Senior Backend Engineer & Team Lead - Hennadii Alforov

About

Senior Backend Engineer and Team Lead with 15+ years in IT and a Master's in Computer Engineering. I build and scale highly available backend systems for high-traffic platforms - billing, payments, hosting, and domain services - where reliability and uptime are non-negotiable.
My core strength is PHP (Symfony, Laravel) - 10+ years of production systems, complex business logic, and large-scale data migrations.

Full Name: Hennadii Alforov (gaalferov)

Education: Master's degree (NAU - Kharkiv Aviation Institute) Software Engineer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaalferov/

UpWork: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/gaalferov

 

Full stack Web Developer GAAlferov [PHP&JS]

 

My certificates

View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://gaalferov.com/about-me.html#sigProGalleria46c0f8e760

My becoming story from 2003 to present

My first acquaintance with web programming occurred in 2003. I learned how to start a local web server, and tried to create the first web pages using only HTML and embedded CSS.

2003

There were simple works with static pages, without the admin panel. But since then I love web-programming and it was the beginning of my career...

I continued to learn the basics of web programming and found out what is PHP language and why it is needed in dynamic pages.

2005

After some time I understood what are GET and POST requests. I could implement a simple HTML form and process sent data. What is database and why is it needed, I realized only in the future.

After university, I started working at the petroleum refinery company as a software developer and my responsibilities included programming on Delphi and fill out a lot of documents.

At first, it was interesting, but after some time I understood that 80% of my work was collecting signatures from the head of a department. I felt that I started degrading as a programmer.

2010-2013

In 2012, the plant where I worked stopped, and all the staff worked only four days a week. Also, management was forced to take a free vacation.

After that, my salary was only 250$ per month, and I tried to find a solution for more money. Firstly, I researched vacancies in large cities such as Moscow and Kyiv. But to get a good salary, I had to know more than I knew at that time. Also, I had a small child who was only 1-year-old, so I decided to find any freelancing platforms.

It was difficult to choose a platform, but I finally found the Ukrainian freelancing platform, which is called weblancer.net.

The first job I found for only 5$, and it was moving files from the local computer to the web server and setting up the environment

Since May 2012, I realized that I can develop in the freelancer direction. Thus I worked after and before the main work, on weekends, and slept only 4-6 hours. After some time, I improved my skills as a web-developer, found regular customers, and continued my professional growth.

Two years have passed that I combine freelance and primary job, and now in the freelance direction, the salary is 3 times higher. Since 28.02.2014, I left my primary job and have been working as a freelancer.

2014

6 months have passed since I left the Lysychansk Refinery, and I have no regrets about anything. I have been learning a lot of new information about web-programming, became a private entrepreneur, and much more...
Note. At the bottom of the main site of Lysychansk Refinery, you can find information about the developer who created this site, and that was me :)
Warm May on the street means that six months have passed, and I can summarize the past tense. The crisis in Russia and Ukraine caught me, and my salary was frozen at the level of December 2014. But that didn't stop me from studying. For instance, since January 2015, I am using the Linux system as a default for my laptop.
I plan to write a personal project by the end of the year on one of the popular PHP platforms and increase my English level to intermediate.

2015

End of 2015, a great time to sum up the past year. Since August, I left the web studio where I worked and totally switched to freelance. Improved English proficiency, but it's still at Pre-Intermediate. In my plans to continue learning English, PHP frameworks and looking for a new job.
Note. I found a new job and now working as a remote PHP Developer in a small start-up company. The primary responsibility is to write new functionality on the Yii2 framework and integrate it with Memcached and Sphinx.
In August 2016, I ended my career as a freelancer and changed my home workplace to a real office in Kharkiv, so now I live and work here. My current position is Middle PHP Developer, and this is great :)
The main goal for the current year is to increase English proficiency to an average level.

2016

A new year outside the window, and today 30.12.2016. Time to take stock of last year. Six months left, but I didn't see any professional improvements because the significant project uses an old version of PHP without any frameworks and innovations.
However, I learned how to work with a new system called Piwik and explored the Angular2 JS framework. Besides, working with a foreign customer gave me an impetus to improve my English knowledge. As a result, my goal for this year has been achieved.
March of 2017. I quit my previous job because there was no professional growth. One product company proposed a new job, but its office is located in another city called Lviv. It was a hard decision for my family. However, we accepted the offer and moved to the capital city of IT in Ukraine. So, now I work as a web application developer(full-stack) in the company, which doesn't fear to use hi-tech.

2017

Day before new year (31.12.2017)
The year was hard but exciting. The company I work for fully lives up to my expectations.
The next year's primary goal is to rise from the developer position to the manager and try to work as a team leader. Of course, do not forget to continue learning English.
June 2018
The main goal is achieved, and in May, I started working as a team leader. New opportunities, new connections, new knowledge, that's all I expect from a new position.

2018

December 2018
Significant changes have taken place in the IT company where I work since 2017. From October 2018, they changed structures and decided to use Scrum methodology instead of a Waterfall.
After these changes, all leadership positions became unnecessary, and I got a developer position again.
All my free time try to spend on improvement, reading books and walking with my family. I also read 8 books this year, half of which were technical literature and the other on business and time management.
March 2019
The year started with bad news, the company I worked for did not raise a new round of investments. For this reason, 70% of employees were fired, including me.
However, in two weeks, I found a new job in a global company where I started work as a Senior Software Developer.

2019

December 2019
The second part of the year was very eventful. I met new colleagues, and we did a great job. From the very beginning, when I started working in this company, our team has grown from 3 people to 15. A big plus is that we can share knowledge with each other.
On the other hand, this year was the most difficult from a financial point of view. Our local currency was growing, and this reduced my salary by almost 20%, plus my wrong action at the start of the year to invest in a dubious business turned into a loss of money. However, received significant experience and made conclusions.
January 2020
A great day to write a new paragraph about my becoming. This year started much better than the previous one, which means that the efforts are directed correctly.
I have planned a lot of things and hope to have time to cover everything this year. Moreover, I continue to develop myself by reading books and articles on various topics (technical/finance).

2020

December 2020
It was a challenging year, and all world felt it. COVID-19 changed a lot in our regular life, but many of the changes were positive. For instance, I spent a lot of time with my family, discovered many new beautiful places, and realized that I can work anywhere.
The main direction this year for me was self-development and health.
My motivators in 2020 are books, pet projects/businesses, and my family.
The conclusion from this year:
* Try to travel anywhere where you can, at least once per month
* Buy a vehicle. It will open new travel destinations for you
* Exercise regularly (any sport)
* Health check-up once per year
* Reduce time in social networks and online games
* Build a better budget
* Read more books
* Drink less alcohol
* Create your own plan for the future and try to think about actions that you need to do for a successful finish
December 2021
It’s rare that I managed to set aside time right before the New Year and fully analyze the past year. So it’s already becoming a tradition that in mid of January, I sum up, draw conclusions in one direction or another, and also make plans for next year. The year 2021 was so full of various activities that some of them can only be remembered by opening google photos...

What I remember the most:
* We bought a car and drove over 10,000 km by Ukrainian roads in 9 months. Sometimes it was hard physically, but emotionally it was worth it.
* At the end of the year, we moved to an almost empty, but our own, apartment and now we are officially Lviv residents. There is still a lot that should be done/bought in the apartment, but no longer worry that tomorrow the owner will come and kick you out into the street
* Achieved really good results in sports -> 85kg bench press
* I have read more than 15 books in a year.

Conclusions:
* Continue to travel and visit new places. Also, while traveling, instead of music, listen to audiobooks/podcasts
* Meet and communicate more with proactive people
* Don't be shy about being yourself and don't worry about what other people think about you
* Dedicate time to the family and each family member individually
* Read books on various topics
* Do sport and monitor your health. We have only one body and should not neglect it
* Be positive
* Apartment renovation is expensive...

2021-2022

24.02.2022
There were plans, a new car, and our own apartment. Now it is in the past, and the WAR has begun.
Russia, like Nazi Germany in 1941, without warnings, at 5 in the morning, began to bomb our cities. No one could even imagine that in the 21st century this is possible.
How long it will be going on? What will be next? No one knows, but certainly nothing good in the near future.
But, should not despair. Even in the current situation, I have a job, a beloved family, and many relatives who have lost everything and need my support.
Everything that was done before was not in vain and I became stronger and smarter.
To be continued...
March 2023
Having analysed the previous years, I can say with certainty that a lot has been done right. For example, knowledge of English and programming now helps a lot not to depend on any employer or country of residence. We'll see what happens next, but life goes on. The main goal for this year is to find a balance between work, rest, family and self-development. Life as seen in 2022 is very unpredictable and can go abruptly to the worst possible scenario. It is therefore necessary to enjoy life when you can and not put vacations/holidays on hold...

2023-2024

January 2024
As I wrap up projects and savour the holiday spirit, I'm taking stock of 2023's milestones. One thing I've realized is that AI is entering our IT life as fast as possible and you need to be aware of everything that is happening with it now and use it to the maximum or you will soon be thrown over the fence.
January 2025
The main highlight of the past year (2024) was successfully completing the migration of the brand I had been working with for almost six years into the company’s internal structure. That part is done, but now there’s uncertainty ahead: what exactly I’ll be working on and which programming language I’ll be using.
Goals for 2025:
* Finalize all legalization documents.
* Learn Polish to at least A2-B1 level to make everyday communication easier.
* Keep exploring ways to earn extra income beyond my main job and dive deeper into investing. I especially want to understand stocks, bonds, and how to diversify income better.
* Continuing to learn Java at a deeper level, AWS and CI/CD best practices (GitHub Actions)
Life goes on...

2025-2026

January 2026
The year 2025 brought unexpected professional pivots. Instead of the planned deep dive into Java, team restructuring led me to a new technology stack — Go (Golang). However, the most significant shift was realising that in the era of AI, a developer's role is transforming into an architect who guides AI tools to build solutions efficiently.
Goals for 2026:
* Master Go and fully integrate AI workflows into development.
* Shift focus from just writing code to delivering complete products and solutions.
* Maintain stability and inner peace, regardless of external circumstances.