This article was previously published at cobeisfresh.com.

You’ve been working at the same company for a while now, you enjoy the culture, you identify with the company’s values, and you adore your team — but something’s missing. Your job doesn’t excite you anymore. Is it because you don’t see room for development any longer? Or maybe because you don’t see yourself in the same field anymore? Now, what to do in a situation like that? Well, if you work at a place that cares about you as an employee, sees your value, and wants to see you happy and thrive, you’ll probably have the option to make a career switch — without switching the company.

Making a career switch inside your company is becoming more and more common — especially if you work in the software development industry. Our Business controller, Dolores, is the perfect example of this. She joined COBE as a Quality assurance specialist in 2018, and after two years of reporting every bug possible, she decided to take her career in a different direction — controlling.

Keep reading to find out why she decided to take a step into the unknown and what her career switch process looked like.

Meeting our interviewee

Dolores, tell us about your beginnings at COBE.

• My career at COBE started four years ago when I applied for a QA specialist position. I was the first person to join Nikolina, the QA lead. Over the years, our team grew and I’ve gained more and more knowledge — not only in the quality assurance field, but in team building and organization too. I worked on the team development process with her and witnessed the growth from just two people to a strong team of six. Working in QA taught me how to be a team player, how to develop good interpersonal relationships, and how to be a mentor. It brought me a lot of technical knowledge too, which I find very useful in my current role. And even though two years might not be much to some, I can truly say that I’ve learned the most in these two years. I feel like it has built a base for my next role — Business controller.

Find the fire within

Now, when did the initial interest in Business controlling appear?

• I’m not sure if there was a particular moment when I realized it, I just remember thinking how working in quality assurance doesn’t fulfill me anymore. And it didn’t have anything to do with the QA role itself, because even after two years, I still had so much left to learn. I just needed a new challenge — I needed to feel the fire within again. This is when my interest in business operations intensified, and after exploring my options and diving deep into the topics of controlling and analysis, I finally found my fire again.

Would you say your interest in business operations led you to your new role?

• Yes, absolutely. When I decided it was time for a change, the first thing I did was look for all roles related to business management in software development. This is when I came across the business analyst and controller roles. As I continued my research, a new fire in me was awakened. Pretty soon I was sure that this was something I wanted to pursue, even though we didn’t have a Business team at COBE Osijek at that time.

No other company will give you the opportunity like your own

Making a career switch isn’t something you see or do every day. When did you decide to talk to someone about it?

• I remember this was happening right about our half-year feedback so I decided that that it was as good a time as any to propose my idea to the management team. I started by explaining how I wasn’t feeling fulfilled in the role I was in anymore, and I finished by telling them how I wanted to start a new department at COBE Osijek (which we would all benefit from, hopefully). Honestly, I didn’t know what type of reaction to expect, but negative feedback didn’t even cross my mind. This is because I’ve always had the freedom to express my thoughts and interests at COBE. Here, we’re always being pushed to grow and take on new opportunities. And that’s exactly what this was — a new opportunity.

You told me earlier that our management actually had other plans for you — they wanted to promote you to the QA team lead position, right? Did this information affect your decision in any way?

• I never thought about becoming the QA lead, so I felt honored. And even though I could’ve become a team lead, I was still more interested in starting my business controlling journey. It might sound crazy to some, but I preferred starting from scratch and being a junior again if it meant that I’d be doing something that I’m deeply interested in. My decision surprised them but in the best way possible. This was the first time I showed real confidence in a decision, and I think they recognized it and were proud of me.

Did you, at any point, think about looking for a business-related position elsewhere?

• No. I loved (and still do) everything about COBE. It was just a career switch that I needed.

Prepare yourself for hard work

Now, what did the career switch process look like? Do you feel like it was more complicated since you were starting a whole new department at our Osijek office?

• It was a lot of work in the beginning. I was still booked as a QA specialist on a few projects, so, obviously, I couldn’t leave those overnight and just take over new responsibilities. I was also still learning and researching about my new position, educating myself, and working with the team on developing the best possible process for this new role. So it had been a busy few months until we straightened everything out, and until I completely changed my career direction.

When did everything get real for you? How long until your role officially changed?

• There was a lot of going back and forth in the beginning — from trying to define my responsibilities to making sure those responsibilities don’t overlap with the ones our project managers have. I started out as a Business analyst (BA) and the first time everything got real to me was when we sold BA as a service. This was when I was still trying to figure everything out and find my own place in the project. Fast forward to a couple of months later, when my close cooperation with our project management and product ownership teams issued a complete team reorganization. This resulted in me leaving the Business analyst role behind and tackling the sales and financial side of the business instead. It’s when I began my Business controller journey. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

What made the career switch easier?

• A supportive team. This whole process of creating a new position and defining responsibilities that go with it is hard. A lot of times I found myself lost in what I was doing, but having the support and educational opportunities COBE provides is what made the switch easier.

What does your role take on today?

• I overview all ongoing projects making sure they’re profitable — that includes budgeting, forecasting, reporting, tracking expenses, etc. In the beginning, I was also tackling sales, but as soon as we realized it was too much work, we hired another person. And then another. Now we’re a team of three, each handling their own responsibilities, but still working as a team. In the meantime, I got promoted to the lead position of this newly formed team, and everything’s been going really well.

Besides a support system, what has helped you thrive in the position you’re in?

• Having a mentor (actually multiple ones) has been the most important factor during this career switch. I’ve gained both knowledge and motivation by working closely with the finance departments in Munich and Osijek. They are the ones that gave me a push in the right direction and had my back every step of the way. Educating myself was equally important — I’ve been reading, researching, and attending different webinars and seminars ever since I made the decision. I have also attended a sales academy and my plan for the future is to finish an additional controlling specific course.

Two years in, would you say that this was a good decision?

• Probably one of the best decisions I made since starting my career. Sure, there were ups and downs and days when I couldn’t say I knew what I was doing. But in the end, I wouldn’t change a single thing about it — this was my journey and I’m very proud of it.

Are you thinking about a career switch too?

What would you advise to someone who wants to make a career switch?

1. If you want something, don’t think it’s going to happen overnight — good preparation is half the battle. Explore all possibilities, educate yourself about the idea and create a plan if necessary on how you’ll turn the idea into reality. Sometimes it’s better to take smaller steps than to jump straight into something.
2. If you’re scared, that’s not necessarily a bad feeling. It means you care.
3. Never doubt yourself, or your decision. Forget about that voice in your head that says “You can’t do it”. The truth is you can — you just need to be persistent and stand your ground.
4. Making mistakes is how you learn, don’t worry about it so much.
5. Surround yourself with people who have more knowledge and experience than you and learn from them.

And that’s a wrap! Dolores, thank you for sharing your story. I love seeing you thrive in your new role and can’t wait to see what the future holds for you. Only great things, of course.

If you have any questions for Dolores, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Making a Career Switch Within the Same Company was originally published in COBE on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Managing a European multi-location agency is great — you have the international flair, you might have the chance to work from different offices, and you learn a lot about clients in different markets. However, being highly adapted to local conditions can lead to national offices becoming so independent from each other that for outsiders, they sometimes even don’t seem to belong to the same company. This may weaken the strategic positioning towards clients and reduce the feeling of belonging of employees towards the umbrella company. So how do you manage to ever bring the different offices back together to ONE company again, if you feel the strategic need to do so? Well, we did exactly that.

COBE’s history — a tale of two offices‍

COBE was founded in Munich 10 years ago. Two years later, we opened a second office, in Osijek, Croatia. Since then, one of our top priorities has been keeping a healthy company culture and relationship between the two international offices.

Fast forward to the last couple of years, when our team grew to a great extent and keeping contact with each other became a lot more challenging. COBE kept growing, which was great business-wise but on the other hand, we started feeling a sense of division — it was COBE Munich and COBE Osijek. We mostly blamed it on the two international locations, because if we’re not seeing each other in person, how are we supposed to maintain a feeling of unity? But let’s be real, distance had nothing to do with it. We had a different service structure, managed our own customer base, and weren’t collaborating on projects as much as we could have. We even had separate websites with different branding.

What brought the change?‍

In 2020, our perception changed — we have just conducted a large, highly successful international project, with both Munich and Osijek teams involved, and received tremendous feedback for it, from both the client and the team. It made us think; wouldn’t it strengthen our operational setup, but also our identity and positioning towards potential clients, if we were perceived as one big agency instead of two, somehow smaller, joint agencies?

Realizing everything can be done virtually in 2020 helped with the change of mindset too. And so, the strategic alignment began.

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Steps in the strategic alignment towards ONE COBE

1. Collaborating more ‍

For us, the easiest way to grow closer organically is to collaborate on more projects. We have some crazily talented people on both teams, so whenever we work together, we also learn from each other. Do we even have to mention that some of our most successful projects were a product of joint work? Sharing projects and working with the same clients even helped us to further align our sales and project management processes.

2. Being a part of each other’s culture ‍

Welcome to COBE Camp, our monthly remote event where we share knowledge, news and ideas via Google Meet. This is just one of the examples of how we stay involved in each other’s culture. Our Camp sessions often include guest speakers and an afterparty. So, if you want to speak at one of our sessions, let us know. :)

3. New visual identity ‍

Now that we have aligned our processes, and the international teams are bonding, it was time for another big step — aligning our visual identity. Over the years, COBE Munich and COBE Osijek developed a slightly different visual presence online. If we wanted to be perceived as one agency, the next step was to develop one consistent visual identity for both offices — this resulted in a new, joint website. You are visiting it right now.

4. Joint Accounts

While we chose to keep our social media accounts separate (our target audience is nevertheless different), we did join accounts on other platforms, like Clutch. Reaching out to us has never been easier — find us under COBE Munich and COBE Osijek.

However, we’re not done here. We further plan to align our work and processes in every aspect that makes sense. And we want our colleagues and clients to grow professionally and personally every step of the way.

Conclusion: Tips and tricks from our journey ‍

This has been a two-year process so far and it has been an amazing two years. We have learned so much on the way, but one thing is certain — aligning your branding requires active listening throughout the whole process. You should always pay close attention to what each party wants and needs, but also be ready to express your own needs, preferences, and boundaries along the way.

Another thing you should pay attention to is choosing where to align and where to stay separate. It’s reasonable to still choose individual solutions for some company touchpoints like we did for our social media accounts.

The last tip is to stay unbiased and ready for change during the whole process. If both parties are being open, the process of aligning your branding can be inspiring and insightful, because chances are your teams have complementary skill sets. And you can benefit from both of them — for example, Munich has a great motion designer, while Osijek has a great illustrator.

Given our experience, it is exciting to join forces and tackle not only client projects but also the company’s marketing and communication as one team. If you’re in a similar position and need more tips, feel free to contact us.‍

A big thanks to Katharina Grimm for co-writing this article. 🧡

Originally published at www.cobeisfresh.com.

One COBE — The Journey of Re-Aligning Our Two International Offices was originally published in COBE on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Managing director of the Osijek office, MBA graduate (almost), and Manager of the year 2021, in the category of young managers — meet Ines.

Did you know that last year Ines celebrated her five years in COBE? With a degree in journalism and a background in PR, her path to the managing director role of a software company certainly wasn’t a usual one, but is it an inspiring one? Absolutely. Staying with the same company for 5+ years can bring many benefits along the way. To find out how it can affect your professional and personal growth too, keep reading — Ines has all the answers.

Let’s rewind to 2016 for a second — what did it all look like when you first started working at COBE? What was your role, and what did your path to managing director look like?

• I came to COBE as the 10th employee, and since I’m a journalist by profession, I started my career in the marketing and PR department — I say department, but it was just me. Nine out of ten people were developers at that time, which meant that lots of non-development tasks were, kind of, overlooked — not because nobody wanted to do them, there just weren’t enough people. Communication with the clients was one of them, and since I had a background in PR, I took on this responsibility. As the company gradually began to grow over the next few years, my role officially changed to Account manager, and with time, I became the Managing director’s right hand. When he decided to leave COBE, I faced the biggest challenge of my professional life — taking on the Managing director role. Even though it was a tough decision to make, I knew it made sense for COBE. Now, looking at the company’s results for the last two years, I’d say we made a pretty good decision at the time.

Of course, it was the right decision! And before we get to the part where we explain why, let me just ask you, how does it feel to be at COBE for more than five years?

• The feeling is terrifying, in the best possible way. You know, I moved from Zagreb for this job, and in the beginning, I would have never thought I would stay in Osijek for more than two years. It was a completely new beginning for me — a new industry, a new job, a new place to live. It feels weird even talking about it, but in the end, this job fulfilled all my expectations (and beyond), and I’m incredibly grateful to have been here for the last five years. ‍

The fear of the unknown is completely normal at first, but getting out of your comfort zone has a big impact on your personal and professional growth, don’t you think? And not only yours, but the growth of the whole company. In your opinion, what’s the biggest progress COBE made in the last five years?

• When I first joined COBE, the team was working on one, maybe two projects, and there were only ten of us. Today, we are a business of 50+ people, working on 7, 8 projects simultaneously. Our clients are important brands in the automotive, food, technology industry. I’m very proud that the projects we work on are getting bigger and more challenging every day. Having a supportive management and experienced team of designers in Munich also doesn’t harm — we recognize our strength in our togetherness. ‍

Looking at our financial and business results over the years, there’s been a noticeable incline in the last two years. What’s the most significant difference you see in COBE since becoming managing director?

• I became the managing director at a time the company didn’t have the best business results and was quite shaken by employee turnover rates. Looking back on that time, the biggest difference I notice is how much stronger we are today. The projects we work on are more complex, and the clients we work with are bigger and more recognized. More importantly, we have a solid team we can rely on, and that can rely on us — both financially and personally. I believe this became most evident in 2020, when the pandemic started, but even now. Over the last two years, our team grew by 100% — there were many promotions, certifications, and some of our employees even had career switches. Overall, we can be really proud of the company we became in such a short period of time. ‍

Working in the same company for a longer period surely influences your personal growth too, especially with a professional journey like yours. How did the managing director role impact your progress?

• I had no experience running a company at the time, and to be completely honest, I was scared to do it — I mean, I was taking on the responsibility for 20 people and their 20 families. Luckily, with time, that fear disappeared (and returned briefly when the pandemic began). Now, I can honestly say that I don’t feel it anymore — despite being responsible for 50+ families. I believe that calmness comes from surrounding myself with great clients, even greater projects, and a team that I can trust. And when that team is highly driven, you feel an obligation to grow and progress with them. ‍

I’m sure you’re familiar with the fact that four more people celebrate their fifth anniversary at COBE this year? Nine of them just marked their third year, and Mladen, our Finance manager, celebrates eight years at COBE these days. How do you feel about hearing these numbers? What would you say is our secret?

• To me, this is a sign that we’re doing something good, that people are happy here, and that they see their future in COBE. Honestly, I’d like for them to stay as long as possible — I mean, as long as it makes sense for them, but for us too. I believe people continue to choose COBE because they have the opportunity to discover what they’re good at, progress, and partake in the company’s decisions and growth. This is what motivated me to stay. I came to COBE as a communications expert, and after a while, I’ve been promoted to the role of Account manager, which I planned on doing for a while. Becoming the Managing director was never in my wildest dreams, but here I am. One of the first goals I set, then and there, was to enable others the same opportunities I had, and to progress in a similar way — I believe that’s what draws people to stay at COBE. They know that if they start their career as students, they’ll (most likely) get hired after graduation. If they come as junior designers, they’ll have the opportunity to become seniors, team leads, and even project leads one day. Plus, the usual benefits — Christmas, Easter, baby bonuses; birthday and wedding Giftcards; regular medical check-ups; meetings with a licensed psychotherapist; paid father’s leave; internal and external education; and much more.

To keep things transparent — even with all the benefits and efforts of retaining every single employee, some of them still choose to leave. And you can’t take it personally. As you said in your acceptance speech for Manager of the Year, when you work in IT, new job opportunities come your way every single day. Some employees get bored, others search for new challenges. But one thing’s clear — staying loyal to a company, and for that many years, actually is a big deal, right?

• It’s true that people get bored easily, but this is where the advantages of working in an agency shine through. When you work in an agency, something new happens every day, the pace is more intense and the job doesn’t allow you to get bored so easily. If you’re a sucker for change, you have the option to switch between projects every couple of months. On the other hand, if you prefer working on one, long-term project, get to know your clients on a deeper level, and work with the same team every day, you can do that too — we have projects we’ve been working on for more than three years. It’s also important to mention that the projects we work on cover different industries so everyone can find something that interests them. But it’s not just that, working in an agency brings many other possibilities. One of them is being promoted to a much higher position over the years. Another one is switching career paths. One of our colleagues recently switched her role from a QA to a Business Analyst. Instead of searching for a new job somewhere else, she wanted to introduce this role to COBE. By proposing the idea and being honest with us, she showed us how, even though she changed career interests, she still chooses COBE as her employer. And we’re grateful for that.

What do you see as the biggest benefit of staying with the same company?

• Well, after being in the same company for as long as I have, you can without any doubt say that you know the people you work with. And just as much as you know their strengths and weaknesses, they also know yours. When you’re working with someone for a long time, you learn to approach problems together, you learn how to solve them, and in general, you have lots of common victories behind you. You learn together and you grow together. With certain people, it takes only a look and you both know what you’re thinking — this comes in handy in certain meetings. There’s also the benefit of watching your clients grow over the years and seeing your projects develop.

What drives your progress after five years? What’s your motivation?

• What motivates me most is the responsibility I have towards my colleagues. I owe it to them to be the best version of myself and to enable them the career they want. Another reason, and this is a more selfish one, is that I want to prove to the world that everything can be done from a smaller environment, like Osijek. I often hear comments about the work pace in Osijek being much slower than somewhere else, and that’s so far from the truth. We do work hard, but the difference between Osijek and a bigger city is that work isn’t our whole life. We have a healthy balance between our private and business lives, while still working for some of the biggest brands in the industry. And I don’t see anything wrong with that.

What’s next in your plans?

• On a personal level, I still have a thesis to write, so my next step is to graduate. Learning doesn’t stop there though — I want to continue educating myself on becoming a better leader. As for the next steps in the company, I want to bring our expertise to a whole new level — hire more experts, work on even bigger projects, promote people, educate them, introduce new roles, and uplift our team leads. Our team doesn’t necessarily have to grow in numbers, but I want us to be the best we can be, in everything we do.
  Another important goal of mine is to keep giving back to the community. I think sometimes we all forget how blessed we are to work in the IT industry. That’s why I see helping others as one of our duties. I want our work to have an impact. Every year we make a smaller donation, but if we joined forces with other companies in Osijek Software City, I believe we could create something much bigger and really make a difference.

Your journey is inspiring to many, me first, therefore, what advice would you give to someone who has encountered an obstacle in their business life? Who wants to progress, but feels stuck?

• As a manager, I encountered situations where employees automatically dismissed an opportunity before even talking to someone about it — they immediately thought it wouldn’t be possible. Don’t do this — don’t deny yourself an opportunity without giving it a real chance. Talk to your team lead or management and present them with your idea. A manager will rarely turn an idea or proactivity down. Especially if it’s beneficial for both you and the company. So talk to them and fight for it, because, at the end of the day, everyone’s responsible for their own future. And if you want to progress at work, think about the things that are going well for you, things which you are good at, and educate yourself on it. Become a specialist at what you do, and remember to always stay competitive. That’s my advice. ‍

What else is there to add? You heard all the benefits of staying with the same company for 5+ years. Or at least all benefits of staying with COBE. Ines’s story certainly is a special one, so if she inspired you to join our team and see what it’s all about, check our open positions.

It’s time for you to start your journey at COBE too. :)

This article was previously published on cobeisfresh.com.

Katarina is a Marketing Manager at COBE. She loves creating content, showing her creativity, and bringing new ideas to life. In her free time, she’s either reading, watching The Office, or learning the art of kickboxing.

5 Years at COBE — Through the Eyes of Our Managing Director was originally published in COBE on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

*This article was originally published in January 2020 and updated in May 2021 for accuracy.

Let’s have a look back at the last few years. Like most companies, we have also dealt with some ups and downs — from changing our management and having some people choosing different career paths, to growing our team to almost 50 people, and working on big projects with even bigger clients. Not to mention a pandemic that came knocking on all of our doors in 2020 and influenced our private and business lives in unimaginable ways.

A lot has changed for sure, but to be completely honest, we entered 2021 with some of the best results yet. And with the most satisfied employees — we’re not just saying that, we have proof! At the end of 2020, we received our second Best employer award given in the annual employee satisfaction survey by “MojPosao”. Receiving this award means a lot, especially since a majority of things changed over the last couple of years, with quarantine especially. But seeing that our team still recognizes and appreciates all of our work, our colleagues, and our culture, keeps us going.

Despite reaching a high level of satisfied employees and growing our team by almost a half in the last few years, retaining talent is still something everyone talks about and struggles with. Especially when it comes to the tech industry. Whenever you scroll through your LinkedIn page or attend an HR conference, there are two terms closely related to retaining talent that you will most definitely encounter — employer branding and company culture. What’s it all about?

So, what is company culture?‍

For us, it’s all about working in a safe environment, being open, and having the ability to speak your mind, express your doubts, suggest something different, or try something new. That’s why we always encourage people to be as transparent as possible:

• People at COBE are both chill and professional. I think that’s what makes our company special. I was asked to single out the greatest day at work, but how can I do that when every day, for the past year that I work here, something interesting happens and every day I meet new challenges. But the thing I can single out, and the thing I’m proud of, is the teamwork we all put in every single day, which brings us some great business results, says Goran, Lead Android Developer. ‍

Other than that, company culture means valuing and respecting your colleagues, celebrating your team’s success, and never undermining each other:

• The main reason why COBE is so great are definitely the people. It sounds shabby, but it’s true. Although we are all completely different individuals, we are motivated by similar things. Just about everyone is team-oriented, ready to help out when needed but also contribute to an always great office atmosphere, says Monika, Lead UX Designer.
  ‍

‍
Let’s talk about benefits baby

Company culture is not having bananas, a ping pong table, or three free meals a day at the office. And that’s what confuses people. Why am I mentioning bananas all of sudden? It’s not that I don’t like them, actually, I’m a big fan 🍌, but in the world of employer branding, bananas were probably the most mentioned fruit for the last few years. Almost every other job ad lists fresh fruit and a ping pong table under company benefits. If fresh fruit is the biggest benefit you can offer in your job ad, with respect, don’t be mad when no one applies for it. Having fresh fruit or chocolate in your office is great, but you know what’s even greater? Being respected by your management and the people you’re surrounded by, having the opportunity to educate yourself, a work-life balance, and being able to laugh with your colleagues. And that’s the main difference between thinking you have great company culture and actually having it:

• In order to come to work with a smile on your face, two things must coincide: you have to love the work you do and you have to be surrounded by good people. When those two things do coincide, you’re surprised at how quickly five years at the same company have passed. Your company is only as extraordinary as your people. For the last seven years, I have witnessed how much a small business can change and the only thing I can hope for is we don’t lose this feeling we have along the way, says Mladen, our CTO.

So let’s redefine company culture once and for all in 2021. And I’m not only talking to recruiters now, I’m also talking to each and every one of you, because contrary to what some may think, company culture isn’t the job of an HR manager. It’s a product of common effort. From the management, all the way to developers, designers, and project managers.

99 problems but company culture ain’t one‍

So, how can you know for sure that your company culture is great then?

Most of the time you can’t, but our main tip is to talk. Talk to your employees and your colleagues, but not on a six-month basis; try to sit with them at least once a month and ask for their feedback, find out if something is bothering them, and listen to what they have to say. Other than that, motivate them — motivate your team towards success. Let them thrive. It’s a win-win situation. Happy employees, happy clients. No? :)

Katarina is a Marketing Manager at COBE. She loves writing and bringing new ideas to life. In her free time, she’s either reading, watching tv shows she already saw a hundred times (hello Friends!) or learning the art of kickboxing.

Previously published on cobeisfresh.com.

Like what you read? Hit like and recommend us! And if you want to continue learning, check out some other cool articles from our team:

• Your 5 Step Automation Starter Pack
• Agile, Scrum, Kanban — demystified
• Developing Android apps with Kotlin and Clean Architecture

What Makes a Great Company Culture? was originally published in COBE on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.