Let's talk about Data Engineering

... with a little bit about yourself. Could you tell us about your background and how you came to join New Work SE? 

I was born and I’ve always lived in Valencia. I share my home with my boyfriend and my two lovely cats, who go to great lengths every day to try to kill all the plants that come into the house.

I’ve always been a very sporty person and because I am close to my mid-life crisis, I have joined one of the trendy cults: that's why I recently started doing — CrossFit.

As for my professional background, I studied Software Engineering and did a master's in data science, so I pulled a "Hannah Montana" and took the best of both worlds, becoming a Data Engineer.

How much previous experience did you have before applying to us?

Actually, very little. At that time, I was working at the company where I did my Master’s internship. After that, I had the chance to keep working there, so I did. It's fun to look back on it, because with that very little experience, I applied to some openings for Senior Data Engineer. I obviously did not have enough experience for that position.

But at the time, a co-worker had a friend working at XING and after talking to her, she encouraged me to apply. I joined as Junior Data engineer for another team that needed that role but had not yet officially opened a vacancy.

What do you like most about your job as a Data Engineer?

As Data Engineer, I’ve always worked with multiple teams, giving services for specific needs or interconnecting different parts of their workflows. I tend to see it as solving a puzzle, usually with multiple solutions. It's really fun and especially discussing with other team members their views on how to address the problem is very enriching.

How would you describe a typical workday?

It usually depends on the day, but on average I say good morning to the team and prepare a good coffee (this is the secret spice to have a great day—trust me). I start by catching up with messages and emails if there are any, and then I work a little until the daily with the team, where I share my updates.

Then, I continue working, either solo on a task or with someone from the team. Eventually, I have meetings to sync up on specific initiatives.

Aside from that, I try not to get exhausted, so I take several breaks throughout the day: that translates if I am at the office, that means having a drink and chatting with someone, and if I’m at home I play a little with my cats.

How is your team organized? Do you work a lot by yourself or a lot with others?

We basically have a remote setup. As part of that, we try to organize information by topic/initiative, so we have everything in the same place. This means we have channels for each project, and if someone is going to work on something and needs to talk about it, we can do it either synchronously via a call or asynchronously by dropping a message.

In that sense, we try to keep everyone up to date with everything and reflect on it with high transparency.

To what extent do you feel you can contribute with your own ideas and create impact through your work?

I really enjoy working here because we have room to be creative and define how we want to develop projects.

XING is part of New Work SE, which is why we would be interested to know why working for us is so special for you.

It is the biggest company I’ve worked at so far. At the beginning, it could feel overwhelming, but people here are super kind, and you have always a chance to learn something new every day while having a good time together.