You don’t need a perfect plan: Paulius built his future by staying curious and building as he went

Rarely do people arrive at their dream job with a clear map. Some take several detours, like studying transport economics, working with premium chocolate, and exploring remote work opportunities before realizing where they really want to be. And if that sounds oddly specific, it’s because it is.

That’s how our very own Paulius Sakalauskas ended up as a programmer at Omnisend. It wasn’t a straight path, but it was his.

From chocolate to coding

Paulius always had a thing for tech. Even as a kid, he was known as the IT guy. You know the type — every neighborhood had one.

But when university applications rolled around, he realized a bit too late that he hadn’t taken the right subjects to actually apply for IT. So he quickly pivoted to transport engineering economics.

That impromptu path eventually led to two degrees, a stint studying abroad in Denmark, and surprisingly, a job managing premium chocolate sales (a career nowhere near transport engineering, mind you).

His second gig was closer to the tech world: working as a sales manager for computer hardware and video games, and later as a distributor. But this role had a twist — it was remote.

“In the beginning, I liked the independence. It was way before the pandemic, so it wasn’t a usual thing to work from home and people around me were fascinated by that,” Paulius says.

“But over time, I started to miss collaboration, communication, a bit of a challenge. It got monotonous. In a way, you wake up and go to sleep at your work.”

So he did what a lot of people dream about and few actually do: he retrained.

Paulius enrolled in backend development courses. He started with the basics but quickly realized he needed something more advanced — so he leveled up.

“Going up a level made a difference. It became like a full-time job, because we were studying all day. I learned a lot and eventually even started to teach kids to code in that same school.”

Building something from zero

When Paulius sent in his resume to Omnisend, he didn’t feel very confident in his coding skills yet, so he was aiming for a QA role. The team liked his task so much that they offered him something different: to help build technical support from scratch.

“There wasn’t a tech support team yet,” he explains. “So instead of joining a system, I was helping to create it.”

For a year and a half, he structured workflows, trained newcomers, and helped build something that would continue without him. When it did, he shifted into the role he’d been working toward all along: backend development.

Now, five years in, he’s still programming at Omnisend.

The mindset behind the journey

There are a lot of stories about people making “the leap” into tech. But what stands out in Paulius’ story is how real and relatable it is. 

“I don’t plan life changes in detail. I just try something and see if it works. That probably sounds a little irresponsible, but so far it works well for me.”

That curiosity shows up in small ways too. Like the fact that Paulius, having zero musical background, joined a men’s choir just to try something new. He compares it to riding a motorcycle:

“If you focus on the potholes, that’s where you’ll go. But if you keep your eyes on the road, you steer around. Same with life — if you move toward something, that’s where you’ll end up.”

At Omnisend, we don’t expect every new employee to show up fully formed. We don’t think your first degree or your last job title should define what you’re capable of. If anything, we tend to bet on people who are still shaping their path.

People like Paulius remind us that you don’t always need the “right” background. You just need the right mindset and a company that gives you room to grow.

And maybe a choir or two along the way.