Last week, Simona Hasan decided to tag her best friend from 1st grade. Fast-forward a couple of decades, we chatted with Ioana Vasile, one of mindit.io’s awesome Project Managers. 

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

The unique thing about mindit.io is that everybody gets the chance to explore many different areas and sides of our operations, and that’s how you get to find out what you like doing the most.  

I started here in Mindit Consulting. With time, I realized that there are other opportunities inside mindit.io I am interested in trying out.

I voiced my desire to join the support team. After a couple of months, I was given the opportunity to join the support team and start learning something new, which eventually led to me becoming a Project Manager.  

This is what makes mindit.io special. This is what makes it unique. You are given opportunities as long as you are willing to work for them. And you’ll also receive all the necessary support to build your own career path. There are plenty of opportunities. You just need to decide which ones to take.  

2. What was the moment you knew you’d made the right decision to work here?

For me, the moment when I realized that I had made the right decision to work here was when I joined the support team, switching from background screening. I’m not going to lie. It was a difficult transition, and everything technical up until then was entirely new for me.  

I had to learn many things, which motivated me and gave me the drive to pursue this new role with everything I had to offer. The support I received from my new team, straight from the get-go, made things a lot easier. I immediately knew that I could count on them to answer any questions I may have, no matter how basic they were.

I began starting every day with the joy of knowing that I get to work with such amazing colleagues. We shared laughs, had coffee, worked hard, and played even harder together. That’s when you know that the team you are part of is also a part of you.  

It’s the wonderful people that form the mindit.io community that made me realize that working here is definitely the best professional decision I have made. I’d like to thank them for making my transition from Mindit Consulting to mindit.io as smooth as possible.  

3. What was your best day at work?

I’m not on the hunt for days I can call “my best.” I try getting my joy and happiness from the little daily moments. There’s always something to be happy about at mindit.io, but if I were to pinpoint one of the most memorable days for me, that would have to be during one of last year’s monthly calls.

During one of the end-of-the-year calls, I was mentioned for having an outstanding performance in 2021, and I must admit it, that felt great! Being appreciated for all the sweat and hard work you put in throughout the year in front of all your colleagues is a powerful feeling. It really meant a lot to me.

But there are a lot of other wonderful moments I could talk about, and I’m certain there will be a lot more to come. I don’t see it being any other way.  

4. What are you most proud of?

My most important achievement and what I’m most proud of is the switch from background screening to support engineer and now to Project Manager. I knew that this was what I wanted ever since I joined mindit.io because I was more attracted by this role than the technical side of things.

With baby steps, I took over more project management tasks until I took over the position full time. This is what I’m most proud of in mindit.io.      

5. What is your team like?

We’re a team of 11 people and what I can say about us is that we have chemistry. I find it really hard to think of a day when we didn’t laugh, share a couple of stories, or have fun working together.  

I’m not saying we don’t have harder days, but even then, the team still manages to motivate you and drag you back up to your cheerful mood. It’s part of our DNA to help each other.  

We communicate very efficiently, and we help each other whenever it’s needed. That’s actually our way of doing things. Always helping each other and working as a team to solve all the challenges we face. We score together, we make mistakes together, we learn from them, and most importantly, we grow together.

When it comes to new members joining the Support Team, we try to make them feel right at home from the very first day. We encourage everyone to ask for help and feel comfortable in doing so without fearing being judged.

You’ll receive all the support you need while also leaving room for you to take ownership over your tasks. And this applies to all mindit.io teams, not just mine.  

6. Which benefits are your favorite and why?

I guess everybody will answer with “minditNomad”! Right? Well, this is one of my favorite mindit.io benefits because I also took advantage of it a lot. Together with my team, we worked and threw a lot of memorable parties at the Comarnic minditNomad home. I can’t wait to visit all the other locations we have in Constanta, Sibiu, Iasi, and Cluj. They’re definitely on my list!  

The travel budget you receive after 2 years of being part of mindit.io is really awesome. You can get a travel budget or extra vacation days, and the amount and number of days increase every 2 years. And that’s pretty cool!  

Another benefit I would like to point out is the monthly free therapy sessions mindit.io offers. I find this extremely important for anyone who feels like having a professional psychologist to talk to can help them in various aspects of work and life.  

I highly recommend this benefit to anyone because it may do wonders for your well-being and general state of mind.  

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

I joined Mindit Consulting and did background screening checks and reporting for about a year and a half. After that, I switched to mindit.io, joining the support team. I’ve been a part of this team for over two years now, and after slowly taking over Project Management tasks, I became a full-time PM in March 2022.  

Going through all these different roles has helped me better understand different perspectives from colleagues to partners and the general business operations side of things.  

The best part about my career path is that I never stagnated. I always had something new to learn, something new to strive for. And as they say, “diamonds are forged under pressure,” if I can make a funny analogy.  

I like the fact that I am still in a continuous learning process, and I would like to thank everyone who has helped me (and continues to help me out today) throughout my mindit.io journey.  

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

Don’t overthink it! It’s as simple as that! Go to our CAREERS page and apply right now! What do you have to lose? Worst case scenario, you’ll talk with a couple of cool people and learn something new about one of the fastest-growing IT companies in Romania.

But seriously, now, if you have the right attitude, you’re basically halfway there because we’ll help you out with the rest. We’re a really kind community, and we can help you learn and become a better professional as long as you are willing to take advantage of the opportunities being offered to you.

Be authentic. Be yourself and learn the basics as part of a healthy work environment, where you are encouraged to be your best self, regardless of the level of experience you bring to the table.  

mindit.io is the place where you can grow and build your own career path. Just apply and come here with the right mindset. I have no doubt you’ll reach your goals!  

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

From cartoons to soap operas (proud of my Spanish learned from there), everything goes. That’s why I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a movie or a TV show.  

But I really love watching crime documentaries, and I’m really interested in finding out which of our colleagues have the same guilty pleasure as I do. I’m guessing there’ll be many people reaching out to me after this. I love the thrill and the entire psychology behind a specific crime and how detectives approach each case.

On a less sinister note, I enjoy traveling, and my next stop is Greece. For me, traveling is the best way to push the reset button and relax, unwind, and have fun in a new place, away from home.  

One other thing I really want to do is to go bowling, but I guess nobody likes to do that anymore. I guess it’s not that trendy. It’s really hard to find a bowling partner, so if anyone else who is reading this wants to go bowling, please, oh pretty please, hit me up, and let’s play a few rounds!

Last but not least, I love eating, but I’m not sure I can call it a passion. I guess everybody does, right?

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

I would like to nominate Ionut Iotu! He’s one of my colleagues from the support team, and I want to tag him because he’ll definitely have a lot of impactful things to say.

Ionut started out just like me, getting into the IT industry from a completely different sector of activity, and he really helped me a lot throughout my career. I still learn a lot from him, so I would like to tag him for the next “mindit chats” edition.

TAG Ionut, you’re it! You can thank me later with a bag of peanuts!