How to get a job at Bolt. Nurbolda Chorobaev's experience

A Senior Software Engineer at Bolt shares insights on relocation, the specifics of working in an international IT company, and advice for those planning to build a career abroad. Read more in our interview.

Nurbol Chorobaev, City — Tallinn, Estonia, Senior Software Engineer, Instagram

About Me

I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Bolt, one of Europe’s leading companies in ride-hailing and on-demand services. The Bolt ecosystem includes taxi services, food delivery, scooter and bike rentals, as well as car-sharing.

I specialize in the Bolt Taxi division, where I am responsible for developing and enhancing the mobile application for drivers. My role extends beyond mobile development: I participate in creating and supporting backend functionality, collaborate with the product team, and make decisions that impact product development.

My responsibilities include developing new features and improving existing solutions, working on architecture and code quality, participating in product discussions, identifying technical constraints, helping adjust requirements, and overseeing changes from idea to implementation.

I have been working at Bolt for about three years—I joined in late January 2023 and have held my current position since then.

How I Joined Bolt

My career path was somewhat unconventional. Previously, I rarely applied for jobs on my own: I got my first job through acquaintances, and before that, I worked as a freelancer. Subsequent offers mostly came through LinkedIn. When I applied directly on my own, I usually didn’t pass—possibly due to insufficient preparation. Therefore, most opportunities came via LinkedIn, and it likely played a role that my profile was well-optimized and frequently appeared in search results.

Regarding Bolt and the move, it happened in 2022, right after completing my bachelor’s degree in Bishkek. When my student status ended, I started thinking about the next step in my career. At that time, recruiters from Bolt and Tinkoff reached out to me. I went through both processes but chose Bolt. Interestingly, before my first contact, I didn’t know the office was in Tallinn—I mistakenly read the city name “Tallinn” as “Thailand,” agreed to the meeting, and later realized it was about Estonia.

At that time, I didn’t specifically prepare for interviews. Before joining Bolt, I worked remotely for a European company with a branch in Georgia. The process looked something like this: a meeting with a recruiter, a technical interview on Android, live coding with mobile development tasks, and questions on algorithms and basic computer science knowledge. After that, there was team matching, and the first team I met with appealed to me—it was the driver app team with interesting technical challenges, such as geolocation, and stable, long-term app maintenance.

The difference from some Big Tech companies is that stages here are sequential: if you fail one stage, you don’t move forward, whereas in Big Tech, you usually go through all interviews first, and the decision is made afterward.

Work Specifics

I work in the Driver team, which is responsible for the taxi driver application. My main task is to develop new features, maintain existing ones, optimize the app, and monitor the state of the codebase. This is extremely important because drivers use the app constantly, and any failures directly affect their work and income.

Beyond development, we also engage in product work. We analyze how drivers use the app, what is important to them, and how they earn money. We don’t just execute tasks assigned by the product manager; we propose more pragmatic solutions, simplify functionality, and sometimes solve problems by changing text or the interface without complex development. This is the key difference: we are expected to think like a product team, not just developers.

I mainly write code for new features and maintain existing ones. Sometimes I have to work with the backend—describing logic, fixing system interactions, and optimizing them. We also write automated tests, component tests, and UI tests to ensure the app works correctly.

At Bolt, we use native Android (Kotlin), iOS (Swift), and backend (Node.js with TypeScript). CI/CD is implemented via GitHub Actions. The backend is quite convenient: most of the infrastructure and automation tools are handled, leaving the developer to write code and use ready-made UI components for admin panels and service interfaces.

Work challenges are related to balancing quality and speed. Bolt is a large corporation with a startup culture heritage, so fast experiments, A/B tests, and hypothesis validation are important. The platform operates in different countries, and requirements, interfaces, and processes can vary significantly depending on the region.

Another challenge is internal perfectionism. Often, you want to do everything perfectly, but some decisions are temporary, and if a hypothesis isn’t confirmed, the feature will simply be removed. You need to know how to adapt, move quickly, and avoid getting bogged down in excessive perfectionism.

Professional growth at Bolt is high. Projects are constantly changing, and you are responsible for the entire work cycle—from idea to handing over results to other teams. Within the company, you can change teams and directions, for example, moving from Driver to Rider or to the dynamic pricing division. There is a budget of about €750 per year for courses, conferences, and books for learning.

Key skills for working here are discipline and consistency to maintain a steady pace, continuous learning, and confidence that helps discuss tasks, clarify requirements, and propose solutions.

A feature of Bolt compared to local companies is scale. One update to the Driver App affects about three million drivers. A few minutes of downtime can cost hundreds of thousands of euros. The work culture is restrained: minimal talk, maximum focus.

Pros of working abroad include competitive salary, product scale, strong processes, and a culture of responsibility. Cons include high intensity and the risk of burnout without the ability to set boundaries.

For success in the profession, consistency in learning, development, and maintaining oneself in shape is important, including algorithmic preparation for future interviews.

About Life Abroad

First, I found a job, and only then did I handle relocation. I went through three online interviews, chose a team, signed a contract, and then the relocation process began. Bolt has its own Global Mobility team that handles company relocations. They took care of all issues: collected necessary documents, organized the entire process, planned work with the consulate and local Spanish agencies to obtain a residence permit. Everything was thought through from all sides, and I only had to perform the necessary actions.

The visa was processed in Georgia—it’s faster there than in Kazakhstan. All expenses were covered: tickets, insurance, temporary housing. I was also helped with finding permanent housing, including the first month of residence and the deposit.

A person was assigned to me to help with finding permanent housing. All expenses were covered: the first month of residence, deposit, tickets, and other commissions. Overall, the relocation process went quickly. Now I am in Estonia, where the digital state system allows solving almost all issues online, without bureaucracy and long queues.

If I were to give advice to those planning to work abroad, I would say not to be afraid of borders and conditions in other countries. When working abroad, of course, you sometimes miss home, but that shouldn’t stop you. It’s important to understand that you shouldn’t compare yourself to what people show on social media, where it seems like everyone travels and lives perfectly. You need to listen to yourself and your capabilities, rely on your experience and preparation. If you have good experience and skills, you can always find a job in any country. The main thing is to know how to present yourself correctly and use your strengths.

Many who work abroad in large companies achieve success, and this experience can be useful for the IT market in Central Asia. The universal potential is great. There is an opportunity to transfer experience from an international company to local conditions, create products without cross-border issues, and contribute to the development of the region’s IT sector. Of course, this doesn’t suit everyone, but for those who are ready, the opportunities are huge, and experience working abroad can be useful and convenient.

I used to not analyze what helps get into good companies. Now I have identified several points.

First, a quality LinkedIn profile: I have linked my profile to LeetCode, indicated participation in olympiads, and asked colleagues for recommendations.

Second, it is useful to listen to podcasts and interview breakdowns—it helps develop an “interview feel.” For deep technical interviews, you need to improve your algorithms, and AI can help with this.

For behavioral interviews, I recommend studying the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—and the book Cracking the Coding Interview. Chapters on behavioral interviews and algorithm basics are especially useful. It’s important to remember: at work, we are often taught to say “we,” but in interviews, you need to say “I”—what exactly you did and what contribution you made.