How IT professionals work. Anton Petrochenko, Panasonic Russia

We continue to ask specialists about the mode of work and rest, professional habits, the tools they use, and much more.

It will be interesting to find out what unites them, in what they contradict each other. Perhaps their answers will help to identify some general patterns, useful tips that will help many of us.
')
Today our guest is Anton Petrochenko, an engineer at Panasonic Russia. Anton in his work seeks to minimize the share of routine, free his own memory from secondary information, and the development department from bureaucracy. Music helps him to be here and now.

What do you do in the company?

I am engaged in the development and support of new products that are not yet ready for sale in Russia. We review and test products that have recently appeared in Panasonic. One of them is the storage system, a robotic optical disk library, which has now gone into release.

Every few years, Panasonic has a new technology that the company wants to test. Accordingly, prototyping is done. The prototype is shown in several countries, and then feedback is analyzed: was it interesting in the USA, Russia and other countries of the world?

The company listens to those countries that have shown interest, specifies what else they would like to change and so on. It's nice that the company's headquarters in Japan listens to the opinion, for example, of the Russian office. But other companies often use branches only as resellers.

The Japanese came to us, interviewed us, our clients. Then they brought us a new device with the modifications. The wishes of many countries are expressed, and in the production of devices, the company finds a balance between financial costs and their wishes.

One word (phrase) best describes how you work:

Engineer.

How many hours a day do you spend on work?

From 8 to 10.

How many hours do you sleep?

I try more than 8.

Do you have breakfast

Yes, sure. Light breakfast.

A lot of time goes on the road?

Half an hour.

What else are you doing on the way to / from work?

15 minutes to the subway - a walk in the fresh air, a kind of "fitness"; 8 minutes underground, and I'm at work.

What kind of todo-manager do you use personally?

Google calendar

What kind of task manager do you use / issue tracker / repository?

We mostly use just an email client. Tasks (letters) are laid out on projects (folders).

Do you have any internal projects or libraries in your department and why were they created?

Of course. Sometimes it is easier for small projects to increase in importance to large ones, to formulate goals, tasks and implement it.

How and why are they created?

A department is a team. Sometimes it is enough just to talk and decide what needs to be done, in what format the input and output data should be presented. But sometimes it is necessary to document the project, which will last for six months or a year and people will start to forget why we started it.

What annoys you most when you work?

The percentage of the routine. There is always a routine, but when its percentage is too high, you stop understanding why to do it.

What professional literature would you recommend?

No author. Traditional directions - time management, personal effectiveness. I have been studying these things for a long time, I have my own vision. But in general, the authors say the same thing.

What do you prefer: electronic reading rooms or paper books?

If this is professional literature, I prefer e-books. The main advantage is search, navigation. Outside of work - paper books.

What technology (computers, tablets, smartphones) and operating systems do you prefer at work and at home?

Among mobile devices, I chose Android. There is where to dig, there is always something not working. And if there are such things, then it becomes interesting to me as an engineer. With iOS it would be boring.

Otherwise, I use Windows, but I'm not afraid of Linux, the command line, if I suddenly come across this at work.

Do you listen to music when you work?

If you can. If I need to work on big tasks, I put on headphones, and my efficiency increases many times over.

Which life hack allows you to be more efficient?

Personal "memos", "reminders". For me, this is the release of memory. If a person needs to do 3-5 tasks, he should keep them in his head all the time. But I freed my brain many years ago and trusted the devices. When a reminder comes to me, at this moment I simply “load” the necessary information. This allows you to not forget anything and think about what is important at the moment.

What applications and services can you do without in your work or in your personal life?

Google Keep. There are the simplest things that allow you to store and view data.

What professional advice from the past could you give yourself?

Be aware that some constants are actually variables.

What would you recommend to a person trying to go the same way?

Do what is interesting. If you have dreamed of doing something all your life and are doing something else, you will constantly regret it. It is better to still find what gives you the drive and at least try to do it.