Meet Catalina, Senior Presales Engineer, in our Professional Development Interview Series

Having the opportunity to evolve freely and realize one's own goals matters a lot to us all. At Optibus, we support our employees by shaping career paths together with them in a way that encourages professional growth. In our new interview series, the spotlight is on those who have developed within the company – often in a way that has enabled them to explore various parts of the business. Here, we are all driven by one common goal: Making public transportation better. Together.

Today,? Catalina Igoa , Senior Presales Engineer, shares some of her insights with us.

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What is your job at Optibus and what is a typical workday like?

I’m a Senior Presales engineer in the EMEA team and we are responsible for making sure we can bring value to our prospects. To do so, we need to understand their needs and the characteristics of their operations. It is difficult to describe a typical work day, as every day is different and this is one of the things I like the most about my job. I can spend a whole day speaking with prospects, demoing the product and having an open discussion on how Optibus can bring value to them, or I can be working closely with the Product department contributing to the justification for strategic product developments from the customer perspective, or I could be attending a conference, and the list goes on.?

Tell us about how you got started at Optibus and how you developed to where you are now?

I started as a Presales Engineer and got to work on some challenging projects, where the requirements were high and sometimes new to us. This gave me a chance to work closely with different departments within the company as well as with my manager and get their support throughout the process. I also learned a lot from these prospects, as I met people with so much experience in the sector that every conversation with them taught me something new and helped me a lot to grow professionally and personally.

What professional experiences did you have that led you to your current position?

I started working as a SAP implementation consultant and then moved to an engineering and construction company where I worked mostly in the business development department in Uruguay, Peru and Spain. I took one year off to do my master degree and I did an internship in an electricity network operator in the UK.

What would you recommend to people who want to develop in this direction?

Ask for help and help other people. In such a fast-paced company (and industry) where our prospects can have unique operations the only way of providing customized value is by sharing knowledge and experience internally. What might sound completely unknown to you might have been encountered by someone else last month on another continent. It is always worth checking the internal documentation, be curious and ask around. And whenever you think you can help someone, approach them. I always thought that the best way to verify if you understood something is by explaining it to someone else. If you understood it correctly, great, you saved someone else a lot of time and as a company, we’ll move faster towards our goals. And if you can’t explain it then probably it is not that clear and it’s a great opportunity to learn with someone else.?

What do you enjoy most about working at Optibus?

The involvement we can have in the product, in procedures and in the company itself. We are constantly asked for feedback in a variety of ways, and you can see how our input and opinions are genuinely considered. I think this is very special.?

Which Optibus value are you mostly connected to and why?

Determined. I know there is still so much to learn and so much I don’t know, but I don’t give up easily. I enjoy solving problems, and when I can’t find a solution I will try another approach, again and again. We’ll meet failure many times in our lives, to find solutions we just need to keep trying without losing our passion.

What skills have been most beneficial for you?

Resilience and empathy.?

What’s one thing you wish someone had told you when you were at the early stages of your career??

Be organized and document your work properly, you might need to come back to it later, hand it over or share it.??

What do you like to do outside of work??

I like to read and write, do any outdoor sport (lately I got into playing padel), hang out with friends and family and travel.?

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Optibus supports its employees in their development! Interested to be a part of it? Learn more at https://www.optibus.com/jobs