Adrian was appointed Quality Assurance lead on the day this interview took place. Before, he was an engineer in the QA team.
You had already moved from Romania to the Netherlands for another job. What were your reasons for coming to Brand New Day?
“Young people often don’t have much financial knowledge, especially where I’m from. In school you learn about many subjects, but you get almost zero financial education. You don’t learn about how you should save or invest your money, you don’t know about pensions. But society is really money-centered. Lots of people like to put their hands on your money. I believe that Brand New Day wants to help people enjoy a more financially secure future.
Secondly, I soon understood that the company is flat-structured, and initiatives can easily go through. That is super important for me. I also appreciate that there are some very down-to-earth people and intellectual people running the company. They are smart and they are there. You can have a discussion with the CEO if you want. They’re also fun. Kudos to them for keeping this place together.”
What do you like about working here?
“Even though Brand New Day is a pension bank, it doesn’t feel like we are a bank. There’s a lot of freedom. There aren’t many layers of management. There is trust and the collective is extremely kind and highly skilled. There are also programs for personal development, and entrepreneurship is considered a skill.”
How does entrepreneurship appeal to you?
“Well, I’ve tried a few things already. I developed a mobile app that connects people based on sound. So, you listen to music, a podcast or an audio book. And if there’s someone in the area that listens to the same things as you, you get matched. If both parties accept, you can chat. It’s not about dating, but connecting with like-minded people.”
Cool! Have you also been able to use that entrepreneurial mindset at Brand New Day?
“Yes. I implemented a test management tool. We didn’t have something like it, and I was able to find the right tool for us.”
What, do you think, sets Brand New Day apart from other employers?
“My previous work experience was at a start-up and scale-up. They were small companies. But even though we are much bigger, I appreciate the relaxed atmosphere. People are in control of their work and emotions. For me that’s super important. I consider it a mature workplace where you can both be yourself and contribute to the company goals. And you can improve both your hard and soft skills.”
What kind of people do you work with?
“There are a lot of brilliant people here, highly skilled and mature in their thinking and acting. But at the same time, they are also fun to work with. We’ve had some very enjoyable company and team events.”
You’re the new QA lead. Is that going to change your work much?
“Previously, as senior QA engineer, my responsibilities were to do with assessing, controlling, maintaining and increasing the level of quality for our customer-facing web and mobile applications. As QA lead I won’t be able to do as much execution work. It will be more about planning and making strategies for the quality assurance department and collaborating with other managers to achieve the company and department goals.”
What makes you proud?
“I don’t consider pride a skill. I consider humbleness and humility skills. There’s a thin line between deserved and undeserved pride. And I am not, I would say, wise enough to determine where that line is. I’d rather stay away from things that I don’t completely understand.”
Fair enough. Let me put it this way: is there something you’ve been able to achieve here that you’re happy about?
“I’m happy that I’ve been able to change the company’s perspective on quality assurance a bit. Because, especially in the development stage, quality assurance mostly has meant testing. And testing is just an activity. Quality assurance includes much more.”
And as QA lead, you’ll be able to steer it even more in that direction?
“I hope so. There are a lot of things we can do to improve our department. It’s a nice challenge! There are a lot of new technologies that we want to employ. There’s room to improve, and the freedom to try things if you’re good at what you’re doing.”
Want to experience what Adrian means? Have a look at our open vacancies. Or contact our HR department for a cup of coffee or tea. They look forward to it!
