You have more chances of kicking the Earth off its orbit than you have trying to make Bianca Paraschiv stop smiling when she’s talking about mindit.io, and all the other things she holds dear to her heart.

That’s why Eugen Banculescu really nailed it when he tagged Bianca to be next in our mindit chats series.

1. What's something that happened to you that can only happen here? What's a unique part about working here?

Everything is unique about mindit.io. I remember back when I first started here that whenever I came to the office, I had that feeling that I was stepping inside a really familiar place. Sure, our cozy interior design helps, and I was familiar with the organizational culture beforehand, but still. It was something special.

The people, the kindness, and the warmth you feel here, the moment you step into any of our offices, are truly unique. You can immediately sense that. This was the first impact I had with mindit.io.

During the first month of being here, I interacted with so many people, got acquainted with a new industry, and I was writing down everything I was hearing left and right, even if most of the stuff wasn’t even related to my role. I filled up two agendas within 30 days.

That’s another thing that’s unique about mindit.io. You can start at your own pace. You can take it slow, read up on everything you need to before starting, or you can take the full hands-on approach. The choice is completely up to you, which is not something you’ll find in most places.

2. How have you grown professionally while on our team?

What I’ve learned here in the past 3 years since joining mindit.io far exceeds the other 12 years (and some change) of my professional career since then. It’s clear as day to me that I’m a completely different professional and person altogether.

Comparing myself with Bianca from the past I feel like the number of things and experiences I’ve been through during these last couple of years is unbelievable.

I’m proud of myself both professionally and personally for having the courage to come here, and I’m thankful for all the mindit.io people that trusted me even with more difficult tasks when I wasn’t even sure of what I was capable of doing.

Straight from the get-go, I was told to make mistakes, to fail, to draw conclusions and to learn from all these experiences. Before coming here, for me, making a mistake was literally the worst thing you can do in life, and it came with egregious consequences. Here, everybody makes mistakes. That’s how we learn. That’s how we grow. This is what allowed me and mindit.io to grow exponentially over the past couple of years.

I know it sounds kind of cliché, but all these things are rewarding and I’m grateful for them every single day.

3. What was the moment you knew you'd made the right decision to work here?

It’s in my DNA to be a very calculated person, although I’m working on it to go a little bit more with the flow from time to time. I remember that I had made the decision of joining mindit.io right on my birthday.

I told myself that this was my gift to myself. A new challenge. And since then, I’ve never looked back.

I analyzed everything before coming here, weighing in the PROs and CONs, and I knew that after 12 years of working in corporations that mindit.io is the place I need to go to for new challenges and new career opportunities. I have no doubts that I landed in the right spot. Exactly where I needed to be.

As time went by, there were numerous other moments that reaffirmed my decision of coming here as being the best career and life choice I had ever made.

Before, when I was working in a large multinational, if I had an idea or a suggestion, I had to log into an internal system and send my proposal. However, nothing ever happened.

Here, I remember during a 1 on 1 with Anamaria Bumbar, our COO, that we were walking around these beautiful streets that surround our Bucharest offices, and while we were under a really beautiful linden tree (sadly, the tree “disappeared” since then) and I told her an idea and she immediately said, “Yes! Sure! Let’s do it!”

I was mesmerized that things could happen so fast without having to send dozens of emails and without having to go through several “high counsels of the elders”. That’s another thing that makes mindit.io such a beautiful community.

You are free to share your thoughts, and ideas and to give and receive feedback on the spot. It’s actually encouraged.

We constantly ask people about their needs, their ideas, what courses they want to take, what events they want to attend, what books they want to read, and so on, because we want everyone to be fulfilled with their role as part of the team.

4. What was your best day at work? What are you most proud of?

Are you sure you have time? Because I could go on and on about the things I enjoy, I’m proud of, or how an awesome day at mindit.io goes for me. During my perfect day at the office, I like to be connected with everybody, all the time.

Most of my days are rewarding, that’s why it’s so hard to pinpoint just one, but I’ll try to think of something off the top of my head. About a year ago, after a really demanding delivery with a lot of challenges, we went live in the end the release, and everything went as planned.

The entire team went to Edenland for a day to work from there, which is an adventure park near Bucharest, and as we were walking through the forest, the sunlight was fading away and I remember looking at everybody and feeling a huge sense of relief joy and fulfillment at the same time.

I don’t know why. I guess it was the moment. We all had matching custom-made T-shirts, someone was complaining that they were too big, and others didn’t like the mint-green color, but we were all living in the moment, together. That’s when I realized that it was all worth it.

Everything we went through as a team, the good, the bad, and the ugly, was to prepare us for moments like these and to turn us into something more than just colleagues. We’re friends. We truly care about each other, and if it wouldn’t have been for the hard times, as well as the good times, I don’t think our bond would be that strong.

I even called Irina Arsene, mindit.io Founder, simply to tell her what I’m feeling, what I was experiencing for the very first time in my life. I now know that this is what I want to do. I enjoy bringing people together and sharing moments like these with them.

mindit.io gave me the opportunity to experience new things, learn more about myself and to discover things for the very first time, at 36.

5. What is your team like?

The first words that come to mind are… simply us, kind, imperfect and beautiful. We’re all imperfect, but we always make it work, we enjoy the journey and we always deliver. This is the beauty of it all; that none of us is perfect and we manage to complete each other every single time.

We get to know each other really fast and even if someone new joins the team, we want to find out what they like, what they’re good at and what brings them joy, so they can do more of that as part of the group.

It’s ok not to know everything because we’ll make it work smoothly like butter.

Knowledge and information sharing across teams is yet another thing that helps us improve and grow bigger and better every time.

6. Which benefits are your favorite and why?

During one monthly meeting, we were asked “What makes you get up in the morning? What motivates you to do your daily tasks? What makes you happy?”

I didn’t get the essence at first, but after thinking about it, I realized that I want to change the world. As pompous and grandiose of a goal as that may sound, mindit.io allows me to do that with each interaction I have.

Whether it’s talking to a colleague and listening to what he’s saying, even if I can’t actually help him, trying to be there for them when they need it is still a form of help. It’s a sign of appreciation. I empathize with everybody, even in situations when I can’t help directly, when it’s a technical matter for example.

Person by person, mindit.io gives me the chance to change, even if just a little aspect of someone’s life. And you can’t put a price on that.

Besides all the other benefits you have, and our award-winning minditNomad which received the Best Benefits Strategy Trophy at the 2022 Employer Branding Awards, we also have the people and the flexibility to build our own schedule, role and to work from anywhere we want.

7. If you could do anything else for a living, in an alternative universe, what would that be?

I remember at the beginning, first months, Lucia Stoicescu, mindit.io CEO, told me to take the time, and wait a little bit until the “honeymoon phase” will be over to see how I truly feel and want. After 3 years, I still have butterflies in my stomach. I’m still excited to be here and grateful for each day, each person, and each experience.

It’s just that now I’m richer with more experiences and I enjoy all these beautiful things from a different perspective.

So that’s why, if let’s say I were to win the lottery or could do anything else than what I do now, I would be the same Bianca, doing the same job, just with $5,000,000 in my bank account. Other than that, nothing would change. Bigger house? Fancier car? Nicer things? Yes, sure. Why not?

But I would still have this job because this is what gives me motivation and satisfaction every day.

8. What advice would you give to anyone thinking about joining mindit.io?

Follow your first instinct! Be brave! Take a leap of faith and come over for an interview, or just drop by the offices to get to know us and to see how we do things around here.

If you ever heard about mindit.io from an event, or from a person, and what you heard got you wondering about our team, it’s time to make a move.

Check out our OPEN ROLES, and apply today. You’ll never look back!

9. What movie, book, or TV show would you recommend? How do you relax and unwind?

I started snowboarding last year, and I want you to understand that this is no easy task, especially when you have nothing in common with extreme winter sports. This is something I’m trying to implement at work, as well as in my personal life.

I want to step outside my comfort zone, and that’s why I started hiking mountains, running marathons with mindit.io people, and doing a lot of things that I considered to be impossible for me up until coming here.

When it comes to relaxing and the things I love the most, that would be traveling. I guess this is a really popular answer, right?

This year I’ve traveled to 5 countries and maybe, just maybe, I think I can squeeze in another one by the end of the year. We’ll see.

10. Who would you tag next to be interviewed by us?

Internally, at mindit.io, we all have the same goal. We want to get to know each other and to work together, even if anyone can work from anywhere in the world. We want to be a kind community shaping global software engineering, and that’s exactly what our vision states.

With every mindit chats we get to learn something new about people, even if in most cases we’ve known each other for years and we speak on a daily basis. It’s mind-blowing how we can still discover new things about our colleagues, and this is an experience that truly brings me a lot of joy.

I want everybody to share their stories, and Catalin Baboi is one of the people that immediately resonated with the mindit.io team spirit. He instantly became a part of our team. We just clicked!

Catalin, TAG, you’re next on the mindit chats series!