My opportunity to grow
At fiskaly #peoplecomefirst. We want to introduce you to these people we care about. They are our most significant driving force for success. We start with Benjamin Falk, our technical product owner of the DSFinV-K product.
Find out who we are and why our colleagues enjoy working at fiskaly.
Tell me about your background.
I am originally from Austria but I traveled a bit around the world before I ended up back in Vienna. Programming was already a topic for me when I was a little kid. Nevertheless, it was the combination of graphics and programming that really caught my attention, which brought me to study graphic design. However, over the years it all shifted to only programming.
What is something most people do not know about you?
I was living in Africa for a year. It was quite an interesting experience getting to know cultures of different African countries. It was interesting to become acquainted with the mentality and lifestyles of the locals. It was a very eye-opening but also challenging experience.
What are the words that come to your mind when thinking about fiskaly’s culture?
- Open-minded - if you see the need for something new, which would solve a problem, you are free to implement it. Whenever I feel I want to try something different, something new, I am allowed to do so.
For example, we needed to experiment with the way we publish our software. One idea was to use a new tool which I tested for a couple of weeks. I got the support and time to set it up. This is an example of how we set up our production environment.
- Family - we are like a big family. The atmosphere here is in general very open and familiar. The interpersonal relations are very nice as well. If anyone has a downer in life or a high moment, there are people with whom to share these things and who really listen.
What is your favorite part about working at fiskaly?
What i like most is having the chance to grow. It's sometimes challenging, yet there are many opportunities to develop your skills and yourself.
For this, I have tons of examples. I started at fiskaly as a front-end developer. Meaning, I got very specific tasks. At some point, the company needed more. I was not familiar with the tools we were using. Kubernetes for example. So I had a very steep learning curve in the beginning. And after some time, it has become very rewarding as you can extend your skills quite a bit.
What I am doing now is something completely different from what I did at the beginning of my career. Every day has a new opportunity to learn new things which helps us improve our products. High availability of our products is challenging but at the same time an interesting task.
What is your most remarkable/unforgettable fail? What have you learned from it?
When working at fiskaly? Well, breaking one of our software products, bringing all our customers to a full stop basically, and fixing it within a day. That was quite stressful.
Instead of blaming me for breaking the product, together with 3 or 4 of my colleagues, we brainstormed, thought about the possible solutions, and fixed it together within a day.
What advice do you have for someone in your field, applying for a job at fiskaly?
Having skills is not everything. Wanting to understand things deeper helps a lot.