Ilias says hi! 👋
I was born 11 months after the web, and it took me a decade to discover it. Thirteen years later, I found myself working at the web's birthplace, CERN.
I've been privileged to work most of my career on open-source projects. These days I work remotely as the lead maintainer of several user-facing apps at Alephium.
Getting started
My first experience with programming came at the age of 11. My parents sent me to a computer class after school hours. There, I learned programming with Logo, a language similar to Lisp. We would draw shapes on the screen by giving commands to a "turtle".
There, I also surfed the web for the first time. When I'd finish my homework early, my teacher would allow me to use IE5. Oh boy, such fun! I had a tiny booklet with a catalogue of all the websites I knew. In high school, I picked the pseudo-programming class, and eventually decided to study computer science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
When it clicked
While studying computer science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, I felt a growing unrest. Most courses were very theoretical and simply weren't resonating with me. I found myself enjoying the classes that involved practical, hands-on projects much more.
Because of this, around the beginning of my 5th semester, I signed up for a free web and mobile app development seminar hosted by the Electrical Engineers department. Suddenly, the pieces fell into place. I thoroughly enjoyed the course, often losing track of time while working on the assignments. The practical nature of it confirmed that building things is what I was meant to do.
N00b steps
About half a year after completing the seminar, I decided to pause my studies and move to Germany for an internship. That internship in 2012 was my very first time working in a professional environment, and it was a revelation. For the first time, my work counted and actually saved the company thousands of euros.
I had a fantastic mentor who truly believed in me. The company was so happy with my contributions that they invited me to continue working for them remotely after my internship ended, allowing me to resume my university studies. This was around a decade before remote work became common practice during the COVID-19 pandemic!
The move to Switzerland
Eventually, I left the company to pursue a dream opportunity at CERN, the birthplace of the web. It started thanks to a dear classmate and mentor of mine, Tasos, who is a very gifted and brilliant engineer. He believed in my skills and strongly encouraged me to apply to CERN's Technical Student program.
Since Tasos had applied in the past without success, I was extremely reluctant and doubtful that they would accept me. However, life has its ways of surprising you. I was accepted, and that is how my life in Switzerland began.
Curious about what happened next? You can check out my Experience to see where my career took me, or read my thoughts on software engineering on my Blog.