We recently wrote a story about the opening of the Mostar office in which one of our teammates, Harun, played a key role. Likewise, teammates and external IT industry friends and partners have been pointing out the potential of Banja Luka’s IT community. We’ve listened, and this is the beginning of our Banja Luka journey.
Passion For Growth
Our third value, Passion for Growth, states that change is inevitable, and staying the same actually translates as stagnating. This is why we at Mistral practice what we preach by continuously growing, that is, providing new career opportunities, challenging and innovative engagements yet adhering to the principle of People First whereby every person feels respected and valued.
So far, 2021 has been a year of exponential growth. We have strengthened existing and ensured new partnerships. Much of this growth is thanks to our teams delivering pure excellence, with our client feedback on average 10/10. As a result, new career opportunities, as well as the opening of new dev hubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, are seriously on our agenda. That means opportunities for awesome individuals or teams to join us, wherever they may live.
Hello Banja Luka, Sarajevo Calling
Our small but incredibly smart team in Banja Luka, as well as Tatjana Vučić, Bit Alliance Director, were right when they encouraged us to check out the Banja Luka potential. We appreciate Tatjana’s commitment to promoting IT sector growth throughout our country. Just like we listened to Harun when it comes to opening a hub in Mostar, it would have been unwise not to follow the Banja Luka crew advice.
Our General Director and COO Global Mersed Čamdžić and CCO Azra Sarić wanted to break the ice with the Banja Luka community by opening to all kinds of questions the community had about work in Mistral. So, we set a date and opened our channels for your questions.
Gospodska ulica has always been synonymous with great meeting points, so what better address for our first meeting with the Banja Luka talent than Lonac Startup Studio in that heralded street. The Startup Studio is run by our partner organization Fondacija Mozaik, so we felt at home from the very start.
Mirror, Mirror On The Wall
When we said “all kinds of questions”, we meant the kinds of questions many are normally reluctant to ask when applying for jobs but are interested to find out the answers to, and we quickly learned that the Banja Luka community was very curious about the Mistral way of work and general work conditions. They asked us about:
- A Mistral office in Banja Luka
- Manager vs leader management
- Team autonomy
- Work-life balance
- Jack of all trades, master of none
- Salaries and work conditions
- Technologies and types of engagements
- Career opportunities
- Starting as a junior
- What we offer to seniors
We heard from many who were not able to make it to the meeting yet wanted to learn more. For those of you who wanted to be there but couldn’t make it, here is a summary of some of the answers:
- YES! We like to be in the center of happenings. If you think you know a place that the Banja Luka community would like to work around, let us know! We’re scouting for the best.
- Culture of Trust is high on our agenda, so after a thorough and highly efficient interview process, each new Mistralovac gets our trust from the word go. The team leads in Mistral are leaders who provide support, encouragement, but also provide constructive feedback so there are no gray areas. We support leaders, not managers.
- The team is your core at Mistral. What is good with the team is good with Mistral.
- Well-organized work, project governance and communication channels ensure quality work-life balance for our teams.
- We work in cross-functional teams, meaning you get to focus on your area of expertise.
- Salaries and work conditions are attractive. You’ll hear more about that in your one-on-one meetings with us.
- To attract new talent and retain the best, as well as provide a chance for growth opportunities, there are always 20+ live engagements across industries and various technologies.
- Career opportunities – we have 53 open positions currently. How does that sound?
- We pride ourselves on our internal junior accelerator programs for QAs, developers and DevOps, so yes, there are opportunities for those with much passion to have a great software development career.
- Mistral seniors are involved across many engagements and work on various initiatives, depending on their ambitions too. Check out what our seniors say in an article we published recently.
P.S. Yes, we heard you about that meetup in Banja Luka. Watch this space!
Food For Thought
Well, not so much thought, but actual food 🙂 As with most good journeys, Mersed and Azra’s included trying out local dining places and recommendations. More specifically, they needed to try the famed Banja Luka ćevapi to honestly respond to a question we received: “Koji su ćevapi najbolji: sarajevski, travnički ili banjalučki?” They ended up choosing travnički, in the manner of true diplomats.
The Banja Luka crew, together with Tatjana Vučić, took us to their favorite restaurant, so the two-day Banja Luka adventure ended in the most perfect way – with a promise to be back soon.
What? Back That Soon?!
Clearly, two days were not enough to get to know all the talented people, which is why Mersed is going back, this time with his tech man, Mistral’s CTO Dino Selimbašić, in the first week of August. Their calendar is filled with meetings with the awesome community. Heads up: check out Dino’s responses to the questions we received from our external community in the podcast that will be available shortly on our YouTube channel and website.
It’s clear that Krajina hides many talented people, and with 6 more new team members from Banja Luka joining us in August so far, and a new teammate from Bihać, we hope Mistral will increasingly become a recognized member of the IT community in this beautiful part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If you’d like to have a conversation with any one of us, please reach out via our social media or drop us an email. We love to exchange experiences and ideas!