Great Place to Work

Remember my colleague asking me to include more images in my blog? Said colleague also asked me why I never mentioned my current company. Nothing would speak against it - we really enjoy working here!

So far, I shied away from publicly naming any companies I worked for (though of course you could look them up in my professional profiles). Maybe it's due to the fact that I rather follow humans than corporations. Or that I prefer to read stories about humans. Or that I quickly pull away when it feels like someone's trying to sell me something.

But he is right. We really enjoy working at our company, with so many awesome people, building great products for our users. And it's a shame we're currently having problems to find more of those awesome people fitting to our mindset and culture. To be honest we really could need some shameless advertising to attract more people and let everyone know we're a great tech company!

Finally, to make it public: I am an agile tester at FlixBus! Our vision is smart and green mobility for everyone to experience the world. Have you seen green buses lately on Europe's roads? If not yet, expect to see them soon! ;)

Before you say "Wait, buses...?" - although it might seem the most obvious, we are not a bus company. We do not own any buses, we have no bus drivers employed. The whole bus part of the business is done by our bus partners. However, we bring people and buses together! We are taking care of the logistics and technology part of of the business. And to do so, we're developing several products.

What do I love about my workplace?

• Freedom. Within our product teams, we are free to chose whatever we consider most appropriate for our product. We go for new technologies and development approaches, sparking innovation wherever we find it!
• Openness. This may be taken for granted sometimes, but for me it's crucial. And it's only possible by having trust! Speaking of which:
• Trust. One of my most favorite lines of our CIO Daniel Krauss is that you don't have to earn his trust; you have it from the beginning. And he really lives up to it.
• Responsibilities. Take over any tasks you want. Bring yourself in and contribute wherever you can provide value.
• Opportunities and focus on learning. You can change to other teams, positions, grow in any direction you would love to grow. You just need the urge to learn and develop yourself.
• Team collaboration. The whole-team spirit! We encourage full-stack developers, including spreading DevOps, UX and testing knowledge. Remember the bus factor?
• Deliver high value to our users. We focus on solving our user's problems and making them happy to work with our products. We strive to get their feedback fast and frequently to guide development. 
• Flat hierarchies. Our teams are truly self-organizing. Did I mention we don't have team leads anymore? We're focusing on lateral leadership. Step up and lead by example!
• Multi-cultural. Our people are coming from all over the world! My department of 28 persons alone lists 13 nationalities. Not to speak of the different cultures we all belong to or varying backgrounds we have. Bringing different perspectives together creates awesomeness!
• Fun. Hello table soccer, hello mini-basketball, hello whatever the next of us brings on! We code hard, but we play harder. ;-)
• Community. Share your story, spread knowledge, inspire other teams! But also get feedback and support when you're facing challenges.
• People. Well, in the end everything is about the people. We're enabling people to experience the world. We have awesome people to do so. And we need more of those to tackle the challenges ahead.

Speaking of challenges, we're facing some where we need help on:

• Agile transition. Some teams embrace agile at their core since the beginning, others are just starting on their agile journey. It's fascinating being part of this change and being able to contribute to the bigger vision and creating our very own company culture!
• Close collaboration across locations. We're located at many large European cities: Berlin, Munich, Paris, Milan, Zagreb, Amsterdam, and still spreading. But this also means we have to find innovative ways to stay close to each other.
• Scaling our products. We are working on several products, some bigger, some smaller; but all shall gain strength.
• Growth. We want to grow: our teams, our products, our business! But still keep the agile startup spirit alive. To do so, we need your support!

We are searching for all kind of people to strengthen our development teams.

• Join! Are you eager to join an awesome team & develop great products together? Then check out our career page and current job offers! I'll be happy to answer any questions in advance.
• Feedback? Do you have any feedback for us how we could improve our recruiting? Please leave a comment or send me a direct message on Twitter.
• Tell :) If you know anyone else in your network who's ready for a new challenge, please spread the word!