Up Close and Personal #1

Reading: 3 mins

The first in a series of profiles of the Motionlab team
Dominika Jakubickova - Javascript developer

Tell me a little about your background and how you ended up at Motionlab
DJ: It's complex story but the short version is that I grew up in Bratislava and then moved to the Czech Republic for a job and started going to university here as well. I was always interested in programming since high school but I never thought it would be my thing.
So I worked in printing and graphic design and studied media studies at college, but my interests changed. I was more and more drawn to video, programming games etc. So I shifted my career perspective towards coding. I think it was during the first Covid lockdown that I started focussing more on programming. I'm mainly self-taught and I did some on-line courses too.
In my spare time I like sewing and I do volunteer work at Bílý kruh bezpečí.

What is your role at Motionlab and what is a typical day like for you at work. 
DJ: I'm a front-end developer at Motionlab. Initially I got a job here as a React front-end developer but my role has evolved. In the last few months, I've been working on React/Next projects but also more with vanilla Javascript and After Effects. 

We have 3-week sprints and each one seems to be very different but I really like that and am learning a lot with each new sprint. So there isn't really a typical day. It keeps changing.  
I'm not really sure what my focus will be in the future but in the last few months I've been working more on video rather than front-end and I have to say I really enjoy that so I hope it continues.

What appeals most to you about Personalized Video? 
DJ:  I hadn't really heard about video personalization before I started working here. I'd heard about personalization a little and how it worked with data but at the beginning it took a few days to get my head around video personalization. When I finally did, it blew my mind a little as I didn't think something like this was possible and I thought 'Oh this is interesting, I can do this!'. It's the technical side that I find really fascinating. It's a combination of all these different factors - technical, creative, IT, synchronization, all working together, to create the final result, and I think that is so amazing.

IT is a famously male-dominated industry. Does that bother you and do you think attitudes are changing – for better or worse? 
DJ: I really like and don't like this question at the same time *laughs* I don't think I'm really in a position to answer it well for all women as I would need to do more research. I think it's a little counter-productive to look at individual ‘success stories’ as it’s a complex issue affecting the whole of society and it can distort the overall picture. I’m very aware of the situation and am trying to learn more about it. For sure there's a systematic problem that some job opportunities are not equal, but I think it's important to treat men and women as individuals and not two groups. I know the ratio for men to women in IT is something like 10:1 and that's not good. I think in general the whole equal opportunities for women situation is moving in the right direction and that's encouraging but IT has some catching up to do.  
 
But I have to say I've never heard about a similar situation to Motionlab that for a while after I started working here about a year ago, there were more women in the dev team than men. Even now it's 50:50. I don't think there has been a conscious decision to get some kind of female quota here. People are hired because they are a good fit for the company. It has just happened organically. Gender is not a consideration. And I think that's great.  
I know there's a strong support network here in the Czech Republic for women in IT and groups like Czechitas are really big, but I've never really got involved in that side of it.

How has the last 2 years been for you in the covid era? What have you learnt about life? 
DJ: I think my 'Covid Life' has been a pretty privileged one. Two years ago there was a lot of uncertainty, especially with jobs, and people didn't know what was going to happen. But it gave me the chance to learn some new skills with programming and this gave me the opportunity to switch jobs and I got a job that I really wanted. So looking back I can't really say I suffered so much compared to some people.  
What did I learn? Well, I didn't really suffer any kind of life crisis, but it's definitely made me think about my own mental health and how important it is to keep that side healthy.  
I enjoyed parts of the lockdown at the beginning as it gave me time to focus on myself. But then, as it went on, I think I lost sense of reality a bit and lots of people felt like this. I realised what I was missing, things like dance lessons and social gatherings. The work-life balance is so important. You need to appreciate the social relationships and activities you have in your life. Having them taken away makes you realise how important they are.  

 
For more Czech chit-chat with Dominika, check out this ProgramHRovani podcast hosted by Motionlab CTO Vojta Madr.

Danny Holman, Motionlab