Yanko Tropchev loves to learn—and now, he’s sharing that love with his colleagues as a trainer for Intuitive. Below, Yanko reflects on his decision to leave his home in Bulgaria for two years to learn a new role in Germany, explains what it’s like for new employees training to build endoscopes for da Vinci, and shares his excitement about Intuitive’s new location in Bulgaria, which he’ll soon return home to help launch.
What do you do at Intuitive, and why did you join the team?
I’m an assembler specialist, which means I build our endoscopes—a surgeon’s eyes into a patient’s body. I’m trained in every part of the production process, from zero to 100% complete, and recently I’ve started to work as a trainer myself.
Before I came here, I spent 11 years at Schölly-Optix in Bulgaria, where I’m from, and Intuitive was one of our customers. So I’m not a newbie to this work! When Intuitive announced plans to build a new location in Parvomay, Bulgaria, my boss at Schölly-Optix joined the team, and I said, “Count me in.” I was on board right away.
Because that location is still being built, I moved to Germany for training. I do miss Bulgaria, as I knew I would. But the decision itself was easy, because my goal is always to learn as much as I can. That’s just the way I am. And this is an interesting job—with a lot of opportunity to grow. Intuitive is a fast-growing company with so much potential; the work we are doing here is the future. Plus, I get to help people all over the world. 
How was the transition for you—working for a new company, and also living in a new country?
Moving was the hard part. We have an old saying in Bulgaria, “The stone is happy in its own place.” And I was! But we are here to learn, and working for Intuitive has been very good. I’ve especially enjoyed becoming a trainer. When you can show someone what you know and share with them the way you think and the things you do, it’s the best feeling. I’m an extrovert—I like people, and I can put myself in their shoes. I can feel how much the people I train want to do well, and see their potential to become leaders themselves.
What is it like for new hires learning to build these complex machines?
It seems complicated at first, and that can be scary. The parts we work with are so small—the lenses in our endoscopes are just two or three millimeters—and if you haven’t worked in this area before, it feels like another dimension.
You will make mistakes in the beginning. That happens to everyone, because learning takes time—it was the same for me when I started. So you have to be patient. But whenever you have an issue, everyone here is always ready to help. If you have a question or a problem, no matter what it is, all you have to do is ask.
Eventually you get used to the process, and it doesn’t feel as complex. And when you get to the point where you can build products on your own—once you can hold it in your hand and look at what you’ve made—you’ll just want to do even more.
You also get to learn from multiple people. Every new hire gets two deputized trainers, so they can see more than one way of working. Of course we are all strictly following the same instructions. But I have my own ways of working and teaching, and my colleague Georgi might have different ways. If you spend half your time with each of us, you’ll get to combine our knowledge. 
What are you looking forward to in the months and years ahead?
When the new building in Parvomay is ready, I’m going back to Bulgaria and will be a supervisor on two lines. Eventually, my goal is to become a production manager, which means I need to continue my education; I have studied management before, but it was a long time ago. Intuitive is going to help me get additional training.
I’m also excited about the future of the Parvomay location itself. We’ll be starting with smaller numbers, but we’ll keep hiring and training as we scale. And eventually we plan to expand beyond endoscopes into making other instruments. So there will be lots of interesting new things to explore in the future. I’m looking forward to using all the knowledge I’ve gained over the years, but also to learning more from everything I do.
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If you are looking to launch your manufacturing career at home in Bulgaria, check out our open roles here: https://careers.intuitive.com/en/jobs/?location=Parvomay
