Intervju med Ioana – Director of Engineering på Acast

Acast är partner till oss på Tjejer kodar – hurra! Visste du att de är en av världens största oberoende podcastföretag? Chanserna att du har lyssnat på en pod producerad av dem är väldigt stor! Vi på Tjejer kodar har fått hälsa på Acast på deras huvudkontor i Stockholm, här har vi bland annat fått intervjua Ioana. Ioana är Director of Engineering – men vad betyder det egentligen? Läs vidare för att få veta mer om hennes roll och vägen dit . 

 Tell us more about you and your role Ioana!
My name is Ioana, and I have been with Acast since 2016 . It’s been a very long journey and I’ve taken on various roles within the company.  Today, I’m Director of Engineering for all of our advertising stack – that is six engineering teams and roughly half of our tech people at Acast. My journey to engineering is maybe a bit boring… I was a math geek – loved math, physics and computers all my life. So I just pursued them and went engineering school, computer science, so I’ve basically been all my life in this industry. Landing here has just been an obvious destination!

A big part of my work now is working with leadership and people, rather than tech itself. I had the opportunity to try leadership at Acast in different roles, and I really like it. I love being in a room with many brilliant people just hacking a way at a problem, and we solve problems together. It’s my favourite part of my job – it’s magical!

 How does your team look like?
We have six teams, all lead by engineering managers and technically my team is a team of managers. This means I’m one level attached from the engineers. My role has changed with time and became more about coaching and being the best leader for my team so they can be the best leaders for their teams. I think I’m very privileged because I get to learn from so many use cases, I get to support them, and I get to be involved in all these really complex problems and the way we work together.

 What is the best about Acast?
One thing reflecting back – Acast has the courage to change. Now we are going through changes, and as we grew from twenty people when I joined to now being close to 500 people , beliefs and assumptions are not true anymore in this change. At Acast, we’re really good at questioning ourselves all the time, not getting stuck in any old ways and continuously improving. Acast is particularly good at that!

Have you noticed any big changes within the tech industry since you started?
One positive change I’ve noticed in this industry since I started is more acknowledgement of mental stress.  I hear more discussions about imposter syndrome, and more people talking about the feelings of not feeling good enough. I think this industry is plagued by this mainly because of its rapid change – it’s an extremely fast changing industry.  You always have to learn and adapt, and that can be hard. More and more people are open about this, and the difficulties around this. Just being aware of this, and knowing that you are not alone can help you though those rough times. Before, nobody talked about it!

 But hey.. have you started your own podcast?
Yes! I have recently started my own podcast, but it’s not yet live just yet. I’ve been working in the podcast industry for so many years now but never felt driven and passionated to create one – until now. It’s a series of interviews with people from my surroundings – my goal is to learn from their experiences and hear them out. Stay tuned for the release!

Om du vill bli först att veta om när Ioana släpper sin podd, följ henne på LinkedIn . Du kan också kontakta henne där om du har fler frågor förstås! Eller varför inte bli en del av hennes team? Kolla in Acast karriärssida här.