In honor of International Women’s Day, we created a mini-blog series where we celebrate brilliant women across RELEX and get an insight into their careers in the technology sector.
‘Colleague is a friend’ is one of the main values we live by at RELEX. We aim to have a low hierarchy where colleagues are treated as equals. One of our guiding principles is to respect expertise, which is easy to do with a house full of brilliant minds, whether it be women, men or non-binary RELEXians.
We work hard to ensure everyday equality within RELEX. We for example take pay equality very seriously and regularly monitor salary levels to ensure there are no statistically significant difference in pay between different genders within the same job titles.
Please meet our Technical Consultant, Barbara Konrad, and Senior Technical Consultant, Sharlotte Greer.
Fun fact: Both Barbara and Sharlotte enjoy spending time outdoors, whether it be in the garden or a nature trail.
What kind of background do you have, and how did it lead to your current position?
Barbara trained to be a mechanic. During her apprenticeship, however, she realized she wanted to keep educating herself. She did her A-levels and went on to study Computer Science in Mainz, Germany. During her studies, she joined RELEX and supported the company with the technical implementation of our software solutions. Right after graduating from university in 2021, Barbara joined RELEX as a Technical Analyst.
Sharlotte also has a degree in Computer Science and an MBA specializing in Computer Technology. She made a 15-year career elsewhere before friends convinced her to apply for a technical role at RELEX.
What is it like working as a Technical Consultant?
Working as a Technical Consultant at RELEX allows combining technical tasks, such as interface configuration and data validation, with the very communicative and collaborative role of a consultant in a project. This makes the job of a Technical Consultant very diversified, also because the tasks vary depending on what phase the project is currently at. In their roles both Barbara and Sharlotte have become great problem solvers.
Barbara and Sharlotte also recognize three specific skill sets that keep developing on the job:
1. Communication – Communication is key, as Technical Consultants need to teach customers with no technical background about complex technical issues and offer well-suited technical solutions for those issues.
2. Creativity – This is where problem-solving skills are a must, as evaluating customer’s requirements and developing solutions with RELEX’s in-house software solutions are a big part of the Technical Consultant’s role. Luckily, according to Barbara and Sharlotte as RELEX is a very adaptable tool the software adjustments and finding solutions together with customers is sometimes challenging but indeed an exciting process!
3. Mastering different tools – Technical Consultant needs to know how to use a number of tools for all kinds of purposes, such as monitoring, deployment, documentation and versioning. At RELEX Technical Consultants get to regularly learn about new technologies as well as new functionalities within the RELEX solutions.
What is the best thing about working at RELEX?
As someone who is interested in sustainability and sustainable living, Barbara really resonates with the positive impact RELEX has on the environment. The software helps reduce waste and responsible usage of resources is crucial when it comes to fighting climate change.
Sharlotte’s favorite thing about RELEX is the company culture and its values. Sharlotte identifies most with the RELEX value “Put an end to stupid things” as she believes this value promotes positive change and allows the company to be more flexible toward customers.
