Personal Reflections and Career Insights: Kamil Myśliwiec Interview, Part 2
Kamil was kind enough to respond to 25 questions, prepared especially for you.
If you haven't read the first part of our conversation—the more technical one—you can catch up on it here.
In this second segment, we shift focus toward Kamil's personal life and professional journey.
Maciej Sikorski: Is it common for you to feel the urge to step away and take a vacation? Your role appears quite demanding.
Kamil Myśliwiec: Maintaining a separation between my demanding career and personal time is a priority for me. It's crucial to take vacations and achieve a healthy work-life equilibrium, which, I must say, has a noticeable effect on how productive I am. I have a passion for traveling and discovering new places, so functioning sustainably over the long term without that is unimaginable.
Have you remained in the same location since you started your career? Does managing a large-scale project or advancing professionally push you to relocate?
I've moved three times over the past several years, but my professional life wasn't the reason behind those moves. Fortunately, my collaborations with clients are all done remotely through the company I helped establish (Trilon, the consulting and services arm of NestJS). Prior to the global halt, I was a frequent conference attendee; now, sadly, they've either been canceled or shifted online due to the pandemic. As I recall, I took more than 40 flights in 2019 and delivered over 10 talks at various events! So, in a sense, my job does require a fair amount of travel, though it's often short trips, and regardless, I truly enjoy exchanging ideas and meeting the NestJS community face-to-face whenever I get the chance.
Your presence on social media is quite limited, making you hard to find. Is that a deliberate choice? Are you attempting to shield your private life from the effects of your professional achievements?
That's part of it. I don't believe there's anything inherently wrong with sharing photos or videos from your travels online. But I personally don't see a need to do that. Any pictures I take while traveling are for me and my family to enjoy.
How did you first get into programming? What was it that steered you toward this profession, and when did that happen?
My interest in programming first sparked about 15 years ago during primary school, which is essentially when I realized this was my calling. Back then, building websites seemed like the most straightforward way into the world of coding (basic C/C++ tutorials always ended with text-based console outputs, and I was after something 'more visually engaging'). And so I naturally gravitated toward books on PHP application development—never actually finishing one on the Zend framework—and, of course, HTML and CSS.
What was the path to becoming a Google Developer Expert?
Two main things played a role: my conference speaking and the NestJS framework development. Following a talk I gave, I got a recommendation from another GDE, which is a necessary step for entering the program. The entire process spans a few weeks. After an initial screening and verification, it includes two separate interviews that feel pretty akin to standard job interviews.
So did the chance to become a GDE just present itself, or did you go looking for that recommendation?
That's right. Getting that recommendation was exciting and naturally prompted me to begin the qualification steps, even though it had never been a specific objective of mine.
Your background includes experience in both frontend and backend. Given that NestJS is a backend framework, can we assume you've committed to backend work now? Or do you return to the frontend world with a sense of nostalgia?
At Trilon, we collaborate with a diverse range of companies, and for the vast majority, our support covers both the backend and frontend. Of course, many clients come to us with NestJS projects, but I also find myself regularly working with Angular and React—it just hinges on what each client uses.
Which aspect do you find most enjoyable: creating developer tools, conducting courses, consulting, or building end-user applications?
From that list, I find conducting workshops to be the least appealing by a long shot—they are incredibly draining, both physically and mentally. Excluding workshops, any activity that falls under 'creative tasks' brings me a great deal of happiness and fulfillment. However, picking a single favorite out of the remaining options would be quite a challenge.
What is the aspiration you hold for your career?
I'm genuinely fortunate to say that every professional dream I sketched out for myself in my younger years has indeed come true. Although I've already hit some of my career objectives, I still feel a powerful drive to keep advancing, uptake new skills, and refine my craft in all that I undertake.
Where will you be in 10 years' time?
Honestly, I'm not exactly certain. I'll surely keep allocating as much time as possible to learning new things, accumulating experience both professionally and personally, and enhancing the knowledge I already possess. But as of now, I don't hold any concrete plans—I guess we'll see what comes along!