From quiet kid behind a screen to full-stack developer in fashion tech, Maksym Haidar’s journey into software is a story of curiosity and experimentation.
From introverted tinkerer to code enthusiast
Growing up, Maksym describes himself as a rather introverted child who loved spending time on the computer, building things and exploring how they worked. That early fascination with technology never really went away, it simply grew more focused.
When it came time to choose a field of study, he enrolled at the Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics. At first, he wasn’t sure whether his future would be in management, development or design. So he chose a path that allowed him to try a bit of everything: computer science.
“At university I had the chance to experiment,” he recalls. “Different subjects, different tools, I could feel what actually clicked with me.”
It was during his studies that he first started developing own projects. One of them, a solution for a web specialist, brought him into contact with C# and web development for the first time. The puzzle of back-end logic meeting front-end behaviour fascinated him and that’s when he realised he wanted to go deeper into software engineering.
Learning by doing across industries
Maksym’s first role was as an intern in the healthcare domain, where he mainly fixed bugs and maintained existing systems. It might not sound glamorous, but it turned out to be the perfect training ground.
“Fixing things teaches you a lot,” he says. “You see how other people built the system, what works, what doesn’t and then you start forming your own ideas of how you’d do it.”
Later, he moved to a telecommunications company working on internet and phone solutions, gaining exposure to different technologies and architectures. Each step sharpened his skills and prepared him for the next challenge.
Joining Chainbalance
Eventually, Maksym joined Chainbalance as a full-stack developer, bringing together his experience in back-end logic, front-end implementation and system analysis. What he enjoys most about the job is the mix of problem-solving and creativity.
“I love when something doesn’t work,” he says with a smile. “You dig into the code, analyse what’s happening, try different approaches and when you finally fix it, that’s the best feeling.”
Giving input on technical decisions and helping improve the solution are the parts of the job that energize him most.
Why Chainbalance feels different
Having previously worked in large corporations, Maksym appreciates the culture at Chainbalance all the more.
“In big companies, there’s often a lot of corporate structure but not necessarily a good atmosphere,” he explains. “Here it’s the opposite: everyone is friendly, supportive and open. We spend a lot of time together so it`s important to have a good environment. We help each other and nobody is judgemental when there’s a problem, we just solve it together.”
This sense of team spirit is what he values most.
Movies, books and a very cute dog
Outside of code, Maksym has a serious love for cinema. He tries to watch a movie almost every day (logging 400! Last year) and enjoys everything from romance films to arthouse productions.
Some of his favourites include Dune (both the movies and the original books), the work of the Whiplash and Babylon director Damien Chazelle, and classics by Akira Kurosawa such as Ikiru. He’s equally happy diving into series trying to watch “just two episodes a day” (currently The Young Pope) or getting lost in a good book, like Stephen King’s The Dark Tower anthology.
And then there’s Kappa, his white Shiba Inu. Maksym spends a lot of his free time walking, playing and just hanging out with her.