Catalin Baboi wanted to see if Dorin Ciocian, his teammate, is up for the mindit chats series challenge!

Let's see what Dorin's made of!

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

What I find to be truly unique and enjoyable at mindit.io is that you can work from anywhere in the world and you can build a schedule tailored to your lifestyle.  

Sure, there are a lot of companies out there that allow you to work from home (especially since the COVID-19 pandemic started), but mindit.io really takes things to the next level.  

While most companies are asking their employees to come back to the office, mindit.io keeps promoting a “work from anywhere” mentality which is highly appreciated throughout our community.  

Personally, I enjoy going to the office a lot, and if an office ever opens in Arad, I’ll probably go there every day for the amazing people and the interactions we have.  

I also think that minditNomad is something unique, and I have already used this benefit twice to work and live at mindit.io Bucharest’s homes. Can’t wait to go back and to visit other locations as well.  

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

I joined mindit.io on March 26, 2022, and since then I can honestly say that my professional growth has been exponential.  

As a DevOps engineer, you encounter new things every day. Literally every day. When you add all the diverse partners and projects, we have who operate in a plethora of industries, you can only imagine that you’ll have something new to learn on a daily basis.  

I’ve learned to adapt to any situation, and my appetite for learning new things and technologies only grows stronger by the day. I started specializing in ELK Stack, Ansible, Linux and I feel that each and every single day at mindit.io comes with a new opportunity to learn and evolve.  

I realized that my entire professional career will be a life-long learning journey, and that excites me as much as it motivates me.  

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

Have you met the people I work with? I know you have, and that pretty much answers this questions.  

The people you have as part of your team are so much more important than the organization you work for. With Edi and Eugen, I immediately realized that I made the right call to come here because they are some of the most helpful people I’ve ever worked with. If not the most.  

I think I asked them the same questions at least a dozen times and they never lost their temper and they always provided me with the guidance and explanations needed to understand and fix any issue I may have had.  

They have created an environment where you can freely ask questions without any fear of being judged or criticized for not knowing something. Together with Catalin and Bogdan, we also work together on keeping the same mindset that we came across when we joined the mindit.io team.  

This unity makes us all better and it shows in all the work we put in every day.  

4. How would you describe an ideal day at work?  

I see my workday divided into 3 phases. When I wake up and grab a coffee, I imagine the day starting with two scenarios.  

Either we have some problems with some environments, or we don’t. Based on the scenario, I start planning my day.  

First, I begin with any essential task and anything urgent that popped/pops up. After that, we go into our daily meetings, prioritize tasks, and then we start tackling the most complex issues of our projects.  

I always leave a little wiggle room for emergencies, because if the DevOps experience has taught me something, that would be that you can never plan a day without something surprisingly popping up without prior notice.  

Our mindset is that we work together, we help each other and we always deliver.  

5. What is your team like?  

There’s a difference between personal and professional life, but we try to make our meetings as fun and productive as possible. We don’t just talk shop, we also talk about the things we like, the things we’re currently doing, and we try to get to know each other as much as possible.  

All these talks only lead to us working even better and closer together.  

The people in my team are clearly the type you can have a couple of beers with and chat for hours without ever mentioning work at all. Working with cool colleagues definitely makes tasks more enjoyable and people more productive. That’s what I feel as part of the mindit.io team.  

6. Which benefits are your favorite and why?

As I said, I really like the whole minditNomad experience, and I’ve noticed that our Comarnic home is the most popular, especially for people who enjoy hiking.  

I like our gym subscription benefits that offer you access to hundreds of gyms, pools, and sporting activities nationwide. I try to start off my days by working out because I believe that having a disciplined healthy lifestyle is important to living a happy and well-balanced life.  

The budget we have for learning new things is extremely useful to both self and professional development and I really like the fact that it’s so easy to have access to any learning tools, platforms, and tutorials you want.  

We’re all offered all the necessary resources to become the best versions of ourselves.  

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

I’d start by telling them to go straight to our Careers page, check out our OPEN ROLES and apply today!  

You’ll definitely not regret the people you’ll meet and the projects and technologies you’ll learn to master in time.  

I’ve already recommended a colleague and I plan on recommending another friend really soon. Since I’m telling my friends to come here, it’s safe to say that I want nothing but the best for them, and that’s why I’m telling them to give this community a shot.  

You’ll love the organizational culture and the working environment you’ll encounter here. mindit.io puts people first and you’ll immediately sense that. You’re encouraged to make mistakes, as we all do, and we believe that it’s all part of the natural process of learning.  

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

I enjoy workplaces where I have to use my head instead of physical strength, even if I’ve experienced both types of work in the past. I wouldn’t step away from the IT sector. I’m too attached to it.  

I would probably consider becoming a Team Lead, or a System Architect. Those are also things I would see myself doing, but I would probably never leave this field of activity.  

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

I used to be into gaming a lot in the past, but I kind of left that aside, as it is too time-consuming. Although it’s a really fun activity, I prefer focusing more on reading, nutrition, and meditation.  

My reading recommendations would be “The Power of Now” and “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, which are books that have a really strong message. Sure, they’re not for everyone, but they’re really interesting if you want to focus more on your self-development.  

I listen to Andrew Bergman’s podcast which focuses a lot on the power of the human psyche, and he promotes living a balanced lifestyle in terms of working out, eating well, and meditating.  

I felt these improvements myself and I plan on focusing on living a healthy lifestyle from now on. But in terms of relaxation, nothing beats a good old gaming session and hanging out with the boys on Discord.  

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

Tudor Ardelean is the person I want to tag to be next on the mindit chats series. He’s from Arad as well and I feel like we’re on the same wavelength.  

Currently, he lives in Cluj so he’s closer to the mindit.io Cluj office, and I think anyone would find his perspective on life and work to be interesting.  

Tudor, TAG, you’re it!