"Vigjilent pursues a new career through international TEL project"

Tell us about yourself and your background, when did you become a part of TMC?

My name is Vigjilent Kastriota, I am 31 years old and live in Gothenburg, Sweden. In case you wonder why my name does not sound Swedish, it’s because I have Albanian origins.

I graduated from Gothenburg University with a bachelor’s degree in systems science because of my interest in technology and the freedom that IT positions can grant you. After that, I began working as a consultant, working in different environments with many clients. I worked as an application management consultant, and while exploring the world of business intelligence I also started applying skills that I had from learning user experience design to create apps that could be easily understood and navigated by its users.

When I got more experienced, I decided to make my passion for design and overseeing projects from beginning to end my fulltime job. This is when I applied to TMC. As TMC offers its employeneurs ways to develop their career and focusing on what they really want to do. I thought it would be a great fit for me, and a good place to develop and grow.

How did you find this international TEL opportunity?

I asked my Business Manager to help me find a project where I could develop as a designer and leader. She understood what I wanted to do and reached out to her contacts within TMC, and a few weeks after that I had an interview with her contact in Belgium.

What made me interested in the project was mainly my drive to grow and make the change I saw for myself. I made sure to have a Google certification as a UX design professional before starting the project.

Can you tell us about the project? What are you and your team working on at TEL?

Our project is about creating a company and an application that helps users to find volunteer work in Europe easily. The application is also much more than that, it will help people who have similar interests and ideas to connect, work together and share ideas for a better environment. The exact details and other functionalities of the project are not something I can disclose yet, but you will be able to see and use it in the not-so-distant future.

My role in the project was to design the user experience from beginning to end. However, as it has been developing, I took on more responsibilities that led to me being the UX Lead.

“To work in a startup means being a chameleon, to take on different tasks than expected, to make plans and change them continuously, being flexible and strong minded.”

If you want to succeed in a startup, it is important to communicate - and to be able to collaborate with different people. You need to respect each other’s work and help your colleagues.

The communication part is especially important since I am the only person working from Sweden, while the others from the team are in Brussels and Amsterdam. This project is in the beginning stages as of now, but I have already designed parts of the application to inspire the team for what we are aiming for. A visual representation so to speak, however, we will do a lot of testing, reiterations, and redesign, I am sure. I have not seen anyone in my team in person yet, but I hope to visit them at some point.

How has it been to work with a TEL project in addition to your full time job as an employeneur?

Working on a TEL project aside from your actual money-making venture at TMC does require a little extra from whoever does it. It is apparent to me that you must find your drive and reason within yourself for why you are doing it. You may see this from a different perspective, but I do not believe that many can last doing this if they just see it as a “fun thing”. And out of respect for the team you may join.

I believe it is important to think about why you want this, if you are willing to give extra hours of your time, and if you will be in it for the long haul. Humans are driven by incentives, mine is to be a great UX designer and a leader, what is yours?

What is the plan going forward with the project? What happens when it’s finished?

The plan going forward is as follows:
• I will create the absolute best design that I can.
• I will make an extra effort to make sure that the whole project goes the right way and that we make as many right decisions as possible.
• I will take good care of my new friends and colleagues that I gained in this project.
• See a successful app that is used by many people in different countries.

I have my own ideas of what I want to do and create as well. After this TEL project is done, I will aim to create a project in Gothenburg and involve my colleagues here too. And of course, I want to start making money for TMC and myself as a UX Lead and a project leader going forward.

What would you say to an employeneur who is interested in working with an international TEL project?

For anyone interested in a TEL project, I would say figure out what it is that you want to do. A TEL project can be a steppingstone to a career change. Take it seriously and imagine where it could lead you 5 years ahead. Once the idea is formed, express it clearly to the people around you, colleagues, and managers. Ask for help, and help will come. But you must be action oriented.

Top 3 advice for someone who wants to join a TEL project:

1. Be crystal clear on what the idea is and be able to communicate that idea to your team flawlessly. Everybody needs to be on the same track, going in the same direction.
2. Road bumps and blocks are inevitable, go in assuming chaos, and learn to like it.
3. Find your incentive and your drive, your why.

I hope this has given you a little bit of insight into what it means to take on an extra project within TMC. TEL is a lot of fun, but I it can also be challenging. I do believe that those that take on a project like this and keep going until he end will see great results.

Even if the project fails, you will grow as a professional and as a person. If there are any questions you may have, feel free to reach out to me!