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Marketing & HRAge diversity in the Mobile Reality

We strongly believe that despite the age difference, middle-aged people are able to give the company real value.
Updated at11.01.2024
Published at16.05.2022
Aneta Wodarz
Aneta Wodarz

HR Manager

Table of contents

  1. Insights from HR and EB in the IT industry

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Introduction

There is no need to tell anyone that mostly Millennials and Gen Z work in IT, but have you ever wondered what working in IT looks like from the perspective of a middle-aged person? People who spent their entire professional life in other industries and joined IT after the age of 50? Have you ever wondered why such people decide to change their professional lives?

At Mobile Reality, we know well that it’s not easy to adapt to a new work environment, but as a team, we do everything to make everybody feel good. We strongly believe that despite the age difference, middle-aged people are able to give the company real value, and share their professional experience and knowledge that younger colleagues don’t have yet. Of course, a lot depends on them, whether they will overcome their weaknesses and fears, will be able to communicate with younger colleagues, want to integrate with the rest of the team, and whether they will believe that they bring value to the company.

In Mobile Reality, such a person is Ewa Sadowska, who, right after the owners, is the most important person in Mobile Reality. Why? Because she’s a person with extensive professional experience, who shares her knowledge and experiences with us, she is such a lovely person, and, above all, she gives us a positive mood. For almost a year she has been dealing with payroll as well as communication with employees. If you are wondering who is responsible for the fact that your salary always arrives on time - yep, that's Ewa.

We’re sure that you want to get to know Ewa and her story better, so we had a short interview with her. Find out from the interview how she joined us and what she likes about working with the younger generation. Are you ready? Let’s read.

Ewa, how did it happen that you joined Mobile Reality?

Having a permanent job and higher position, I didn’t think that I would change my professional life so radically. I have always loved my job and knew that I wanted to work in a modern place, but at one point I noticed that despite the dedication and effort I put in, less and less dependent on me. Due to many factors, mainly political, I burned out professionally and felt a desire to change.

One day my son Mateusz called me and suggested that I could support the growing Mobile Reality with my skills. Because of my professional duties, I didn’t accept this proposal immediately, but the proposal stayed in my head, and after a few months, I made the decision to change the direction of my development and join Mobile Reality.

And yeah ... I've been with Mobile Reality for almost a year. The beginnings were very difficult and were valuable learning and humility, verification of existing skills, and gaining new ones, but it was totally worth it.

What did you do before joining Mobile Reality?

All my professional life so far has been associated with school and education. At school, I started my career as a teacher and ended it as the director of a school in Lublin. As a teacher and then director, I worked with people of all ages, starting from 6 years old and ending with teenagers. It was a real mission for me because I tried to provide them with knowledge not only in school subjects but also a desire for continuous development, curiosity, and learning about the world. During my work, I have had the pleasure of working with various people. Working with the parents of students was often demanding because of their unlimited love for their children. At school, I worked with people who were committed to their work, full of passion, but there were also people who were difficult, who couldn’t be trusted. Through work and contacts with various people, I have learned many useful skills, such as ease of communication and difficult conversations, building relationships based on respect and mutual trust, solving difficult problems, and, above all, the ability to organize support in the most difficult moments in the life of my students. Working at school also taught me humility, willingness to learn, seek answers to all questions, work under time pressure. I feel proud that over the years I have been able to experience so many great moments and manage and create an innovative learning place for each student.

What are the differences between your previous work and the present one?

When I was working at school every day from Monday to Friday, I started my day with a 30-minute journey from home to school. Mrs. Ula's smile greeted me every day, and the secretary prepared a coffee for me. My student's parent was usually waiting at the door to discuss an urgent matter with me. Then I did documentation, talked to teachers, meetings, school celebrations, evaluations, audits, and many other important things. I was often stressed and had a lot of responsibility.

In Mobile Reality, the time it takes to get from bed to the computer is very short, I make my own coffee, the first meeting starts at 10.00 am and I carry out my tasks according to my own schedule. I can calmly focus on my tasks such as payroll, employee documentation, compliance, cooperation with the team, law, and accounting. My bosses allow me to carry out my tasks stress-free and I’m glad that I can work in such an environment. Although the first six months of my work were difficult, because I had to learn new skills and get to know new apps, it turned out that patience was the key to successful onboarding. Responsibility for the implementation of my tasks rests with me, so I know that I work in a place that allows me to develop in accordance with my own needs.

What things and daily duties do you enjoy and what are the difficulties? What is the challenge for you?

Pleasure and difficulty at work are related feelings. It’s a pleasure to overcome difficulties and learn new skills because it brings satisfaction and the feeling that you are needed. If I need to mention the difficulties and pleasures of my daily work, I would like to point out a few:

  • I think that remote work requires a lot of self-discipline, which I also learn and it has to do not only with deadlines, but also about separating the workspace and work time from my family life, and being well-groomed when starting the working day (not spending the whole day in pajama).

  • Working with several apps at the same time that I had never worked with before was difficult for me. Now I feel more and more confident working with Jira or Confluence, because I got to know these tools better, and I also know that they make my work easier.

  • Working with tasks - for a long time I didn't see the point of writing everything down in the tasks until I started analyzing my effectiveness reports. Now I know how to work with tasks, how important it’s to mark tasks as „done” and how helpful it’s in organizing my work.

  • My greatest pleasure is working with people, and building healthy and proper relationships. It isn’t difficult for me as I have been doing it all my professional life.

  • Another pleasant thing for me is the knowledge of payroll, the ability to provide legal regulations - I learned this in my previous job, and now it makes my daily duties much easier.

What do you value most about Mobile Reality? What are you proud of?

I’m most proud of my sons, whose courage and idea for life and the company are a real inspiration to me. Besides, I can see that people working in Mobile Reality are fully committed to the company, they are open to conversation, exchange knowledge and skills. They are committed and professional, and they also care about nice, friendly relationships. It's good to work in such a work culture.

How do you feel about cooperation with the Millennials and Gen Z? What can you learn from them?

I feel very good working with young people. I think we can learn a lot from each other. I personally gain a lot of knowledge from younger colleagues, for example:

  • News in the IT industry, apps, technology, social media, and how to use them to make your life easier. Conversations with young employees inspire me to learn and read, for example, about NFT or crypto all the time. What else, I am constantly learning to be fluent in speaking about tech innovations, including fluency in communication in English.

  • Referring to English classes, online lessons are a new experience for me from the perspective of being only a student, which for younger colleagues is a natural working and learning environment,

  • Enthusiasm for physical activity. I hope that the new Activy challenge will allow me to be more active. I also learn from my younger colleagues about healthy eating - I try to have more vegetables in my daily diet.

What would you like to teach your colleagues who are just taking their first steps in their professional careers? What should 20-year-olds learn from you?

Every moment in life is important and should be appreciated, so the first thing is to just enjoy the moment. What’s more, I believe that the people we meet on our way play a large role in life. Regardless of whether someone is our longtime friend or we meet someone at the bus station, this person can be an inspiration for us. Let us not be afraid of people. Learn from their knowledge, listen to them, let them share their story with us. We never know what impact this will have on our lives. Btw. there have been a few people in my life who have shared some little wisdom with me, but I remember them until now, and as time went on I realized how it had affected my life. Short words spoken at different times in life by different people can inspire us. The last thing I would like to share with my younger teammates is continuous learning. Explore the world, learn new skills. Be a great dev, but also learn to take care of plants, cook a simple dinner. You never know when such simple skills will be useful to you, and such simple things will make up your whole life.

age diversity rodzina sadowskich mobile reality

What do you think the future of MR will be like?

Are you asking me as a mother who wishes her sons to be the best in the IT industry? Yes, I wish them that. I wish Mobile Reality to be the best company in the world in its category, to continue to specialize in its services, and to create its own app - a life-changing product, the co-creator of which will be every Mobile Reality employee.

I know that Mateusz and Marcin have clear goals. They create a company where respect for the employees is the most important, where they care for them. They create a workplace that focuses on openness, listening, dialogue, reliability, honesty, and care for the well-being of everybody. I wish them to continue in this direction, and that they would achieve great success together with the whole team, and by the way, you know...as owners, they should find more time to rest.

Insights from HR and EB in the IT industry

Are you curious about the unique challenges and innovative solutions in HR and employer branding within the IT industry? At Mobile Reality, we're excited to share with you a wealth of insights from our experiences. Discover the problems we face, the strategies that drive us, and the creative ideas we implement in our HR and employer branding initiatives. Dive into our collection of related articles featured on our blog – a treasure trove of knowledge awaits you:

Enjoy exploring these insights. Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. If you're interested in joining our dynamic team, explore the opportunities in our career section and submit your CV. We look forward to hearing from you!

Did you like the article?Find out how we can help you.

Matt Sadowski

CEO of Mobile Reality

CEO of Mobile Reality

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