Irina Murtazaeva decided to put her trusted colleague to work and challenged Pontus Strand to be this week’s mindit chats spotlight!
Let’s have a look at how our chat with Pontus went.
1. What’s something that happened to you that can only happen here? What’s unique about mindit.io?
I don’t buy into the concept of uniqueness, what makes mindit.io unique is not one or a few things, it is the combination of the people working here, the company values, and all other things that are a part of the community.
I will, however, like to share something that I never experienced at another company. Towards the end of the craziness of Covid our founder, Irina Arsene, posted a question on an internal chat. The question was “would we commit to coming back to the office for at least one day per week”. The result was a discussion that lasted for many days and involved many people, representing opinions from all over the spectrum.
2. How have you grown professionally while on our team?
Given that I have passed the half-way point of my working life I would say my growth is slower these now compared to early on in my career, which I think is only natural. These 3+ years at mindit.io has mainly brought incremental improvements, the main big growth has been to become more of a technical leader. In the past I have worked with truly brilliant technical leaders, so it has been fun to try that out a bit for myself.
The problem-solving capabilities has also increased with additional tools and skills, more to come though
3. What was the moment you knew you’d made the right decision to work here?
I can’t recall the exact reason that I applied for a job at mindit.io, but something triggered me. After the first interview I was very excited and felt that mindit.io is a very good match. That feeling has not gone away.
4. How would you describe an ideal day at work?
An ideal day would have no meetings, just time to work on the tasks at hand. Ideally the task would have some interesting technical challenges, lately database performance has been something that has triggered me. There should be enough time to approach the problem with a scientific mindset; have an idea, implement it, measure (before and after), analyze the outcome, adjust the idea.
Having a few moments to crack a few jokes, post silly memes and/or GIFs, would be good too.
5. What is your team like?
Pretty darn amazing (that is one word, right?).
6. If you could swap jobs with anyone in mindit.io for a day, who would it be and why? What do you think would be the most surprising thing about their role?
This is probably a “boring” answer, but I wouldn’t want to swap jobs, I like what do and do what I do well.
7. Which benefits are your favorite and why?
#minditnomad, to have the option to work from anywhere in the world is just beyond amazing. That we have houses and apartments around Romania that we can use for free is icing on the cake.
8. What advice would you give to anyone thinking about joining mindit.io?
In the wise words of Master Yoda, “do or do not, there is no try” Jokes aside, it is difficult to give generic advice as we all have different dreams, desires, goals, etc., with our career. Think about what you want out of work for the next couple of years, then look at mindit.io and make an educated guess if mindit.io can give you what you want.
Check out the fantastic opportunities in our OPEN ROLES, and think about taking the plunge to be part of our team today!
9. What is the mindit.io value you feel the most and how you do you live it?
I am a huge fan of teamwork, working together as a group to solve a problem, to help each other, to teach each other. I take great comfort in the fact that I have a whole team of people who have my back and whose back I have as well.
10. If you could do anything else for a living, in an alternative universe, what would that be?
Assuming that the alternative universe has the same professions as ours, I would go with running a tea place. It would be a nice, quiet oasis where people can drink good teas and eat tasty pastries. Another possibility would be to study history, as that is something that has always fascinated me.
On the other hand, if that alternative universe is vastly different from ours, I think I would like to be someone’s spoiled house pet.
11. What movie, book, or TV show would you recommend? How do you relax and unwind?
I relax mainly by playing games (on mobile or computer) and by watching shows on streaming services. Hanging out and cuddling with my cat, Sunny, is also a good option, when he allows it.
Walking and running (jogging is perhaps more accurate) also help with relaxing and sorting out problems.
Anything Star Wars is fun for me. But my favorite is a documentary series called Air Crash Investigation. I like their approach to finding out why accidents happen, and that their goal is to make things better for the future. That general principle is something that we in the software industry are trying to mimic, but we still have some ways to go, I think.
12. Who would you tag next to be interviewed by us?
Someone I don’t know (at around 250 employees it is impossible to know all) and who has worked maybe around six months at mindit.io. This in order to avoid passing it someone I already know…
Irina Murtazaeva decided to put her trusted colleague to work and challenged Pontus Strand to be this week’s mindit chats spotlight!
Let’s have a look at how our chat with Pontus went.
1. What’s something that happened to you that can only happen here? What’s unique about mindit.io?
I don’t buy into the concept of uniqueness, what makes mindit.io unique is not one or a few things, it is the combination of the people working here, the company values, and all other things that are a part of the community.
I will, however, like to share something that I never experienced at another company. Towards the end of the craziness of Covid our founder, Irina Arsene, posted a question on an internal chat. The question was “would we commit to coming back to the office for at least one day per week”. The result was a discussion that lasted for many days and involved many people, representing opinions from all over the spectrum.
2. How have you grown professionally while on our team?
Given that I have passed the half-way point of my working life I would say my growth is slower these now compared to early on in my career, which I think is only natural. These 3+ years at mindit.io has mainly brought incremental improvements, the main big growth has been to become more of a technical leader. In the past I have worked with truly brilliant technical leaders, so it has been fun to try that out a bit for myself.
The problem-solving capabilities has also increased with additional tools and skills, more to come though
3. What was the moment you knew you’d made the right decision to work here?
I can’t recall the exact reason that I applied for a job at mindit.io, but something triggered me. After the first interview I was very excited and felt that mindit.io is a very good match. That feeling has not gone away.
4. How would you describe an ideal day at work?
An ideal day would have no meetings, just time to work on the tasks at hand. Ideally the task would have some interesting technical challenges, lately database performance has been something that has triggered me. There should be enough time to approach the problem with a scientific mindset; have an idea, implement it, measure (before and after), analyze the outcome, adjust the idea.
Having a few moments to crack a few jokes, post silly memes and/or GIFs, would be good too.
5. What is your team like?
Pretty darn amazing (that is one word, right?).
6. If you could swap jobs with anyone in mindit.io for a day, who would it be and why? What do you think would be the most surprising thing about their role?
This is probably a “boring” answer, but I wouldn’t want to swap jobs, I like what do and do what I do well.
7. Which benefits are your favorite and why?
#minditnomad, to have the option to work from anywhere in the world is just beyond amazing. That we have houses and apartments around Romania that we can use for free is icing on the cake.
8. What advice would you give to anyone thinking about joining mindit.io?
In the wise words of Master Yoda, “do or do not, there is no try” Jokes aside, it is difficult to give generic advice as we all have different dreams, desires, goals, etc., with our career. Think about what you want out of work for the next couple of years, then look at mindit.io and make an educated guess if mindit.io can give you what you want.
Check out the fantastic opportunities in our OPEN ROLES, and think about taking the plunge to be part of our team today!
9. What is the mindit.io value you feel the most and how you do you live it?
I am a huge fan of teamwork, working together as a group to solve a problem, to help each other, to teach each other. I take great comfort in the fact that I have a whole team of people who have my back and whose back I have as well.
10. If you could do anything else for a living, in an alternative universe, what would that be?
Assuming that the alternative universe has the same professions as ours, I would go with running a tea place. It would be a nice, quiet oasis where people can drink good teas and eat tasty pastries. Another possibility would be to study history, as that is something that has always fascinated me.
On the other hand, if that alternative universe is vastly different from ours, I think I would like to be someone’s spoiled house pet.
11. What movie, book, or TV show would you recommend? How do you relax and unwind?
I relax mainly by playing games (on mobile or computer) and by watching shows on streaming services. Hanging out and cuddling with my cat, Sunny, is also a good option, when he allows it.
Walking and running (jogging is perhaps more accurate) also help with relaxing and sorting out problems.
Anything Star Wars is fun for me. But my favorite is a documentary series called Air Crash Investigation. I like their approach to finding out why accidents happen, and that their goal is to make things better for the future. That general principle is something that we in the software industry are trying to mimic, but we still have some ways to go, I think.
12. Who would you tag next to be interviewed by us?
Someone I don’t know (at around 250 employees it is impossible to know all) and who has worked maybe around six months at mindit.io. This in order to avoid passing it someone I already know…
