Cristi Vlad asked us to dig deep inside the mindset of Ionut Vacariu, his passions, and how he manages the entire mindit.io Iasi office and our presence in the entire region of Moldova.

And here’s how he does it. Here’s what makes Ionut tick.

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

What’s unique about mindit.io is the full transparency operation mode you’ll find here. Transparency from top to bottom, and the other way around, is something truly unique and I really enjoy this about our teams.

Being structured like a holocracy, at mindit.io you’ll quickly see that you can approach anyone directly, without the barriers you normally encounter in corporations.

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

Professionally I had the chance to evolve a lot since joining mindit.io. I’m a go-getter. I like to solve problems even if they’re not necessarily in my area of expertise, and that’s how you get to learn a lot of things, really fast.

I encountered a lot of challenges I probably wouldn’t have encountered in other organizations where you would be just a Java developer, frontend developer, or anything tech-related, you-name-it developer.

Here, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about DevOps, Backend, stored procedures, frontend, mobile development, and a little bit of everything, depending on the situation.

I even did a little interior designing for the mindit.io Iasi office when I was asked where to place some of the decorative stickers we have on our walls.

This is the beauty of mindit.io. You get the chance to explore a lot of different areas and you can pick and choose the ones you want to focus on more.

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

When you have the HR interview and then you talk with the Project Managers, you’ll hear the “we put people first” sentence, and you might even be skeptical about how much they emphasize that. In all fairness, I was the same at first.

But after coming here and seeing that mindit.io is all they say and more, I knew I had made the right decision to come here.

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

I think my ideal workdays start off with a super problem that can’t be solved. Even better if we’re in production. You start your day by taking down production, finding a solution to something that seemed impossible just a couple of minutes or hours ago, and then you end the day by restoring production.

That’s what I call a nice day. It’s days like these that really get me going!

5. What is your team like?

People in Iasi are generally a lot of fun. They can have fun anywhere, with anyone, no matter the circumstances. That’s how we Moldavians are. We find joy even in simple things. We manage to find joy in everything we do.

Romanians have a talent for making the best even out of the worst of situations, but here in Iasi, we take things to the next level. We believe that there’s no problem a good joke can’t solve. We’re happy that we have such a cool team of kind people who enjoy spending time together.

6. Which benefits are your favorite and why?

I like the organizational culture here and the way things work in mindit.io. I like the fact that our offices are actually houses. They have an extra coziness attached to them that makes them even more special.

minditNomad is another cool benefit, even though I haven’t taken advantage of it that much. minditNomad even won the Best Benefits Strategy Award at the 2022 Employer Branding Awards.

Anyone from mindit.io can work from anywhere or from any of the minditNomad homes located in Iasi, Constanta, Cluj, Bucuresti, Sibiu, or Comarnic, or simply go on vacation there with their friends and family.

And that’s really cool if you ask me.

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

Mechanic. Did you notice how I didn’t hesitate at all? I would definitely be a mechanic in an alternative universe. Even now, I still fix some small things here and there when it comes to my car, but I only stick to repair work that doesn’t require professional and sophisticated tools.

I’m the type of guy that must know everything from the mechanic whenever I go to an auto service.

When it comes to this side of things, I’m one of those really difficult customers mechanics don’t like. The last time I took my car to an auto service, I even explained to the mechanic how to change my broken taillight.

Who knows, maybe in the future I’ll even open my own auto shop for IT people who can work from anywhere.

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

Try to do a little bit of everything! Mindit.io is the place where you can do whatever you want when it comes to focusing and specializing on a specific technology, or in terms of building your own role.

If you know what you want, you’ll thrive here and if you’re confused about what you enjoy doing most in terms of work, don’t worry, there are plenty of people that will help you whenever you need answers or guidance.

Check our OPEN ROLES and see if there’s something you might like! A bunch of really friendly people will get in touch with you soon.

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

Since I’m passionate about auto-mechanics, I watch a lot of videos focusing on cars and everything related.

When it comes to one of my favorite movies, I would have to recommend The Wolf of Wall Street, while my top TV shows would be: Suits and Peaky Blinders.

Can I add eating my wife’s delicious food as a hobby? It really takes a lot of my free time because she cooks a lot and it’s really delicious.

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

I’ll nominate someone on the technical side of things, and that person’s name is Eduard Sorescu! Edi, TAG, you’re it!