What brought you to Lithuania?

Yeah, so it all started four years ago, back in 2021, when it was still the height of COVID. I was still living with my parents, and was stuck in one house along with my brothers, as well as one of my brothers’ family. I felt like, ok, there are maybe too many people here. I want to go somewhere else.

It was at that time that a recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. At first, she was just proposing local companies, but the more we chatted, the more we realised that we should be thinking more internationally. Initially, my goal was to go either to Ireland or Malta due to the language barrier – English is easier, right?

So, we had identified one Maltese company that I was going to sign with, and just before I did, the recruiter came up with the suggestion of working with Companial. She set up the interview, and it went really well. I really liked it there, so I said, ok, let’s go with it. It was then she told me that it was in Lithuania. I asked her to give me a few more days to make a final decision, but she was insistent. So I went for it. Since then, people have said, oh, it must have been so brave for you to relocate here. But to me, it was just a bit of a career adventure. And things have been non-stop since then, and I’m still here.

What was it about the job, apart from the people, that attracted you?

It was the way the company operated. I was in the same business back in Slovenia, but in Slovenia, the company was servicing the Balkan market, and I saw the opportunity of being able to work on a more global scale if I switched to a company that works across Europe and the US.

How was the whole relocation process?

Companial helped a lot with it, so, although there was stuff I needed to do, it wasn’t that much of a hassle. First, the offer itself included a relocation bonus that was there for me to ease into the relocation, to buy the tickets, and to have a hotel here until I found a permanent residence. They also sent me links to accommodation and gave me advice on where to look for an apartment.

Yeah, it really wasn’t that difficult. I had a hotel room arranged for me for the first month. They even had a buddy from work come and collect me from the airport and then show me around the town.

To be honest, it was a great way of building bonds with the company, as we were learning about the ins and outs of the relocation process together. Now, when they are relocating some new talent, they ask my advice, which is cool. It’s great to be able to help and share your experience.

Have you noticed that there’s any difference between the Slovenian and Lithuanian working culture or are they very similar?

I feel like it’s very similar. If there is a difference, it probably relates more to company culture. I do think there’s a lot of work-life balance here, but it all comes down to trust, right? Because if people trust you, and you trust each other to do the work, then nobody’s gonna really push you to work 10/11/12 hours. They trust that I’ll complete the work within the 8 hours allocated. And if it’s not, then we have to adjust the way we do things. This is a very healthy attitude, and I can see that this trust helps not only manage work-life balance but also positively impacts job satisfaction.

I personally usually invest quite a bit more time in my work, but that’s more of a personal choice. This is because of all the community activities that I do.

This is the perfect place to ask the question:  How active are you in your profession after working hours? Do you go to meet-ups, participate in events and share knowledge outside of work as well?

That’s something that I wasn’t really aware of when I was relocating here, but it has become a huge, huge part of me. I have really started to love the work that I do for the community. Now that’s either going to conferences to do sessions or presentations. This is something that I absolutely adore. I have my own blog where I blog things. I also do webinars. I did one yesterday, and these are important to me because they allow me to share knowledge with those who don’t have either the time or the funds to go to conferences.

I try to find as many events to go to as I can fit. I’ve been doing this for about 3 years now, and I’ve made friends and a network of peers who share the same passion for the community. We constantly keep in touch, and they’re a huge reason why I like to travel to all these events. I usually do about five or six unique topics per year. All my presentations are on my blog.

The good thing about Companial, my employer, is that they give me the space to do this. I’m able to attend conferences without it eating into my vacation time, and they allow me time in my working day to prepare the content.  Of course, I also do some work in my spare time because it’s fun.

Is there any other way that you connect with people and find new friends outside of work (e.g. hobby, volunteering)?

For me it was hard to meet people in the beginning, partially because I do think when I relocated here, I was more of an introvert, and through the four years, I’ve kind of flowered. The nightlife here has been important, and there’s a lot of it here in Vilnius. Whenever I’d go out with a co-worker, I’d find myself meeting people, and these people introduced me to their friends. But on top of that, it’s also that the team at Companial is quite young, at least in the department I work in. So a lot of these colleagues. I consider them my friends because we do a lot of the things together.

You were very quick to get a promotion within the company. How did the company help you with that and or was it just because of the fact that you were doing so much?

So I actually got promoted four times in the four years that I was here. The first one was kind of natural. They hired me as an experienced developer, but quite quickly we saw that I can perform at a higher level.

But the majority of my growth in the following years came from the fact that my manager one year said, hey, Tine, would you like to speak at a conference? And I was like, yes, absolutely. And he’s like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You don’t even know what the topic is. I was like, OK, OK, what’s the topic? And he says the topic. I was like, yes, absolutely. Let me do it.

So I immediately jumped on that opportunity and from there things just kept growing because through that one opportunity the wider community started noticing me, which means I got more opportunities to participate alongside my peers. And through the community work, I got access to loads of information that we don’t have internally.

Having access to all these great people keeps me motivated, while at the same time I’m able to bring back know-how that can improve our processes. It’s a win win.

Any last words of advice for talent that might be considering Lithuania?

I would say just go. Coming here was probably the best stepping stone I could have ever taken in my career. Just remember to pack a warm jumper for winter.  But believe me your summers are gonna be the best summers you have ever experienced because everything’s green and nothing’s too hot.