Employee Spotlight: Irene Nicolini, Head of IT Development & Major Foodie

With an ever-growing global team, anticipating the arrival of new talents is undoubtedly nice and all. Yet, we’re even happier with retaining the support of numerous current teammates. That’s one of the reasons why we must turn our Employee Spotlight on yet another dedicated and long-time standing colleague, Irene Nicolini. She’s currently the Head of our IT Development team and has been with us a bit over three years!

Irene studied Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Trento. While there, she not only fell in love with the city but someone as well. So, she decided to stay upon graduation and immediately found a job, after that, as a Software Developer. Albeit, she didn’t know much about the field then. 

In the following seven years, however, Irene had the pleasure of meeting excellent mentors. Thus, she quickly and professionally grew. Also, fun fact – upon choosing a university major, Irene did not enroll in Computer Science simply because she didn’t want to work in front of computers. 

But hey, that’s life since, now, she finds herself passionate about coding, eventually leading her to Wonderflow. In her free time, Irene loves online shopping, sharing a beer (German ones like Keller beers) with friends, and hiking or mountain riding in the Trentino mountains. 

Read on to learn more about Nicolini’s role as well as interesting quirks. 

 

Last week, I got super excited about something that (two years ago) was a daily routine: it was back at the office with the whole team, brainstorming on a challenging issue, writing on a physical whiteboard with colored markers. The team was super involved in the reasoning, and finally, we were all together in the same room.

I’m the Head of the Development team. This means, first of all, taking care of people. It’s making sure that the team works productively and in a cohesive way, to support the company’s roadmap and each and every client’s needs. 

And, of course, I write some bugless code in my “free time.”

The biggest challenge for me is to make everyone happy: my team, my colleagues, my boss, our clients. The solution I have found so far is doing the best that I can with the resources I have and communicating to the best of my ability.

Communication is key: The more you share (ideas, issues, solutions, even odd thoughts), the more we can help one another and grow together to achieve common goals.

Don’t be afraid to face your fears. Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable. Each challenge or difficulty is a chance for personal and professional growth. 

I personally can’t stand working remotely. I need to be close to people – to see their faces, to understand the vibe of the team better. 

In our team, the majority of people are working from the office, but we always try to include everyone in the conversation. For example, during meetings, everyone is connected with his/her own laptop. Cameras should be on, even if in the same room, so that we are participating in the same way as we are in an in-person conversation.

I’m going on an adventurous trip to Iceland for two weeks. I’ll go whale watching and hiking on glaciers and volcanic caves. Be aware that I plan to keep my phone on airplane mode the whole time. So I can’t wait!

If you want people to behave in the best way possible, you should be the one leading and giving examples.

It wouldn’t be interesting.

Mozzarella with Nutella, not bad. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad Men, and Sex & The City are my top three. The nerd-me would say The IT Crowd.

Eat, travel, and eat more things around the world.

Pasta with fish!

 

Want to know more about Wonderflow, or are you interested in joining our team? Check out our About page or our Careers page for the latest opportunities. Also, contact [email protected] for any questions.