Promotion is not always “up”

Why after 7 years at Metapack you want more? Read the story of Daniel.

Once someone asked me during an interview, where I see myself in 10 years… I think that in ten years I do not know, but in five I will still be in Metapack – says at the end of our conversation Daniel Michalewicz, Frictionless Product Owner for almost two years, and before that… Exactly. At Metapack, he learned about internal recruiting and job changes from the inside out. Today, he shares his experience, great knowledge of the company and the market, and the history of how he repeatedly threw down the gauntlet to Metapack, looking for new professional challenges. Has Metapack picked up this gauntlet and rose to the challenge?

You’ve been working at Metapack for seven years. How would you rate the company?

Well! I think that when it comes to job satisfaction, it’s there all the time, and this is the most important thing. I am happy to come to work, although I’m always looking for new challenges, I always observe what comes up in the company. Maybe there will be something I like more than what I’m doing now?

Well, over the years you have worked in the company on several different positions. You have also changed your profile – from specialist to managerial, and finally to the current role of Product Owner. Were these numerous changes due to the search for new challenges?

I don’t like to be bored. I came to work as a support man who worked with handling reports of technical problems. My manager at the time stated that I had the potential to take a small team under my wing, to see how it would work. I took this chance and I think my team worked very well. Then my boss’s boss said they needed to fill a position even higher. So I started to manage Support in Poland, constantly looking for new challenges. At some point, it was decided to create a new Change Reqest team. The possibility of using my experience and acquired skills, the prospect of creating a team from scratch and working under less pressure from the client tempted me to take on this new task.

How exactly did this change of management position in Support to Lead in the Request Team go? Did you turn to your supervisor because, as you said, there was too much stress in the previous team for you?

Honestly, I don’t fully remember. It was a long time ago, but in our company we always talk openly about problems and what you want to do. Then both my manager at the time and Kasia (HR manager) knew that I was looking for a change. Someone saw a potential in me that could be used elsewhere. For the entire Change Request Team, we significantly shortened the time of introducing small changes, which until then had been carried out by the team dealing with large implementations. Customer satisfaction grew in front of our eyes. Ours grew too. We also managed to document many things and build good relationships with clients.

After a year and a half, I was offered to implement this model of work in cooperation with couriers as part of a new role in another team.

And that was a change to your current position, Product Owner?

Yes. It was then that a new position appeared, or rather, it was about to emerge. I knew more or less what such a person would do, then an official announcement came out, so I applied and then met the manager of the new team. This was not the role of a typical Product Owner with development teams. I don’t have a team and never will. I work with many of them. I am responsible for the processes and documentation of key areas in our business.

I always say that this journey from Supporter to Product Ownership is such a natural flow of it all. We don’t always want to be promoted to the top. For example, I discovered that I am not that satisfied with managing a large team. So promotion is not only a vertical promotion, but also a horizontal promotion. It is trying something new at the level of knowledge I am at. We’ll see what the future holds. Maybe there will be something new on the horizon in our company, something more exciting than what I am doing now (laughs).

The horizontal advance should indeed be treated as as valuable as the vertical one and your development path is the best example of this. It is very valuable that you could still try the managerial path and find out that you prefer to take an expert direction. How do you recall your experience of managing people?

The person who works in my previous position is always telling me that what I taught them back then, in that team, really gave them a lot. People who were in that team also wanted to have their own career path and, starting with the implementation, they moved to the managerial or development path. Probably everyone feels that when they leave, they are proud of what they have achieved. When I left the Support management position, the Supporters themselves said that they were happy for me, they told me: ‘You know what the problems are, so try to fix them’.

Then, when I left the team that was doing the implementations, I also heard: ‘We understand why you want to grow and thanks for everything.’ I think that’s cool. These are the things that make you want to keep working because someone appreciates you. I think this is what’s cool with us, that we can appreciate other employees, when someone does a good job, it is remembered at quarterly meetings. There were even stars as prizes, and thanks to such things it was possible to work, but also to have a good time.

From your story, it can be concluded that the change of positions to managerial or project positions as well as internal recruitment at Metapack proceed smoothly, that there are good conditions for it. How do you rate it?

All internal recruitment is always in such a cool atmosphere. I often hear from someone on the team about a recruitment for a position and they encourage me to come and have an interview. And that’s cool, because you’re not always looking for something, and you may find that what you’ve been offered is a pretty good thing. Some people don’t even look at these internal recruitments, and I think it’s worth it.

And what was the formal internal recruitment for your current position?

The manager informed me that there would be such a position and said he saw me as one of the fit people. When the position appeared, I sent my CV and a description of my motivation for moving to this position. I got an invitation for an interview. We are all on first name basis in the company, so I would say that it was not a typical job interview, but just a casual conversation. Why do I want to change my position, what I want to do. It was a no-stress conversation. It was something new, something cool, and I had to explain how I see myself there. And I guess I did well (laughs).

For sure! After all, you’ve been successfully working in this role for almost two years. But I’m curious – at what point did the interview with your former boss take place? Did the managers have to decide everything among themselves, or maybe you had to ask your boss for permission to recruit inside the company?

I talked to my manager that I would like to change something and I have never hidden that I would like to develop when such possibility might arise. I think it was so natural, it shouldn’t be something to be afraid of. We are a company that has different standards than those I have seen externally and we help people find a place in existing structures. We don’t want to lose people who already have knowledge, because maybe it’s worth giving them a different position in our company, where it will work out better.

Most importantly, nobody in our company tells anyone ‘you can’t.’ If you want to try, try. Once you get in, you get a complete transition plan. However, new positions, like my current ones, have no clear training path. So, for example, a typical Product Owner would have some training, while an unusual Product Owner would not, and now I am talking about myself, because there was no specific training for me. Everything I do is what I did at the seat of my pants. My manager used to say: ‘this is your goal, and how you do it, how you achieve it, it’s your initiative.’

But you probably got some support in your new role?

Of course, there is always support. For example, when taking over managerial positions, there is a mentor from HR. I did not take advantage of this opportunity, but I know people who have and they are pleased with it. There is also an option to select a person from the company with a longer experience and you can turn to them with any problem.

It’s nice to hear it, but I want to know: what’s next, what is your goal for this year? You have been working in your current position for almost two years, which in your case is already a long period.

A lot has changed recently in what I did and in what I was employed for in this position. As always, I keep my eyes open to new possibilities. I’ve found that I enjoy working with a client the most, and I’d like to do more of that. And the cool thing about Metapack is that you can communicate this need openly.

I already know that in this job and in the company you value the fact that you can search for what you like to do. Just a quick ball at the end, then: If you had to name three more things that you value most about Metapack, what would it be?

The first one is definitely the atmosphere, the second is the professionalism of the people I work with, and the third is just the company itself – it’s cool and that’s it.