‘’My exact role is undefined, which is cool because it gives me the opportunity to do what I like but it’s also challenging.’’

Farah Krecinic, Team Product Owner

Introduction

I worked as a Product manager in Berlin for ten years. Ironically the company I worked for, an online supermarket, died right before corona lockdown. After my second child I had realised that I couldn’t work a full 40hr work week but trying to find a part time job as a product owner in Berlin was really difficult. That’s why I decided to try to go back to programming, which I hadn’t done in about twenty years. I took online courses and was working on a pet project for experience when my husband got a job in Holland.

How did your journey at Merapar begin?

I was waiting on the bus and behind the bus stop, I saw a ‘tech- looking’ company. It caught my eye and, on their website, I saw a vacancy for a developer and I applied immediately. But then, looking at different job postings on Merapar, I saw that it wasn’t necessary to work a full 40 hrs. So, then I applied again for product owner. They asked me which one I preferred,
and I went for product owner because I had more experience in this role.

My background is in online stores, and Merapar is quite different compared to that. So really, I have a lot to learn. For example, each team has about 8 to 10 microservices they are responsible for, and they change which of these services they are working on every two weeks. I need to understand what my colleagues are working on and learn about all these services. In terms of training, I mastered my scrum certification and hopefully my product owner certification today!

The role - Team Product Owner

Currently I work in two teams: the purple and magenta teams. There are certain tasks I do for both teams. In principle I work as a kind of project manager, but my supervisor asked me if I would like to do some developing work. Now I’ve worked on my first developing task, and I really enjoy the combination. My exact role is undefined, which is cool because it gives me the opportunity to do what I like but it’s also challenging.

How do you feel working at Merapar?

Everybody at Merapar is friendly and people have a good sense of humour. It has only been 5 months, but I feel like I have been working there forever. And for me it seems like Merapar really cares. Every month I do a 1on1 to check in with the members of my teams. I have a sync meeting with my own supervisor every week and he usually checks in on me during that time as well. Managers are always looking out for ways they can improve our work life. ‘It has only been 5 months, but I feel like I have been working at Merapar forever.’

Do you experience more benefits in your work?

Compared to my previous jobs, I consider my job as very flexible. I work 32 hours over 5 days and so I get off at 2pm on the days that I need to pick up the kids. Furthermore, I can choose to work from home. For my employer it doesn’t matter if I’m at the office or at home. Tomorrow for example, my kids have ‘’studiedag’’ so I am going to work from home.
Another benefit for me is that we exercise two days a week during work with our colleagues. The exercise changes every week, and you don’t know what’s on the plan until you get there. Sometimes it’s boxing, HITT, or body pump. Next to the health benefits, it feels like team building which is really nice.

Why would you recommend Merapar to someone?

The part that Merapar really cares about their employees. This is something the employees really see. They look for interesting projects and they make sure there are enough learning possibilities. Learning in general is a very important thing for Merapar. In my position the biggest benefit is giving me flexibility both in my work hours and in defining my own role.