Dear future colleague.

I am Zélia. I serve as Chief experience Officer at Virtusize.
(That’s a fancy title to say that I am leading our design and user experience team.)

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I have been working officially with digital products since 2008 but designing and building things since I was 11. I’ve been lucky to manage teams of up to 20 designers in the past and to hop from country to country (including Sweden, the birthplace of Virtusize) before moving and settling down in Japan.

I’ve been around at Virtusize since 2019 and had the chance to shape several of our new products, ranging from the smallest feature to the biggest launch in our history. As I write this, we’re only mid-way through 2020. That’s only 1 year and a few months in my tenure. Crazy.

During that time, we’ve built a whole team, moved offices, started working remote during a global pandemic, celebrated a few birthdays, some huge wins, welcomed a Virtusize baby, and worked on hundreds of ideas. Needless to say, we’ve been busy. But the good kind of busy.

What makes Virtusize different from all the other places I have worked at is the mix of openness and humility people display here. Everyone is highly competent and motivated, but no one is ever afraid to ask questions or admit they don’t know. The world would be a better place if most companies were like this.

If you’ve read any of the other letters, you’ve read about diversity and inclusivity in our team.
13 nationalities and counting in the same team, that makes for a fun mix. It also means extra work to communicate and understand each other: by joining us, you’ll probably have to broaden your horizons a bit.

We take this extremely seriously and proactively try to get better at it ourselves. We still have a long way to go when it comes to accessibility (both in our products and our team), but we work hard for it. We ain’t perfect yet, maybe you can help with that?

Working with us means working with colleagues who care a lot about social issues and the world out there. If that’s something you care about, you’ll find like-minded souls here.

Now, you might be worried about the whole “start-up culture” thing.
Listen, future colleague: I am a mom, and my kid’s education is my top priority. I work hard, but over-time simply cannot fit into my lifestyle. I am working reduced hours and leave the office early every day. And I still can sit on our management board and shape our products.
That’s because we’re results-oriented. There’s no place for long-hours for the sake of it.

Oh. and we’re a bit quirky (especially in the design team, we’re a bunch of weirdos) — but we’re also kind and caring. It’s a team where people got your back, at work and in life if you need/want to.

So, hey, future colleague… you probably still have a lot of questions. So why not take a coffee, virtual or otherwise, so that we can tell you more? There’s a lot of space to grow here and we’re all looking forward to learning from you.

Take care of yourself and see you soon!

Zélia