For almost 10 years, CapaSystems has benefited from Software Developer Yüksel Aydemir. We talked to him about the journey from graduate to experienced team member in CapaSystems development department

We begin to count the days until Yüksel Aydemir can celebrate his 10th anniversary at CapaSystems’ department on Zealand.

But before we get his party properly going, we thought that it would be interesting to talk to him about his journey from a young, newly-trained software developer in 2011 to an indispensable member of our software department team. Yüksel shares several roles on a daily basis, but as he modestly admits, he is just a Software Developer, who has many different hats on at a time.

He lends a hand at other departments, when needed, and it is also Yüksel who takes our new employees and trainees through their onboarding and makes them feel home. He does it because he is good at putting himself in other people’s shoes.

All of this makes sense considering that Yüksel is a big family man: he has been married for fourteen years, has a little daughter aged two together with his wife, and does not think that there is any difference in the way he acts when he is at work or at home.

“I am all about my family, and this naturally rubs off onto the work, as it is indeed a kind of a family we have here, so I bring the kind of person I am at home, and I am a family man here as well.”

You cannot be Full Stack in 2021

“You simply cannot stay in one place in IT, as things keep developing on a daily basis. You cannot always take a breather, as things would otherwise simply go on without you. This is also the reason why you cannot be the Full Stack in 2021 that you could in 1997. They had just one technology back then, and now, despite everything, we work with more than just Java.”

Even though Yüksel’s primary focus is on back-end tasks, he does not shy away from helping his colleagues or asking for help, if need be.

“I primarily look at back-end tasks, in particular, SQL and Java, but if our front-end department needs assistance, I naturally lend them a hand, and things are the exact same way if it is me who needs some help; my colleagues are good at coming up with input that can help me on my way.”

And it is not only Yüksel’s colleagues on Zealand that he is cooperating with.

In recent years, his department has demonstrated a desire for greater cooperation between CapaSystems’ software departments in Taastrup and Skanderborg, so they can take advantage of each other’s resources, draw on each other’s competences and thus figure out together the challenges in front of them.

“We at the department have had a long-standing desire to offer an overall solution, where everyone can join in to contribute and develop new solutions. In the past, we often used to say “them” and “us”, but after intensifying our cooperation, we have taken a step away from this way of thinking, and this has had a positive impact on the bottom line.”

Given the greater focus on cooperation and new results, Yüksel is also aware of his strong and weak sides. He reads up on various technologies at both the back-end and front-end, because he needs to know various things about everything, and just like it was once with IT, things never stand still, but are developing on and on every day.

A trainees’ man

It is one thing to innovate with new knowledge and competencies, but Yüksel is very conscious of how the approach to his work reflects on daily life. He often tackles jobs that can be extremely stressful, without protesting, as he is bad at saying no, but at the same time he is unwavering in his conviction that he can solve the challenge.

“It is not always nice to take the customer cases that typically put you under lots of stress, but they often end up on my desk, because I analyse and solve them differently than my colleagues. But I have always had an option for mentoring.”

The department always offers opportunities for mentoring, when need be, including if you are new. Yüksel has such an arrangement that he does not have to only work with specific tasks, and therefore, he also spends some of his time helping new employees and trainees get themselves acquainted with the department’s working methods, so they feel welcome and know they can turn to him, if need be.

“I am always trying to put myself in their shoes, always going from how I would feel myself in their situation. Therefore, I am very keen on making sure that our trainees are not just forced in through the process, as this ends up being a really bad experience for them as well as us.

We notice this kind of concern for his colleagues on a daily basis, so even if Yüksel is modest, all of us look forward to celebrating his 10th anniversary and, in particular, to continuing to enjoy his familiar approach to his tasks and his colleagues.

Yüksel Aydemir celebrates his 10th anniversary at CapaSystems on 1 March 2022.