Women’s Day at Apollogic. Get to know stories of experts who make our company

My name is Basia Jaskuła-Janiak and I have been at Apollogic since October 2014. I started with a part-time job as Office Manager when the company had about thirty people. Over the next few years, the number of our colleagues jumped to over a hundred, and I could no longer handle most of the administrative and HR issues alone. Therefore, the Internal Services department was created, and I became its head in 2017. Currently, in my work I mainly focus on financial topics – contact with accounting, settlements with contractors, salaries.

Privately, I am a wife of a SAP consultant 😉 and mother of eleven-year-old Michał. I relax by reading detective stories and during travels. Wherever I am, I try to discover the beauty of my nearest neighborhood – be it my own, a place where I am on vacation or even just passing through. This gave birth to the idea for the blog “With my family through Greater Poland” (pl. Z rodziną przez Wielkopolskę), in which for several months I’ve been describing our trips to beautiful, although not very distant places. It allows me to relax and recall vacation spirit without waiting for holidays.

I am an Architect and Urban Planner by profession, graduated from the University of Arts in Poznan. You either love the occupation or… looking for your own path. In my case, it was like that. Because I studied at the then Academy of Fine Arts, I acquired a wide range of skills.

That is why, after graduation, apart from working as an Architect, I worked as a hobby sewing custom bags and backpacks and even baked cakes. However, I always missed the combination of technical activities and aesthetic effects in one professional field. As a result of my search, I managed to find what I was looking for a Webmaster position. In my private life, I am an enthusiast of felinotherapy, which I do every day thanks to my cat.

My day job is maintenance in the field of Finance. What does that actually mean? SAP end-users write to me whenever they encounter a problem in the area of finance and controlling. I set up objects, configure the system, help when a document gets stuck somewhere in the workflow, determine what is the source of errors in reports and transactions, monitor data downloaded from external systems, advise on how to adjust processes to meet changing legal requirements, work with developers and business representatives to implement the changes they need. On those days when I’m not providing maintenance services, I try to keep up with government decisions and, together with the rest of the team, prepare solutions with upcoming changes in mind so I can support clients with future implementations.

Outside of work, I devote myself to my passions. RPGs, LARPs, board games, and everything related to broadly defined fantasy is my fave. In recent months, I also returned to my old hobby, which is crocheting. Nothing soothes the nerves like knitting a Cthul or a plush burning trash can.

What awaits you when you give up the relatively tame space of a law firm and decide to work for an IT company? It turns out that meeting a colleague dressed as a unicorn does not have to be the most surprising… Almost 3.5 years ago, I decided to look for new challenges, and after several years of working in various law firms, I found myself at Apollogic. My cooperation started – as in Hitchcock movies – with an earthquake, that is, with a team-building event on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the company. It turned out that the slogan “working in a young, creative and dynamic team” is not just a slogan from recruitment campaigns – here, a very positive atmosphere is combined with great commitment to performed tasks. From my perspective, the challenge was not so much the substantive scope (although postgraduate studies in new technologies were very helpful), but above all, the nature of cooperation. Instead of, as before, dozens of clients, I now have one (still very demanding), and I am responsible for the end-to-end processes – from proposing a draft agreement to making sure it gets all the required signatures. Fortunately, not all jokes about programmers turned out to be true (although the one about wearing Kubota flip-flops at work did); I hope that also on my side stereotypes about “typical” lawyers were not confirmed (for example, the one that I do not drive to the office in a big BMW, but try to use a bicycle whenever weather permits).

Probably the best recommendation is that all my kids (and I have three of them) are convinced that mom works in a cool place where she does cool things. And my oldest daughter recently confided that she’d like to teach artificial intelligence in the future – although I’m pretty sure she meant the droids from “Star Wars” such as C-3PO or BB-8, I promised her I’d introduce her to people who are already really into it… 

Hi, I am Judyta! I’ve been working at Apo for six months as a UX Designer. I’ve been interested in graphic design for a few years, and for the past year I’ve been specializing in UX design. Since childhood, drawing has been an essential part of my life (my drawing profile on IG: judy_rysuje).

Currently, drawing is a way for me to relax in the evening, alternating with a book or yoga practice. I try to live an active life – I run a little, also in the mountains. In general, I love mountains and nature. I’m not indifferent to environmental issues, so I try to introduce the zero waste philosophy to my life in small steps. I really appreciate the company of other people, so I often spend my free time with friends or family.

I am Marta and I work in IT. At the age of 18, I took my first paid job as a control-relay cabinet fitter during summer vacations. Actually, my classmate and I were the entire staff of women fitters – the rest of the three halls was taken by men. However, it was there, while operating the engraving machine and laying kilometers of cables, that I realized that I am interested in what can be presented in the schematic diagram. I like reading documentation, checking processes, planning solutions. I graduated from technical faculty at Poznan University of Technology and took my first serious professional steps in the automotive industry.

Two changes of direction, and a few years later, I became an IT consultant at Apollogic, and I think I found the right area for me. I am an example that you don’t have to be afraid of changes, and you should try new things. My work does not let you get bored – each new customer means new requirements and unique solutions to be developed. The feelings accompanying the finalization of a project can be compared to completing (successfully!) an entire season of Pandemic Legacy (I recommend!). Yes, I love board games.

Hi, my name is Magdalena Bor and I am the HR Manager at Apollogic. In short, together with our Recruitment Specialist and accounting support I am responsible for all HR processes taking place in the company, starting from hiring a new person (Weronika is responsible for the first recruitment phase), through their “life cycle” in the organization, up to leaving. Every day I face a wide spectrum of HR issues, both soft and hard, so my work challenges me in new ways.

Did I always want to work as a HR Manager in IT? I guess I didn’t always know that because I had a few ideas for myself. As a teenager, I planned to become an actress – I transferred my dreams to private life, cooperating with amateur theaters and acting initiatives (e.g., I performed on the stage of Teatr Ludowy in Cracow several times). I continued my passion for psychology while studying cognitive science at Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM), which after some time I combined with studying Management at UEP. It was there that I discovered my interest in HR. I had a dream to start my professional career in a large, preferably international company, where I could use my knowledge of foreign languages. And I succeeded! Overnight I moved from Poznan to Krakow, where I worked in the international HR team of a large investment bank, but as it turned out – not for long. After a year, I got a call from my friend, with whom I have known since we were six years old (I’m talking about Monika Hoffmann-Kantorska, SAP C/4HANA Manager), saying that her company is looking for a person responsible for the HR area. Maybe I will return to Poznań… and the rest is history. That is how I recently spent five years in Apollogic. Outside of work (apart from the ones mentioned above): I am by nature a big snuggler, a fan of exploring mountains, especially of various kinds of falls on skis (for many years now). Also, I can practically always be bribed with good food.

I have been involved in image processing for eight years. I took my first steps in the implementation of projects related to video surveillance. I took part in INDECT, which aimed to develop automated systems to improve security in cities. The project brought together researchers from several European universities and institutes, but because they were all very careful, no Skynet came out of it.

My first close encounter with artificial intelligence took place a year and a half ago. When I started working at Apollogic on the theBlue.ai team, I spent my first days learning the basics of neural networks from Jeremy Howard via a course with the graceful (sub)title: “Make deep learning uncool again”. I learned a lot, but I wasn’t convinced that making artificial intelligence “uncool” would ever be possible. Since then, I’ve used AI to teach machines to understand what they see – because my field is still image processing.

Today, intelligent vision systems are making commonplace things that until recently seemed like pure science fiction: autonomous cars straight out of “Knight Rider,” smart homes and cities watching us and adjusting to our needs that we saw in “Minority Report,” virtual and augmented reality allowing us to feel like OASIS players from “Ready Player One” for a moment. Everything is ahead of us, and the mix of artificial intelligence and machine vision will bring many more amazing inventions. I’m looking forward to watching this happen up close.

I guess working in IT has always been meant for me, since elementary school I liked math and numbers. Every day at Apollogic I work with data, help to understand and use it, deal with data analysis and reporting. Outside of work, I am first and foremost a wife and mother. My return to work after maternity leave coincided with the beginning of the pandemic last year, but specializing in IT allows me to balance my professional and private life and combine child care with remote work. Privately, I am a big fan of volleyball, both in an active form on the court and passively in front of the TV. Apart from that, I love to travel (although lately I’ve been rather exploring the surroundings of Poznań), and on a daily basis I relax by cooking or spending time in an armchair with a book or a good TV series.

I have been working in Apollogic for nine years. As a SAP consultant, I have gone through the whole career path – from junior to senior. Today I am a Manager of one of the business areas in Apo. I decided to become a SAP consultant because I wanted to combine technical competencies with soft skills. What made me choose to work in IT? My parents gave me confidence, assuring me that I would find my way in this field, also as a woman, and that my interest in science would be an asset in this area. My relationship with IT was complicated; we didn’t love each other from the beginning, we had our crises, but in the end, I actually found myself in it, and I like what I do.

At the moment I work part-time at Apollogic, and the other half I spend at home with my son. I can honestly say that working as a consultant now seems to be much easier than working with my little, demanding “client”. On a daily basis, I like watching TV series, playing board games, or solving puzzles in the escape rooms. Whenever time allows, I ride my bike recreationally or spend my vacation actively, hiking in the mountains.

Eleven years ago I started working in IT. At the time, I didn’t realize how much satisfaction and independence I would get from a job that was dominated by guys. It took me some time to develop and find my own way, but I have learned that you have to find the courage to make risky decisions – against stereotypes, against common expectations. I realized that what had become my dream was not so quickly attainable until I took it as a goal (related to a specific dimension of time, place, person, situation) that I wanted to conquer. Some people get to their goal faster, some slower, and others take forever to dream. In my case, it was seven years of study and hard work, thousands of miles spent traveling to be an ApoConsultant, eight years of trying to become an ApoMom, a year behind schedule (“Trip to Japan”)… and I regret nothing, turning 36 this month. ApoLadies, I wish you freedom of choice, the ability to decide your goals and what is best for you.

Hello, I’m Julia and a very creative person. At age five, I started painting little stick figures, and at age eleven, I discovered MS Paint, where I created little worlds pixel by pixel. At fourteen, I started to discover Photoshop and other graphic tools. After graduating from high school, I finally wanted to do something creative and studied communication design in Hamburg – I wanted to turn my passion into a profession. Today, at the age of 33, I can live out this passion day after day in my free time and at theBlue.ai. In my free time, I run my own YouTube channel and regularly upload so-called “Let’s Plays”. I record myself playing videogames, comment on what’s going on, solve puzzles or just talking about myself or the world.

At theBlue.ai, the Hamburg-based pioneer for innovative and creative products based on artificial intelligence (AI), my focus is on creating designs. The goal of theBlue.ai is to use AI to make everyday work easier for companies. My job is to support this goal visually and with content. I give the company a visual face, actively design internal and external communication and create designs for various areas such as social media, applications, web and much more. I enjoy working for a company that has the courage to do things no one else dares to do, where there is something new to discover every week, where there are always new challenges to overcome, and where I can always develop my skills. Technology plays a big role today, it’s changing the future, of businesses and society, at a rapid pace and I’m excited to be a part of that change.

Hi, my name is Natalia. I joined Apo while I was still a student during my masters and this is how my third year here passed. At work I specialize in image processing, but I’m not afraid of other data formats. Most of the projects I participate in are related to medical issues. Currently, my biggest success in this area is a paper on epilepsy that we have been working on for the last two years. It briefly deals with the segmentation of sites in the brain responsible for epilepsy attacks. The publication can be found at this link.

Mostly, I spend my free time with my sweet and lovely doggo. Of course, my afternoons aren’t limited to just sitting on the couch with the dog and watching movies – that’s what we do in the evenings. I spend almost half of my days a week training climbing, which I have been doing for seven years now. If someone meets me on a climbing wall – I invite them to join me in considering the choice of the route. During the season I often go to the mountains – sometimes to climb, sometimes to trek. The other half of the week I devote to my newfound passion, which I have been doing since last year – pole dancing. 

Hi, my name is Kinga Zdanowska and I work at Apollogic as Office Manager. How did I find myself here? Completely by accident! I graduated from studies on Dietetics and this is how I saw my future. One fine day my friend sent me a link with a job offer, I sent my CV and that’s how I found myself at Apollogic.😊

On a daily basis, I’m in charge of office management, starting from supplies to administrative issues like organizing company events, business trips, or renovating common spaces. The range of tasks is so diverse that you certainly can’t complain about boredom – you never know what the next day will bring and what you will have to deal with. 😊 Also, it’s crucial not only to work efficiently but also to react quickly in the strangest emergencies. What do I love most about my job? Definitely the contact with people! My function gives me many opportunities to develop, both professionally and in terms of my competencies. I often have to use my negotiation skills and assertiveness to look after both the company and its employees’ interests.

However, to make my life even more dynamic, apart from my desk job, I also work as a fitness instructor, in love with latino style. For several years, almost every day I have been running fitness classes that shape the body, but also through great fun and positive energy, allow you to get away from reality and relax. I can’t imagine life without physical exercise giving a sense of great satisfaction!

Due to the pandemic situation and closed fitness clubs, I created an online group on Facebook, where I organize live trainings, during which we exercise and keep fit at home. As a dietitian, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, experimenting and perfecting my meals so that they are balanced and satisfying for everyone. I discover new flavors and their combinations, not always to the satisfaction of my family. 😉 I definitely prefer to bake cakes, both traditional and fit, and burn calories during long walks and workouts.

I started at Apollogic as a sales specialist and am now in charge of marketing of the highly innovative medical technology brand apoQlar since the very beginning. In close cooperation with Sirko Pelzl, CEO of apoQlar, I am developing the business concept so that the Hamburg-based company can get closer to its global target group – medical professionals – to meet their expectations and enable them to face their daily challenges. Cutting-edge technology means breaking barriers and pursuing new paths, both in product development and marketing. This requires creative ideas, a fresh approach and an open mind. Before working with apoQlar, I studied public relations and worked as a TV and radio journalist.

Privately, I am a wife and mother, aerial coach, a passionate coffee drinker, a consistent sugarholic, avid camping and hiking enthusiast, a cheerful person, a native Russian with a German heart.