{"id":21250,"date":"2024-02-13T17:45:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T17:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=21250"},"modified":"2024-02-13T17:48:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T17:48:53","slug":"from-intern-to-developer-introducing-adzunas-theodora-giannouli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/from-intern-to-developer-introducing-adzunas-theodora-giannouli\/","title":{"rendered":"From intern to developer: Introducing Adzuna\u2019s Theodora Giannouli"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally posted on our\u00a0Adzuna LinkedIn page \u2013 go follow us!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Theodora Giannouli<\/a>, known as Dora by everyone, joined Adzuna in February 2014 as a part-time developer intern during her master\u2019s studies in Germany. After she graduated, she decided to stay with us, working remotely in Greece.<\/p>\n

Q: Why did you decide to take up a full-time role at Adzuna?<\/h3>\n

Dora: When I first joined Adzuna as a part-time intern, I was actually also doing another part-time internship for a different company in Germany. At some point, I need to pick one and go full-time. Both of them were great but Adzuna won me over because it made me feel a bit more like home. The tech team is tight-knitted, and the people are really role models to me, personality and experience-wise. They\u2019re really good at what they do.<\/p>\n

Q: How does Adzuna make you feel like home?<\/h3>\n

D: People here are so nice that I genuinely enjoy spending most of my time with them. Whenever I need something, they\u2019re all willing to help. And I really think the company cares about every single employee. I had a few tough moments in the past, and the company has supported me in the best way it could. I appreciate that a lot.<\/p>\n

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Dora (front row, centre) at Adzuna\u2019s Christmas Party<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Q: You\u2019ve been with Adzuna for almost nine years. Were you ever bored with your job and how do you keep yourself motivated?<\/h3>\n

D: When I first started in the company, I was a junior so I had plenty of room for development. Another thing is I get to move around in the company a lot, taking on different tasks with different teams. Whenever I feel that I\u2019m a bit strained, I talk to my manager, and he immediately takes action such as assigning me to different projects. I\u2019ve been involved in projects with three different cross-functional groups at Adzuna, which we call \u2018tribes\u2019. I think it\u2019s important that if you speak your mind, your managers hear you, and they do something about it.<\/p>\n

Q: Since you\u2019ve been working remotely, is it hard for you to connect with other colleagues?<\/h3>\n

D: Not at all. It\u2019s really amazing how we stay connected even though some of us work remotely. During the last team meetup in London, I told my team that it\u2019s crazy that people stay here for so long (5+ years) because it\u2019s not the usual thing. Many people stay in a company for two to three years, five years at max, and that\u2019s it. Most of my colleagues feel the same too. We figured out it\u2019s the Adzuna family feeling that keeps us all here.<\/p>\n

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Q: What’s your favourite memory in this company?<\/h3>\n

D: This has to do with Vangelis (our Head of Infrastructure), who is also the person who hired me. A few years ago, Vangelis came up to me and said he was very proud of my progress and he considered me a valuable member of the team. He said he was really happy that he gave me this opportunity back then.<\/p>\n

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Dora (centre) and Vangelis (left to Dora)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Q: How does it feel being a woman in tech and have you experienced any challenges?<\/h3>\n

D: To be honest, I\u2019ve never experienced anything I read on blogs. I\u2019ve never felt like something is different because I am a woman.<\/p>\n

I am so happy and grateful to have chosen tech as my career, and I consider myself lucky to be working for Adzuna because my duties are exactly what I want from a job. I get to be creative when it comes to making plans, problem-solving and product optimisation. On top of this, I never stop learning because this role requires me to stay on top of any new technologies. And finally it’s great knowing that while you do all the above, you also help other people find their dream jobs.<\/p>\n

It would certainly be nice to see more women taking up tech roles. I know many women still see tech as something reserved for men, but that\u2019s not true. I know quite a few women in the field who are thriving. That said, I do know where these thoughts are coming from. Looking back on my first days in the company, I considered myself weaker than my male colleagues. It took me some time to realise that my insecurity came from my inexperience and was magnified by gender stereotyping. That\u2019s also why it\u2019s important for women to share their\u00a0 stories so anyone who is interested in working in tech knows that the industry is for everyone, regardless of gender.<\/p>\n

Q: What’s your one piece of advice to jobseekers?<\/h3>\n

D: Make a list of priorities about your expectations in a job. Try to find a place that fulfils them all – or at least most of them. After all, your job takes up the biggest part of your day, for most of your life. It\u2019s important to stay happy!<\/p>\n

Interested in joining Adzuna? We\u2019re hiring! Take a look at our current open roles on our Careers<\/a> page. <\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally posted on our\u00a0Adzuna LinkedIn page \u2013 go follow us! Theodora Giannouli, known as Dora by everyone, joined Adzuna in February 2014 as a part-time developer intern during her master\u2019s studies in Germany. After she graduated, she decided to stay with us, working remotely in Greece. Q: Why did you decide to Continued \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":21253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adzuna-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21256,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21250\/revisions\/21256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}