Biography

Borislav Dostumski

Self-Taught Software Engineer — Sofia, Bulgaria

INTJ-A · HackerRank


Biography

Back-end engineer by trade. Self-taught by choice.

It started in 1999 — a overclocked Pentium III, a stack of books, and more Windows re-installs than I care to remember. The curiosity never changed, only the tools.

I use Arch, BTW.

Emacs is not just my editor — it is my operating environment. From writing code and managing projects with Org Mode to publishing this very website, Emacs is the lens through which I interact with my digital world. Its infinite extensibility mirrors the self-taught philosophy: If something doesn't exist, you build it yourself.

Vim lives in my muscle memory. Whether editing a configuration files or navigating code at speed with Evil Mode inside Emacs, Vim keybindings are the language my fingers speak.

Arch Linux is my OS of choice because it refuses to make decisions for you. A minimal base, a rolling release, and the legendary ArchWiki — Arch rewards those who want to understand every layer of their system.


Technical Skills

Languages

Language Notes
Java Primary — Spring, OOP, Data Structures
SQL PostgreSQL, MySQL — queries, schema, tuning
JavaScript / TS Node.js, Express, REST APIs, Jest
Emacs Lisp Org Mode, site tooling, Emacs config
PHP Web origins, custom business apps
C / C++ Self-taught foundations
Bash / Shell Daily use on Arch Linux

Frameworks & Tools

Area Technologies
Back-end Spring Boot, Spring Security, Spring Cloud, Node.js
Auth OAuth2, JWT, Role-based access control
Databases PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis
Messaging RabbitMQ, Kafka
DevOps Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, AWS
Editor / OS Emacs (Evil, Magit, Org), Vim, Arch Linux
Version Ctrl Git, Magit

Experience

Software Engineer

~2020 – Present

  • Back-end services and REST APIs in Java / Spring Boot
  • Security: Spring Security, OAuth2, JWT, session and token auth
  • Micro-services: Eureka, API Gateway, Feign, RabbitMQ, Kafka, Docker, Kubernetes
  • Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB — schema design, indexing, data modeling
  • Node.js APIs: JWT auth, file uploads, email, Stripe payments
  • Custom Arch Linux development environment with Emacs as primary IDE

Entrepreneur — Construction Business

~2007 – ~2020 · Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

  • Co-founded and ran a construction business with my father
  • Full life cycle: production, marketing, sales, contracts, business management
  • Built a WordPress site that brought in significant new customers
  • Built a custom PHP app to track orders, customers, income, and expenses

Languages

Language Level
Bulgarian Native
English Intermediate
Elisp Conversational 😄