Our Meet the Hiring Manager series allows you to get to know the people who grow teams at VMware. You’ll learn about our hiring managers’ career paths and what they look for in candidates during the interview process. This week we’d like you to meet Karina Aneva.
- Job title: Manager, CXS Digital Experience Engineering
- Years at VMware: 3.5 years
- Fun fact: I used to spend my free time watching crime TV series like Hawai 5:0 where my favorite actor Grace Park as Officer Kono Kalakaua is chasing bad people. I had a dream to be a detective and to chase bad people, but in the end, I graduate software engineering and I chase and investigate product issues. ?
- First job: During high- school summer’s vacation when I was 16th I worked as a bartender. It was a wonderful experience, as I learned to listen to people and of course how to make a great coffee. That is why most of my colleagues ask me to make them a coffee.
- Favorite social distancing activity: With my friends, we love to go to escape rooms and city quizzes. However, during the pandemic, we were not able to do so. Our new hobby is to meet every Friday evening and play board games all night. Before 2-3 months we discovered an improved version of Ludo – Tsak where every color has unique abilities. It is always fun to play.
Tell us about your career journey to date?
During the 2nd year in the university, I did an internship where I took part in the entire SDLC i.e from design to development and the end testing. I enjoyed the most testing the product.In just a few days I managed to find a lot of bugs and even ccrash the product instance. The team was impressed, but also not so happy because they had to stay late to fix the production crash. This is how my quality engineering career started and I continued to specialize in software automation in UI testing with Typescript, Protractor, and Selenium.
I joined VMware in 2018 in a role which provided the opportunity to grow in a scrum master for a new build quality engineering team. At this point the team was small with just a few engineers, and we had to build a framework for UI testing from scratch. Soon I had the chance to step up in a role which included agile scrum master and leading the technical initiative for the quality engineering team. Recently I was promoted officially to a management role.
How is VMware different from any other tech company you have worked for in the past?
VMware is a people-centric company and offers very diverse career opportunites, for which I am an example. I decided to step into a management role, rather than continue my career in the technical field and I was offered a suitable role. Every employee has a career development plan and receives support to make sure that their business and personal goals are alligned.
What has been the biggest lesson you have learned as you moved upwards in your career?
Individual success is the result of the team’s success and it’s very important to have great collaboration, communication, and trust between the team members.
What makes the team you lead so effective?
The team culture is important for us and we care for each other. This helps us stay dedicated to our success focusing on end result rather than the individual contribution. Everyone is ready to help regardless of their seniority. There are well-established processes, which helps to stay focus on the priorities, and at the same time, the team is flexible enough to brainstorm and accept new ideas for improvement. We encourage work-life balance and are very cautious to prevent overtime and burning out.
If someone reading this was coming to interview with you tomorrow what interview tips would you give them?
We have a couple of interviews, checking technical coding skills which are important for our automation role. In the second interview we cover topics related to the testing strategies, types, and design patterns. We drive the conversation based on the previous experience, rather than going through templated questions.
Could you see yourself working for a manager like Karina? Click here to browse open roles with VMware!Senior QE Automation Software Engineer – CXS Platforms And Applications
Full Stack Engineer – CXS Platforms And Applications
Product Manager – CXS Digital ExperienceManager, CXS Digital Experience Engineering
