In today’s #EmployeeExperience, Carolina Albuquerque tells us about her new job as Project Manager for Operations at Munich based Developer an Publisher Travian Games. In the Interview, we not only learn about her career, her duties and her plans for the near future, but also about welcoming onboarding practices like Welcome Box and Cupcake Time…

Games-Career: Please, introduce yourself shortly and tell us which department you are working in.

Carolina: My name is Carolina Albuquerque, I’m 42 years old and I work as Project Manager for Operations at Travian Games.

Games-Career: Since when have you been working with Travian and how can your position be described?

Carolina: I started last May, so I am completing my 2^nd month. As Project Manager for Operations, I’m part of the Solutions team and our mission is the development of technical solutions that will help other departments, like Payment, Localization and marketing, to reach their business goals.

Games-Career: How and what were your first week’s experiences at Travian?

Carolina: It was really a great week. I had the chance to get to know the backstage of our games, which was exciting, and dive into our projects.

I also met a lot of people, not only in work related meetings, but during lunch or while getting a coffee. This showed me how international our company is.

Games-Career: How have you been supported with onboarding at Travian?

Carolina: The company has a number of initiatives that help a new employee a lot to feel welcomed. It starts with an amazing Welcome Box and goes all the way to special events for the newbies, such as the Cupcake Time with HR. There I was introduced to everything that Travian Games offers for their staff. Another special moment was when some colleagues who have already been working for Travian for many years shared their experience.

Other than that, I could count on my team lead to better get to know the company in a business perspective and to discover my challenges. I also worked very closely together with another colleague. This sped up my integration with the departments I’m working with and their projects. So, it was a matter of days and I was already feeling productive.

Games-Career: What do you particularly like about your new position?

Carolina: Being part of the Solutions team, I have the chance to work in projects for every game we have in production and we will launch. I work with the Payment department. Together we need to find out every requirement that a new game has regarding the shop and what will be offered to our players. And everything needs to be in place for the launching. The same applies to Localisation, another area I am working in, regarding launching an already existing game in a new country and so on.

Besides, it is very usual to have projects for the same game but involving different departments. This is a very rich experience, where we join forces to deliver the best solution.

Games-Career: How did you get to your current position and which career steps have you taken so far?

Carolina: I started my career as a developer, but I have been working as a Project Manager for more than 15 years now and it was mostly in digital marketing agencies. This allowed me to be in contact with the most different and innovative technologies – also with projects from different sizes and complexities. I had the opportunity to manage the development of a few games, but since they were always only part of the campaign to launch a product, the approach and the steps of the development were very different to what we deal with concerning our games at Travian.

Regarding my experience in digital agencies, some of them were international. It was very important because of the contact between different cultures, both from the coworker and the client side.

I also worked as an Operations Manager. This helps me to see the importance of having well designed processes in a company and how we should always be looking for ways to improve them.

This is the reason why the opportunity as a Project Manager for Operations at Travian Games felt like a perfect match to me. 😉

Games-Career: Do you have any advice you would like to impart to potential applicants?

Carolina: Show your willingness to learn and improve during the interview.

Games-Career: Since your career entry has been accomplished, which further plans concerning your occupational advancement at Travian do you have?

Carolina: I am really happy right now with the challenges I have and especially with my team. I can see that our departments collaborate and connect, but I feel that I can contribute even more with the Solutions team by helping to improve our processes. This is already something that would definitely have an impact on the whole company. So, these are the plans I have for the moment.

Games-Career: May you always stay as happy with your colleagues and challenges as you are now! This and a lot of succes for future projects, is what we wish for you. Thank you, Carolina for sharing your experiences with us.

If you feel inspired, working with Travian Games yourself, you can find all current open positions on the company profile.

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