One of the joys of the past decade was to assemble our team. Some of our colleagues are with us since day one, others joined the fun a little bit down the road. In both cases, it is exciting to see their careers evolve together with the company. Get inspired by two new career stories, from the second installment of our mini-series on Qubiz team members’ professional journeys (click here for previous episodes).
Ionut’s first interview was a total disaster. But the recruiting team liked him as a person, so they also gave him tips on how to grow professionally. A year later we were impressed by his progress and hired him as a mid-level tester. This is how he recalls the years that followed.
After 13 years of working at the same company, I felt that I’m not making any progress. I applied at Qubiz because I heard good things about the company. The major failure at the first interview only made me more ambitious.
I followed the recruiting team suggestions and was pleased by the progress I made. The second interview was a much happier experience!
The community! I’m glad to be part of a very supportive team, ready to help out or advise. In environments like this, it’s easy to thrive. Additionally, obtaining the ISTQB certification offered me both a framework for learning and the confidence that I’m doing a good job.
Usually, formal recognition comes after you have proved that you are capable of handling the new responsibilities. You are truly a senior when your teammates and the client knows that they can rely on you and when your peers are turning to you for technical advice. The icing on the cake is to hold workshops for your colleagues.
Right now, my main focus is becoming a natural at taking care of my responsibilities. I am confident that when this happens, the next steps will be self-evident.
We met Alina in 2017 and her personality, energy, optimism (and resume) made a great impression on us. Our only concern was that we needed a specialist, and she was more of an IT generalist. Nonetheless, Alina seemed to be a good fit for Qubiz, so we hired her. Read on to see what happened next.
My career manager had a great plan for me: trying out different roles for a couple of months to see what fits me best. I started as a business intelligence developer, but I soon realized that I’d like more human interaction. The next bet was business analysis (BA). Basically, the job was to understand the business and to “translate” the requirements to the developers.
Here I found what I was looking for, so I stuck to the role and the team. Additionally, I took over the PM and scrum master roles in an internal project.
First and foremost, the quality of my contribution. Working as a “generalist” lacked the focus one needs to develop. As a business analyst, I can concentrate on my share of the “pie“ and become better at what I do with each project. This also translates to a more profound contribution. Another aspect of my work is advising the development team (aka consultancy).
I guess the crucial aspect of any change is the shift in mentality. I had a technical mindset, but in this role, I learned to focus on the functionalities. It also helped to understand that I shouldn’t take developers’ objections personal. This made me more confident, persistent and assertive.
The challenge itself was my main motivation in this growing process. My career manager was always open to answer my questions or to direct me to the best resources. Also, one can not discount the role of intuition. I guess you learn the most by actually doing the job and making the necessary adjustments on the go.
I feel that I’ve found my sweet spot, a role where I can do what like to do and have a major impact on the project. So, my next move is to step up my “BA game”.