Get to know us: introducing Alejandra Roitman

For the past couple of weeks we have been publishing profiles of people at Belatrix. It has been incredibly insightful and inspiring reading them. And today, in recognition of International Women's Day, I want to share the profile of Alejandra Roitman, a Leader Coach at Belatrix, who was interviewed by Alejandra Rodriguez.

"Curiosity allows me to understand other people’s realities"

Alejandra is passionate about working with people. During our interview, she highlighted how rewarding it is to work hand in hand with colleagues who have grown tremendously in the company. In her journey at Belatrix, she has learned to build work relationships based on trust which has resulted in great workflows and excellent results. Despite the differences in culture, or even though she hasn’t physically met some of her colleagues, she has managed to build strong relationships with every team she has led.

• Can you please tell me about your role and the story of your career, from when you started at Belatrix, to your position today

I started working at Belatrix in 2004 when I was about to finish my studies. Mónica Colombo, who is currently Belatrix’s Director of Knowledge & Growth Integration Area, was my teacher at the National Technological University in Mendoza, Argentina. She offered me the chance to work as an intern in the area of Quality Assurance (QA). During my first years at Belatrix I had the opportunity to work in both QA and Development areas. Although both experiences were very enriching, it was in QA where I felt most comfortable.

After gaining expertise in QA, I became a leader. At the time we still worked under waterfall methodologies, until Belatrix started to adopt Agile practices. We were trained in Agile methodologies and we obtained Scrum Master certifications. I have been a Scrum Master for seven years and it’s a position that I will keep, along with a new role: Leader Coach. In this new position, I am responsible for supporting and training Belatrix’s leaders.

• How has Belatrix helped you achieve your career goals?

I believe having my first real experience in the industry at Belatrix was a great opportunity. Being involved in both Development and QA areas almost from scratch, allowed me to understand the lifecycle of software development from different angles. Also, transitioning from traditional to Agile practices, improved our results and quality, enabled us to have a closer relationship with clients, and allowed me to better understand my work team. Now with the role of Leader Coach, I will take over new aspects. It is definitely a challenge but I believe this is an important step in my career.

• What do you love most about your job?

I love working with people. I really appreciate the chance to witness how the team grows and matures, and how day by day, we get closer to the final goal. It’s very rewarding and exciting to see how an idea turns into a functional web or application. Also, as a Scrum Master, I like to be as close to people as possible, not only to encourage and support my team or to fulfill the client’s expectations but also to be helpful to other areas of the company. For example, at the Buenos Aires offices, Scrum Masters gather once a week to analyze how we can be more helpful to each other and what we can further improve.

• What has been your most memorable moment at Belatrix?

The biggest satisfaction to me is to be part of really challenging projects where we have been able to deliver high-quality results thanks to the huge commitment of our team. After weeks of hard work, I love seeing the customer satisfied with the final product. Also, I feel proud of the personal and professional growth of my colleagues. There are employees who started as interns and today are experts in new technologies, offering courses and training. I particularly remember that several years ago there were only a couple of people in UX Design. Today the company has a UX Center of Excellence with many experts. I feel impressed by this growth.

In addition, coming to Buenos Aires was a great experience. Even though it wasn’t easy to leave my hometown, Mendoza, I enjoyed being present throughout the process of growth of the office. Now you can see the outcome of all this passion and work.

• What do you do in your spare time? Is there a connection between your hobby and your work?

I love exploring Buenos Aires. It’s a city full of culture. I love to go to the theater and music concerts. I also take singing and accordion lessons and I am practicing again table tennis. Now, if you ask me if there is a connection between what I do in my spare time and my work, I’d say there is one indeed. I believe learning something from scratch makes you develop tolerance towards frustration, it builds discipline and increases your desire to keep learning and improving, which are crucial skills in software development. Also, something that I keep noticing is the number of people in the company who are interested in music. I believe there is some kind of relationship between these two fields as they require curiosity and eagerness to learn in order to understand both, the logical world of QA and the chords of music.

In addition, curiosity allows me to understand other people’s realities. I find it very interesting to work with colleagues from the different Belatrix locations because in order to establish a relationship I have to explore their culture and understand their dynamics. As a result, I’m able to build relationships of trust where people feel they can count on me even when we haven’t personally met.

Read the full article here.