Wij verwelkomen hier graag onze nieuwe collega Eleni Agrafioti. Zij is midden in de zomerperiode gestart bij Daywize als Business Engineer. In onderstaande blog lees je haar korte introductie!
Introduction
Hi, I’m Eleni! Twelve years ago I left home in Greece, with dreams of creating a life for myself that thrived on exploring different cultures, challenging experiences and opportunities for new knowledge. My first stop was the UK where I studied Computer Science and made my first steps as a developer after graduating. My journey later led me to the Netherlands where I tested the waters for a possible new home.
Here I discovered a culture with stark differences to my own and it quickly became my favorite thing to discuss with colleagues:
- Why do people sit in a circle with taart and koffie on birthday parties?
- What is hagelslag and why do you put it on your lunch bread?
- What is appropriate Koningsdag attire and oh god, I should have put some money aside in case the washing machine breaks…
”The more I got to know the small -isms of the culture, the more confident I grew that this can be my home. The more I progressed with my Dutch lessons, the more I managed to get a chuckle out of my colleagues when I would unknowingly exclaim to myself “potverdorie..” while trying to work our an error.”
My new workplace.
As an international person, I was welcomed, supported and included not only in the Netherlands in general, but my new workplace specifically. I enter Daywize as a novice in Mendix, mostly equiped with a willingness to learn. I was asked for input and contribution from early on and gained confidence that through this extremely open and encouraging environment I can progress and develop my skills, while retaining the familiarity and close collaboration a smaller team offers.
My background was mostly pertinent to web development but I quickly became weary of the proccess and sought for a medium more suitable to my attention span. Over the past year, I was introduced to the concept of low code and Mendix. My major takeaways were that I can create something sleek, intuitive and functional in half the time constraints I was accustomed to.
At the present moment, I feel excited for what the future holds. Both in terms of my proffesional development and my assimilation into Dutch culture. Luckily, I remain confident that I found the perfect environment for those prospects to come into fruition :).