At the moment I am available for part time assignments only. I am fully available from October 2024. Please note that I keep this website up to date.

I would have to consider a couple of factors to give a straight answer. In general I don't mind any arrangement, as long as there is work to do.

I am definitely developer. I have enough experience to perform DBA or architect tasks if needed.

Yes, I am willing to relocate. Of course some destinations I would prefer more than the others, but again, a number of factors apply. Such as the employment arrangement. For instance I am open to more locations when it comes to short-term arrangements (number of months long).

I value being flexible. Same apply to my ability to relocate. For short-term arrangements I can relocate within days. In case of long commitments, I can relocate within a couple of weeks.

I may not know the actual location or working arrangement, but the work I'll be doing would be IT-related and probably at the senior level.

Every employee in a company has its place, its scope of responsibility. I'm well aware of it and I am always trying to find out my current scope and have as much control of it as possible. This way I can be fully responsible for my work. If necessary, I will work closely with managers and everybody involved to identify my scope of responsibility. I don't hesitate to talk to whatever manager necessary to have my work sorted out. My work scope is my manager's responsibility and I will actively provide him/her with appropriate feedback. This approach has worked well in the past to the mutual satisfaction of all parties involved, me, my managers and colleagues alike.

Clients are those who benefit from my work. I work for them and I do care a great deal about their satisfaction. I always try to open any line of communication, preferably to talk to them in person and ensure them about me being always there for them throughout the project's life-cycle (and even beyond if circumstances permit). To make them comfortable letting me know any concerns or questions they might have. To let them know that if I am on board, I am on board fully.

Every aspect of a project has its scope. Any budget change implies a scope redefinition. Each scope should be identified with a priority. Scopes with less priority should be affected first.

There is one saying I like to use: "Relax and enjoy the crisis". Crisis do happen. The best way to handle them is to calm down and try to see the big picture. Only then you can bring the best out of you and avoid more damage caused by rushed decisions. Crisis or not, I'm always trying my best. No matter what the outcome, doing my best gives me a calm, inner strength to which my colleagues respond well.

I don't look at my work in terms of achievements. Big achievements are often accompanied with big failures. And failing is something I try hard to avoid. I naturally try my best no matter what kind or what size of the project I work on. So I aim for more solid, spike free performance.

Just like anybody, I have my limits, I can make a mistake here and there. There is that much I can do, but I make sure I do what I can. I am detail oriented, I handle complex issues very well and I test my code thoroughly. As a result, my work is usually at a very high standard. What I could improve are not that much so my technical skills, but rather the soft skills. Such as PR skills towards the management - I tend to be more technical and less verbal.

Down to earth. I expect to be paid the market rate in a given location for a given occupation. I strongly believe that the relationship between employer and employee should be equal and mutually beneficial. I don't want to be paid more or less than what it should be.

Not particularly. But it is always nice to get some feedback once in a while. When I paint a wall I can see the wall before and after painting. I can get some visual satisfaction. I like when IT technology can present a similar satisfaction here and there (for instance in form of a website or a report). Also clients are likely to appreciate something visual rather than some dry technical code.

I have done ETL on a number of projects. For instance when I had to divide one data model into two, or when I was moving data from one data model into the another, more complex data model. Moving data from let say DB2 to Oracle would be another example. Or importing or exporting data to structured or flat files.

I always target the functionality first, to have some foundation in place and have it confirmed by the client or stakeholders ahead of the time. I prefer to use granular approach and deal with one segment at the time. The more critical the deadline, the bigger the necessity to have those segments confirmed before development.

I try my best to come with as detailed an estimate as possible. Once I have a final estimate I simply double it. Surprisingly, this approach gives very realistic results.

Assuming the specifications are already made and confirmed by the client, I would divide the allocated time into three more or less equal portions (depending on the project). In the first third I would target a proof of concept. For instance to be able to process a typical transaction, through all the stages of its life-cycle, including client's acceptance. At the end of the second third all the development that doesn't require user's interaction should be done. The last third will be testing, bug-fixing and documenting, executed with user's closed involvement.

For example I get involved in build processes. I've been deploying code into production environments as both, part of the scheduled build process or emergency fixes. Another example would be developing a key infrastructure, such as data models or coding main transactions or control modules.

There was a requirement to generate files as a result of Oracle database batch run and copy those files to a designated Linux server. And then FTP those files to appropriate sites. Depending on the success of the FTP the original files would get archived and consequently there was another database step that took place afterward. And it all should happen in one transaction.

The requirement started and finished with a database task, indicating a database scope. Therefore I decided on a database solution. First, I would generate all the data files from the database, using Oracle packages. The combination of conditional file copying and FTP-ing required host OS commands, a task the plain Oracle database is not capable of. However, from the database I could generate whatever OS shell script I needed. With a use of java I would then execute generated script from within the database. After script's successful completion the last database step would be executed in the same transaction. So in this case I had to utilize Oracle packages, Oracle scripting language PL/SQL, Linux shell scripting and Java.

Every question you might have, has been most likely asked and answered before. It is all on the Internet. Find a tutorial that suits you; understand, copy and modify code examples that meet your needs; paste the errors you are getting into a search engine when you get stuck; deal with one issue at the time and use logs, messages, or even color backgrounds (be creative) to validate your progress. You will most likely spend more time researching on the web than doing actual coding. Get two screens if you can. This way you can code in one and research in the other.

I always start with a big picture. I go to websites such as Wikipedia and I try to understand the purpose of the technology, its origins and what phases it went through so far. Then I look for web tutorials that meet my needs. By now I prefer more example based tutorials. I pay particular attention to the author of the tutorial. He/she must be a proven professional in a given field with a balanced view, presenting the technology with its industry standards and its limitations.

Yes I can. I have done it in the past, via VPN for instance. Some developers claim to lack concentration when working from home. Not with me, my working location doesn't influence my coding capabilities. In fact, when I work from home I might even lose track of time and work prolonged hours.

Sure, I don't see a reason why not. Improving my skills is something I constantly do, with or without the outside help.

Cosmopolitan areas of Canada are very ethnically diverse. For instance when I worked for CMiC in Toronto, from its 60 employees only 5 were born in Canada. I have learnt to work with people literally from all over the world - and enjoy it! There are different working cultures out there. In the working culture I come from, the work is not just the source of income, but a very purpose of life and a major source of pride. When working with people with a different mentality I tend to focus on IT aspect of the work and the successful completion of the project. And people respond to that. After all, it is work that brought us together. I like expanding my horizons, meeting new people with different views of life, so I do very well in an international environment.