oracle at scale gave me a strong command of complex queries, data integrity, and performance considerations—skills that continued to compound throughout my career.
Alongside this, I was exposed to SAP Convergent Charging (SAP CC), which provided valuable insight into large-scale billing and charging systems. Seeing how enterprise-grade platforms operate behind the scenes gave me early exposure to mission-critical systems where correctness and reliability are non-negotiable.
Production Support and Operational Responsibility
A significant part of my role involved daily production support and troubleshooting. I worked on resolving issues quickly and efficiently to ensure the availability and performance of the data ecosystem.
This responsibility accelerated my growth. I learned how to:
Debug problems under pressure
Communicate clearly during incidents
Balance speed with correctness
Understand systems holistically rather than in isolation
Operating in a telecommunications environment taught me that engineering is as much about operational excellence as it is about building new features.
Growing Beyond Technical Skills
Beyond the technology, IPKO was where I matured the most as a person. Starting out at such a young age in a corporate setting taught me professionalism, collaboration, and resilience. I learned how to work with people across different teams, seniority levels, and backgrounds.
The human bonds I formed during my time at IPKO remain meaningful even today. Many of the relationships I built there lasted beyond the role itself, and reconnecting with former colleagues still feels natural—a testament to the strong culture and shared experiences we had.
A Defining Chapter
My time at IPKO laid the foundation for everything that followed. It gave me my first exposure to scale, responsibility, and real-world impact. It strengthened my technical fundamentals, especially in SQL and data systems, and instilled values around reliability, ownership, and teamwork.
Most importantly, it marked the transition from being a student and a teenager into becoming a professional—setting the tone for how I would approach engineering, learning, and people throughout my career.