Лонги

My name is Oleksandr, I am a Lead SDET with over 10 years of experience in software testing. I have been teaching at Hillel IT School for over six years, where I have the opportunity not only to share knowledge, but also to observe the evolution of the tester profession in dynamics. In this article, I want to share my own observations, experience and thoughts on what is happening with the QA profession in 2025: what challenges are facing us, what the market expects and what opportunities this time opens up for us.

Android Developer Yevhenii Maslak from Poltava is an economist-lawyer by education. Working as a sales manager, he always wanted to go into IT. To do this, he studied programming languages, but for various reasons he postponed radical changes in his career. In 2022, a major war pushed the future developer to take a risk.

Full Stack Developer Volodymyr Dehtiarev from Kharkiv, having experience in web development, decided to try to create his first mobile application. Artificial intelligence helped to implement the idea that was born over a cup of morning coffee, which significantly accelerated development and saved money. We tell you how iWonda was created (from the idea to the fight with the App Store for release), where all the content is generated by AI.

In recent weeks, Russia’s “shaheed” attacks on Ukraine have become more massive: on the night of July 21, 2025 alone, the enemy launched about 450 air targets. Against this background, German General Christian Freuding warned: “Russia intends to launch up to 2,000 drones into Ukraine simultaneously.” To overcome these challenges, interceptor drones are coming to the forefront — high-speed quadcopters with warheads capable of catching up with and blowing up enemy UAVs on approach.

Ukrainian financial institutions — banks, MFIs, insurance and leasing companies, payment transaction providers — are now forced to meet the requirements of the NBU on financial monitoring, sanctions, and compliance. Manual verification of clients and generation of reports take up dozens of hours of specialists' time and company resources every day, and increase the likelihood of errors and fines. With recent changes in legislation, financial monitoring in Ukraine has turned from an «option for banks» into a mandatory procedure for a much wider range of businesses. Now, not only financial institutions are subject to the requirements, but also accountants, auditors, notaries, bar associations, lottery organizers, and others. Ignoring the new rules is too risky: fines for violations can reach tens of millions of hryvnias. So Ukrainian business has found itself facing a new reality — in which automated solutions are indispensable. Fintech company Finpay and leasing company Winner Leasing know how to avoid unnecessary costs and determine 100% compliance with the NBU criteria. Thanks to the use of the AML.point service, created by the Ukrainian IT company AI FINTECH, these businesses built all financial monitoring processes on a turnkey basis. This made it possible to significantly reduce the time and costs of resources and personnel required to perform customer identification and procedures aimed at preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. dev.ua talked to the CEO of the AML.point startup, Oksana Gubina, and learned how the service works, which helps avoid penalties and save money and business reputation.

Alyona Bagrytska, a back-end developer, went from a quiet life under the sirens to her first offer in IT. Her story is not about quick success, but about night codes, depression, antidepressants and an unexpected breakthrough during the war. She survived fake interviews and instability under fire, but in the end she received an offer that led her to her dream job. dev.ua talked to Alyona about what it's like to "enter IT" in the difficult year of 2025.

Programmer Przemysław Dembiak, alias Psyho, defeated a customized AI model in the finals of the AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 Heuristic contest, an algorithmic programming competition that features only the 12 best developers on the planet based on the results of the previous year. Despite the endurance of the silicon opponent, the victory went to a human — the AI took second place.

Nearly 4 in 10 millennials secretly go on vacation behind their management’s backs without informing them.

Over the past year, Russia has changed the tactics of using FPV drones. If earlier they were a weapon for the front — a means of destroying equipment and infantry in the «gray zone», today they have become an instrument of terror. Silent, cheap, almost invisible — FPV drones are increasingly striking civilian objects: hospitals, highways, water supply systems, schools. And increasingly — in cities that are dozens of kilometers from the front line.

Senior Software Engineer SoftServe Roman worked on one project for 10+ years. He liked this stability, but over time he felt deep fatigue and inner exhaustion — he wanted to rest, change the rhythm, find new meanings. When his project finally came to an end, Roman decided to take a sabbatical. At first, he thought it would be for a month or two, but in the end — from October to February. The first month he reflected a lot, spent time with his family. In the second — he allowed himself to simply relax, without pressure. Already from the third month of the break, Roman felt a desire to learn again, discover new technologies — in particular, develop in the field of Big Data. So he started looking for such opportunities in the company and soon joined a new project for the position of Big Data Software Engineer. And EVO specialist Natalia worked on an important project that required high involvement, frequent communication with various stakeholders, and constant focus. Over time, she began to feel strong emotional fatigue, lost motivation, and stopped rejoicing even in small victories. She turned to a corporate psychologist, with whom she had several individual sessions. In the process, they discovered that she was on the verge of burnout. Together with the leader, they agreed on a decision to take a long vacation to restore her resources and emotionally «reboot». After returning, Natalia returned to her duties and is now implementing an initiative that she had planned for a long time, but did not have the resources for. These two stories are about IT professionals who were burned out from super-intensive work and needed a break to regain strength and recharge. Such cases are not uncommon in Ukrainian IT. Due to workload, high level of responsibility, intensity and complexity of work, IT professionals often feel exhausted and lose productivity. The burnout epidemic in IT is a familiar phenomenon. So dev.ua asked key employers in the industry how companies monitor the psycho-emotional state of specialists and help them regain strength when they are on the verge of burnout.

In the world of business communications, LinkedIn is not just a social network, but a platform that can scale a business and strengthen the presence of a personal brand. However, I always emphasize: the platform itself is not a magic pill. Only a holistic system gives results.

Readers interested in Ukraine’s govtech sphere have likely come across CDTO Campus over the past few years. This initiative trains Chief Digital Transformation Officers (CDTOs) for public institutions across various levels of government. These professionals are tasked with driving digital transformation across different sectors, and many are already working in ministries, central executive bodies, and regional military administrations. However, not everyone knows how the learning process at CDTO Campus is structured, who is eligible to join, how the program is funded, and how lecturers are selected. To explore these questions, a dev.ua correspondent visited CDTO Campus, spoke with students between sessions, and gathered insights from CEO Galyna Pustova and COO Mariia Voitko.

It recently became known that the European Commission has agreed to grant Ukraine a «roaming visa-free regime.» This pan-European initiative is called Roam like at home (RLAH). Ukraine will join it from the beginning of next year.

Every year I notice more and more: not only the market is changing, but also the people we work with. The rules of the game are no longer the same as they were a few years ago. If earlier the pipeline consisted mostly of millennials, predictable, structured, familiar with the «office» culture, now Gen Z is increasingly coming. And with them the rhythm, language of communication, and work demands are changing.

Can you imagine a modern IT specialist without a smoke break? And the metropolitan high-rise buildings without the smell of smoke in the entrance? This is quite possible thanks to a new product — an alternative to cigarettes and vapes, which is already shaping a new culture of nicotine consumption. This is exactly what we are talking about in a special project supported by Philip Morris Ukraine.

An experienced lawyer and fighter of the special forces unit «Phantom», who participated in the ATO/OJS operations, Volodymyr Kopchuk at one time felt the need for changes and decided to radically change the direction of his activity. The man, who had considerable military experience and a legal background, decided to try his hand at IT. Having learned about the program «IT for Veterans» from EPAM, the man acquired a new profession and immediately received an offer — he joined the company as a business analyst. Volodymyr told dev.ua why he decided to enter IT and whether military experience helps a veteran in solving work tasks. Next is Volodymyr’s direct speech.

Every day, news feeds are full of headlines about new startups. One after another, big announcements appear — a new project, a new name, a new ambitious vision. But very little time passes — and most of them are no longer heard from. They disappear from the radar before they have time to really make a statement.

Ukrainian IT veteran Vitaliy, who joined the Defense Forces and is currently serving in the Marine Corps in the Unmanned Systems Battalion, created the website «Ihrovyy prystanok». It promotes Ukrainian localization and provides a personalized report on the user’s game library. dev.ua spoke with the developer and learned more about his project.

Many entrepreneurs, when launching their SaaS product, focus on the code, marketing, and users, but forget about one critically important detail — the country of business registration. The jurisdiction determines not only the amount of taxes, but also the ability to connect to payment systems, open an account, attract investments, and generally be visible in the global market.

And while Microsoft is laying off workers in the AI space, IT professionals who specialize in the technology continue to earn high salaries for their work. As for Google, the search giant has long been known in Silicon Valley for its generous compensation packages. But a few months ago, the company changed its approach to evaluating employee performance, emphasizing that “high performance is more important than ever.”

C-level experience, top projects in FinTech, and a sense of belonging — it would seem that everything is in place. But war, forced emigration, burnout, and a bold decision to leave the “stable” IT world opened up new perspectives for marketer Ksenia Okolovich. dev.ua spoke with Ksenia about her decision to leave IT and start building her own brand.

User Experience Researcher Olga G. sparked a heated debate on LinkedIn with her post about the value of experience. She recalled how an acquaintance in Canada refused to give quick advice without payment and offered his price instead. The incident prompted her to think: why do we often devalue the expertise of our acquaintances, and is it okay to ask an expert to «take a look» just like that?

Daniil Kolosov, a developer who currently serves as a senior soldier in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is urging employers to hire people with military experience. His LinkedIn post has garnered over 140 comments, with representatives explaining why former military personnel don’t always make good employees.

Influencer marketing is undergoing a radical change, moving away from the outdated schemes of working with popular bloggers. 2025 will be a turning point when brands finally realize the importance of authenticity and deep connections with their audience. Instead of chasing millions of reach, companies are increasingly investing in trusting relationships with real users of their products.

In the last days of June, at the electronic auction of the seized property of the state enterprise SETAM, a cut hornbeam branch caused a stir, which during a fierce auction was sold for 1,550 UAH instead of the starting price of 90 UAH. This story made the news and, of course, became the subject of memes and jokes. Actually, it is difficult to imagine that the winner of the auction, Iryna Yuriivna Antonyak, perceived this in any other way than as a joke, because the author’s imagination simply cannot imagine another motive. If so, then Ms. Iryna is a serial joker or has a special reverence for tree trunks — she has already won the auction at SETAM for four pine trees. However, in this auction, the pine trees did not have enough media coverage, and they were sold for only 75 UAH (the starting price). Actually, it would not be superfluous to remind you that the winner of the auction can simply refuse the winning lot, and in Ms. Iryna’s place, any adequate person would do so (but this is not certain).

In an era of war and technological struggle, data control is not just a matter of security, but a matter of state survival. Ukraine is already paying millions of dollars for its dependence on foreign clouds, and the lack of its own standards and solutions in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence could put the country on the brink of digital colonization.

A few years ago, Sam Altman admired Mark Zuckerberg's managerial style in hiring employees, but now he has become a victim of Meta's predatory strategy. At the heart of this Silicon Valley technological drama are multimillion-dollar contracts, the fight for talent, lawsuits and ambitions to build a superintelligence. dev.ua tells how Meta is trying by all available means (including not entirely legal ones) to close the gap with OpenAI.

Marketing has gone through a huge evolutionary path over the millennia of its existence — from the simplest forms of communication to modern high-tech ecosystems. Along with the industry, the working tools of specialists have also transformed. The key motivation for this development has always been the desire for maximum efficiency of results. At the same time, the need to reduce the time for performing routine operations is growing — in conditions of fierce competition and a large volume of tasks, marketers simply cannot afford to manually perform all processes.

Recently, a Ukrainian gaming enthusiast with the nickname N1kk0 introduced the GRAVK service, which allows gamers to manage their game library, track statistics, and create lists. dev.ua talked to the project developer and found out how tired he was of IT, but later found a «second wind», how much the number of registrations for the release exceeded his expectations, and why a dog appeared in the GRAVK logo.

Posts about situations of IT burnout continue to spread on social networks. And such stories are not isolated. Many questions arise in this regard, in particular: what are the causes of this burnout, how popular is this problem really now and how is it solved in IT companies? And also how to prevent burnout? How to diagnose a similar condition in yourself before the body enters a «steep peak» and what to do to get out of it? dev.ua dealt with all this with IT workers who have gone through it, managers and psychologists.