How did you find the job?
My story with low-code development started with a simple application to a LinkedIn Job ad for the position of a Business & IT Consultant. Although posted as a remote job in Croatia, the ad had a last note of “education in the Netherlands” and this was attractive to me since I had spent 2 years already living abroad, in Porto, Madrid and Brussels. I also had a hunch that I would be a good candidate for this vacancy based on the requirements.
After a few rounds of online interviews, I was asked to present a case to my future Dutch colleagues from the CAPE Groep. The case was designed to test our technical abilities in Mendix as well as our reasoning and understanding of the client's wishes and introduce us to a real-life project that we would be working on if we were chosen. As I was instantly drawn to the tool itself and researched days before the case, I had a fun time building my own little piece of software, but for the most part I think I won the panel over with being relaxed and making bad jokes. After a few days I got an email that I was chosen and this is where the fun began.
What did your first period look like?
Another girl was selected too, and we instantly clicked as we had similar characters and interests. We were invited to the Netherlands the 1st of March where we were welcomed by a familiar face from the case, none other than the COO himself! My first piece of culture shock was when our train arrived on time, exactly on the minute in the timetable, and I was bedazzled trying to explain to my new colleagues that the trains in Croatia were notoriously late, while they replied that if there's a delay of 30 minutes Dutch people are furious and demand train fare back. We biked to work every day, even when the degrees went well below zero outside! Another funny anecdote includes my shock when a car had stopped on the road to let me pass while I was riding my bike, a concept that is not so often seen back at home, and after a week I was already overtaking cars on my bike – that's when I knew that I was becoming more and more local. We were invited to a teambuilding ski weekend in Austria, and we got to know everyone in an informal setting on the snow, either by snowshoeing or snowboarding! I have had a wonderful time and I'm very grateful for this opportunity.
What did you learn?
We had spent a few intensive learning days at the CAPE Academy, where we went on to broaden our knowledge of Mendix and agile software development, and later on went to work on live projects to get a practical sense of the work itself. We were very lucky to have landed a great team who have welcomed us warmly and are helping us out with our many, many questions every day!
What will happen when you return to Croatia?
Time flies when you're having fun… And we were back home after a month. We find comfort in the fact that we have our mentor from the Netherlands here for 3 months, so we have a piece of the Dutch culture with us in Zagreb. We continue our work on interesting projects with international clients and teams while we broaden our knowledge of Mendix, and we await another batch of colleagues that will go to the Netherlands to have the time of their lives.
