#PeopleBehindProjects – Talking with Adelina Ionescu

We go further with our #PeopleBehindProjects campaign, and we invite you to meet Adelina or maybe you previously know her from the ClujLife, a sociable person, and popular employee who gets on well with her teammates. She has been with TEC: Digital Agency for 6 years and, during this time, she’s had the chance to work on several projects and with various technologies, an opportunity that always brought her great joy.

Adelina is a Full Stack Developer and she is also a team leader. In her first years with the company, she worked on the websites for leading music festivals, UNTOLD and Neversea, and then she started working on the digital experience of The Open, the R&A’s flagship event, a project on which she works as a Technical Lead.

The Open is one of the most prestigious tournaments in golf with a worldwide audience and TEC provide an extensive team of technical engineers, project managers, testers, developers, architects to work on the project, both prior and during the event. The team is hands-on, working round the clock ready to intervene if necessary to solve any problem that could impact the event.

To give you an idea of scale, at the 2019 Open, there were 7 million unique visitors during the last game of the Royal Portrush Championship, 850+ pages accessed, 180K hours of video and audio content, and billions of server requests during the four days of the event.

TEC is responsible for everything related to the digital experience of the event – everything from live scores, live blogs, virtual media center, live streaming, and also on ticketing and marketing support.

“Every year preparations for managing The Open begin in May, with a series of test weeks. TEC tests cover all the different main moments of the event. This is done by simulating based on the database from past years, after which we see what needs to be changed or adapted. The list of tasks is then extracted and prioritized. We test, retest and, document the process. This year (2021) we had very few problems, but those we encountered were solved quickly because everyone is responsible for a certain project area, no one is waiting to be told what to do. Last year (2020) there were about 4 problems at once with the external platforms, and our good organization within the team was vital. But those are the good times; I like those. I don’t practice any kind of extreme sports, for me this is the adrenaline rush I seek. The one I can control to a certain extent, on which I can intervene.“

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Beyond the technical challenges that may arise, the pressure during the event puts the members of the team face to face to other kinds of challenges – the connections between them. However, precisely during these crunch times, in which you may not always realize the tone you use and the looks you throw, the deepest connections are made between the members of the team. And this is precise because the experience of the event shows them the true meaning of the word “team”, this event mobilizes them and unites them.

“We never say this is not my problem, instead, we look for solutions. And if it’s the responsibility of a third party, we still come up with ideas. At TEC: Digital Agency you have freedom, you just have to speak up. Our focus is to find solutions, not to look for culprits or to complain that it did not happen.“

Talking to every member of the team, you get the gist of how proactive everyone is. Adelina says that it helped that we started as a smaller company, but also the fact that the people who later joined TEC: Digital Agency moulded themselves to the existing core and they have adopted their desire to do more.

“What I really like about TEC is the environment and the way we do our job here. Here you are involved on a larger scale, you don’t just do one thing. Moreover, you are listened to regardless of your position. You can’t always do something, but you know you spoke your mind and that you were heard. Also, you may not find your place on a project or team, but at TEC you can always change your career path. I feel that you can always go with an open heart to someone to ask for help, you have no obstacles, and you always get a piece of advice.“

Sure, most of us find fulfilment in the work we do, but how many of us feel we are at the right time and place?