“We explicitly promote careers outside the traditional management paths” – Interview with Tom

In recent months, a comprehensive process has taken place at VAIVA to restructure personal development, in which our career paths have also been established. Now this process must actually be implemented. Tom, new team leader “Software Development Base/ Rear”, told us in an interview how this is being done and what his initial experiences have been.

Hello Tom, you’ve been head of our “Software Development Base/ Rear” team since April. What is your team working on and what characterizes your new role?

Our contribution to VAIVA Vision Zero is the development of embedded software functions from the concept phase to series production. For this purpose, we work closely with our system developers to improve the functionality in a stable and safe way in the demanding customer context. On the other hand, we ensure the high normative and regulatory requirements for our delivery products to guarantee the highest safety and quality standards. To this end, we leverage our experience and expertise around requirement engineering, efficient SW architecture design and implementation, integration, test and simulation.

You were one of the first to have intensive experience with our new career paths. What impressions did you personally gain from the process?

For me, the best thing was that it was always a collaboration and I never had the feeling that someone was trying to keep me down. That doesn’t mean that you’re given something as a gift; it took a lot of commitment and, above all, critical self-reflection – that’s not always pleasant, but it’s necessary if you want to rise above yourself. My superiors made their demands just as clear as they gave me opportunities and impulses to follow the agreed path. Ultimately, the pace was in my own hands.

In retrospect, it was a really intensive process that prepared me precisely for the challenges I now have to master on a daily basis.

What do the career paths mean overall for VAIVA?

The career paths have two important meanings for me. First, they show exactly what development opportunities there are horizontally and vertically and what expectations go hand in hand with these. At the same time, they also promote different competence and personality profiles. Not everyone has to be a specialist and a customer magnet in equal measure to get ahead. In addition – and there is a certain irony here after my move to team leader 😃 – we explicitly promote careers outside the traditional management paths. This means that specialist expertise can take you to the same career level as team leaders or project managers. For me, this is expertise in action and is what makes VAIVA stand out.