What makes Spyrosoft stand out from other tech companies in Croatia? An interview with Igor Korzinek

Igor Korzinek, Managing Director of Spyrosoft Solutions d.o.o., is responsible for developing our Croatian branch. In this interview, he shares how the Spyrosoft offices in Zagreb and Osijek have grown, how a flat company structure works for us and what the plans for future development are.

Igor, Spyrosoft is a fast-growing company making a big difference in technology. Could you tell us about Spyrosoft and describe its offices in Zagreb and Osijek?

Spyrosoft is a project-based company from multiple IT areas where our engineers can change things in technology. Our focus areas are embedded technology, which includes automotive, industry 4.0, IoT, geospatial, finances, education, and various kinds of enterprise web-based applications. Our main strength is the in-house know-how to deliver complex projects that require different skills and a comprehensive set of competencies. A variety of executed projects keeps us up to date with the recent technology.

In Croatia, we started with a small team in Zagreb, in one room in an apartment in a business building. This became our first site. After that, some of our employees preferred to work from their hometowns than to move to Zagreb, which led us to open a new site in Osijek. In both cities, presently, we have nice offices following local IT standards. I can say that our recipe for success is that we listen to our employees’ ideas.

What makes Spyrosoft stand out from other companies in Croatia? What was the initial idea?

From my experience on the market, there are extremely dynamic and very demanding employers on one side and companies that expect too little output from a developer on the other.  

We are trying to stay in the middle and provide a good life-work balance. However, if at some period of their career, someone is looking for a new challenge, our company size can serve it as well. Our advantage is that with our corporate size, we can adapt to our employees’ ambitions. Over 50% of our employees come from our referral program. That says a lot. 

At Spyrosoft, there is a flat company structure with as few levels as possible. How do employees respond to that?

Very well. Everyone appreciates fast decisions, especially when it is needed in the service path. For example: if you need a book, dev board, online seminar, or more RAM, thanks to our flat structure, you get that as soon as it can be delivered. Being big is not an excuse for being slow. One more thing that we encourage is that no matter the seniority of an employee, no matter how long you work with us, everyone gets a chance to speak their mind, and be involved in the project process. 

What is the atmosphere like in Zagreb and Osijek? How do you keep the teams together?

It was not so simple to build an atmosphere during the pandemic, but we still managed to see each other in person, of course respecting health advice. Present circumstances give us the opportunity to get together more frequently. And we are using it: from our weekly coffee events, through semi-annual picnics, to tech meetings with technology-centric communities of employees. Besides one’s project life, we are trying to inspire also the tech-community life and company-community life. 

What qualities do you look for when interviewing potential Spyrosoft employees?

This is a complex equation. Firstly, I check the candidate’s space for personal development. Of course, someone’s skill level and competencies are a plus too. However, the willingness to learn is the biggest advantage. Social parameters and willingness to work in a team are also very important. 

How can tech companies respond to the status that developers got during the last two years when the demand has doubled, and are now known as job market “royalty”?

Actually, very well. Finally, we have the opportunity to pick and reject projects that are not well thought out or defined. This gives our people the ability to participate in better projects than in the past. Competition always creates a better world, and the present situation lets us filter out players who played poorly. 

Has the demand for certain programming languages or areas of expertise changed, and what do you expect in the future?

In relative numbers, the demand remained about the same. Of course, enterprise apps have bigger demand in absolute numbers, and therefore higher demand for all IT asks more on this side. This also has an impact on us, where in the past, due to the project demand, we have been a bit more focused on embedded, and now we are just a bit more focused on the enterprise world. 

What is your advice regarding the skills developers should acquire? How could they enter the job market and stand out?

For any employee, the best thing to do is what one feels good and excited about. This is also valid for developers. Sometimes people have doubts. If that is the case, pick one where you can get a commercial project, and focus very much on that one, while keeping an eye on what is going on around you. Especially in the area you love. When your current involvement expires, maybe try that 2nd thing that makes you even happier. Any professional work is tough if you want to make it good. 

What can we expect from Spyrosoft in the next period? What is on the agenda? How will Spyrosoft and technology in general shape the future?

From an organisational perspective, we’ll be expanding our local presence geographically, to make us closer to the people who would like to join us. We’ll also work internally on more frequent technology demonstrations, some of which may evolve into public meet-ups in the future. Firstly, we will think about our technology communities and then try to give back to the community, which indirectly provides better company branding and increases our presence.