I’m Dmitry Kudryavtsev
I currently live in The Netherlands
I write code from the age of 14, and do it professionally for almost 16 years. In May 2023 - I burnt out. Therefore, I quit my job, sold most of my belongings, and what’s left - I packed into a suitcase and a backpack, and bought a one-way ticket to Costa Rica together with my wife and our dog.
After travelling for 6 months in Central America (Costa Rica 🇨🇷 , Guatemala 🇬🇹 , and Mexico 🇲🇽 ), by the end of 2023, I have relocated to The Netherlands 🇳🇱 . I realized that the current tech industry is unsustainable, and instead I want to focus on building a sustainable business, as well as help people and companies in the tech industry, while protecting my sanity from the corporate waste of human potential.
You can find what I’m up to recently by checking my now page.
Entrepreneurship
Upon arriving in the Netherlands, I have founded KD Software Technologies, a company focused on building software, and providing contracting and consulting services. I have dabbled in entrepreneurship before, when I had my own contracting business where I worked with companies on projects like legacy system migration, high load optimization, full-cycle development, and development of specialized software. I maintain, somewhat, up-to-date version of my projects which you can fine here.
Professional experience
I’m a self-taught programmer, and I got my first “real” job in October 2009, where I have been a PHP Developer. After growing together with the company for 5 years, I took the role of being a Technical Lead where I was leading, and developing a full system in the hospitality industry. This responsibility also included technical management of a small on-site, and offshore team, as well as being the technical focal point in meetings with potential clients and partners. I’m immensely grateful to this company, and especially it’s CTO, who believed in me and gave me a chance to prove myself.
Dmitry is an exceptional developer with an unwavering passion for their craft. His deep technical expertise and ability to tackle complex challenges with ease is inspiring, and his natural curiosity regarding everything tech makes him a unique asset for every dev team or project.
After more than 6 years with that company, I decided that it was time for me to move on to. I have joined an early stage startup in the telecom industry, where I became the third backend engineer. I learned a lot in this company both technically and personally. Technically, I gained experience in building a proper CI/CD pipeline, and working with modern cloud architecture such as AWS. Personally, I built good connections with both the CTO and the CEO, as well as some of the engineers I have worked with.
Unfortunately, after 6 months the company encountered financing problems, and had to lay off 90% of the staff - including me. Due to my knowledge and expertise, I have negotiated terms with the founders, and they agreed to leave me as a consultant for a couple of days a week. For the next couple of months I helped the company to transition their legacy system to a newer technology stack, as well as optimize for high load.
Being self-employed, I decided to try my luck with a bigger company, and I landed a contractor job in an American corporate - Autodesk. I stayed there for 4 and a half years, made a career change from PHP to Node.js, and had one of the best times. I had a chance to work with amazing people, in a very supportive environment. Likewise, I mentored, on-boarded, interviewed junior, and senior developers.
Dmitry is one of the most talented developers I’ve worked with. Smart, pragmatic and accountable. Always doing the extra mile to make sure everyone is aligned and project is successful. His calm way of doing things and his very broad perspective added extreme value to anything touched.
I presented one of the best design-reviews to this day. I was a Tech Lead during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 - a challenging period where I had to mentor developers remotely. However, when came the need, I decided to step down from Tech Lead position to lead one of the most important projects at that time. And after completing my part in it, I decided to move on.
Dima is a true professional. Very strong engineer specializing in both high quality delivery as well as community engagement and skill set improvements within the environment around him. Truly enjoyed working with Dima!
In February 2022, I found myself at Forter. Forter is one of the leading fraud detection, and payment optimization platforms out there. I had a chance to work with amazing people, on a green-field product which took Forter from being a fraud detection leader, to becoming a payment optimization leader as well. After one year and four months, I burnt out, and decided to pursue personal goals.
Dima is a dedicated, hard working, experienced engineer. During his time at Forter he was instrumental in turning the new payments optimization product suite into a success. Along with his vast experience in web technologies he is also a gifted tech writer and he helped boost the awareness of Forter engineering by writing blog posts and organizing technological meetups. Personally, he is fun to work with, with a kin sense of humor and is always happy to help other developers.
Dima has been an extremely valuable team member. I worked shoulder to shoulder with him on some of our team’s toughest projects. Dima’s ability to tackle complexity while keeping various stakeholders aligned is unparalleled.
Throughout all those years, I never stopped exploring and perfecting myself and my skills. I’ve touched nearly every programming language (except for the functional ones). Worked with every cloud solution (except for Azure).
I had a chance to work with the biggest companies out there: Booking.com, Amadeus, Visa, MasterCard, CapitalOne, Salesforce, T-Mobile, Adyen, and more. As a technical interviewer, I had the chance, and pleasure, to go over more than three hundred CVs; interview more than 150 candidates; and I hold a very positive score in candidate experience (in terms of personal and professional communication).
I spoke at international conferences (Conf42 - Rustlang, JSNation 2022); I write a professional blog. If you are interested in the boring, buzz-wordy, corporate-like experience - connect with me on LinkedIn.
Today, I’m a part of a Dutch startup in the logistics industry, fulfilling my role as Founding Senior Software Engineer, alongside talented team of high achievers.
Personal touch
Programming is a big part of my life. But I believe that life should be more than just one thing. I’m very interested in psychology and philosophy. I started my self development journey after reading the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. This book kick-started my interest in psychology, and cognitive biases that we, humans, have. I embarked on a journey to find the best way to live life at its full potential.
Travelling is a part of my life, and I like to immerse myself in local culture. I enjoy nature, and especially green forests, mountains, and volcanoes. Some unique places I visited include Bali where I did a sunrise hike on Batur Volcano; Japan, where I stayed 2 nights on Mount Koya with Japanese monks; The Netherlands where I did a bicycle tour for two weeks; Iceland where I hiked towards an active volcano, and saw one of the most powerful waterfalls - Dettifoss; New Zealand where I lived for 3 weeks in a camper van; Guatemala where I hiked Acatenango Volcano; Romania where I climbed La Om Peak; and much more. I dabbled in mountain biking, rock climbing and cave diving.
I practice, and preach minimalism and stoicism. Sport is an important part of my life, and I try to train regularly. I enjoy boxing in particular. I believe that life is a constant journey to perfection (which is unreachable), therefore my life philosophy is built upon constant self-improvement and self-development.
Nietzsche once said: “Life without music, would be a mistake”, and I totally agree with him. When I have too much free time, I compose electronic music under the stage name of Cyber Ronin 89.
I’m married to an amazing wife.
Contact me
I’m old school, so I always prefer email. If you don’t like email, you can try your luck via LinkedIn (but really, email is the best, I tend to reply to everyone, unless you try to sell me your SEO optimization bullshit).