Building a successful and efficient team includes a great onboarding, integration of new team members and connecting everyone within and across teams. We are delighted with each new team member, making GameDuell better with each addition! As a part of this process, GameDuell established a Newbie Event, to connect our new team members with each other and make them feel welcome and part of the family. So, what exactly do we do at these events? Of course we play and we eat, the best way to get to know each other!
There is nothing more dull than the typical small talk questions and sleepy conversations. That’s why we created the game unusual-question-speed-dating, which resembles normal speed dating but with a bowl in the middle of the table full of odd questions such as: “Would you rather always be a little too warm or a little too cold?” (Did you ever think about that?). Afterwards we ate some delicious burritos and vegan falafel together. We had a great evening, laughed a lot and hope that everyone has a good start at GameDuell!
Finally, we’d like to to introduce you to some of our newbies who took part in our Newbie-Series campaign on social media:
Juan
Welcome to our GameDuell Family, Juan! Tell us about your job as a UX Researcher. What is one thing that no one would expect to be part of your work?
As a UX Researcher, I talk to the players to check what they like or dislike about our games. To do that, we use interviews, surveys, or other UXR techniques that provide insights that help the product team deliver a better experience to our players. So for me, a good UX Researcher is not someone who just knows how to use UXR methods. It’s also a professional who needs to communicate with people from different backgrounds, so you need to have the sensibility to adjust your speech depending on the person you’re talking to. Maybe people don’t expect that my job is actually fun.
Coming from the Amazon region in Brazil, how was it for you arriving in Berlin in winter?
Actually, the cold temperatures were not a big deal for me. In Germany there is a popular saying: “Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, nur schlechte Kleidung.” So you won’t feel cold if you wear the right clothes. So I could handle the negative temperatures pretty well.
The only bad thing about Berliner winter is that there are only 6 hours of sunlight daily, and it’s always foggy. Coming from a city close to the Equator, which is always sunny, and the sunlight hours are the same throughout the year (12 hours); not seeing the sun for months was pretty tough. So I’ve learned that there is no blue sky during the winter. The only blue you get is the winter blues. (lol)
You joined our summer party and recent volleyball event. Tell us about it.
It’s common for IT companies to sell a relaxed and cool work atmosphere to attract talent to their companies. Unfortunately, in many cases, this image is just marketing and you’re just another number in a manager sheet.
GameDuell is the first company I work for in which speech and practice align, and the company promotes a pleasant work atmosphere in which you feel appreciated for your work and as a person.
A team of people works at GameDuell to promote this friendly environment, and the events you mentioned are part of GameDuell’s strategy to bring people together and foster this.
Ekaterina
Welcome to the team Kati! Your task is marketing analytics withour product analytics team, please give us some insights into your day-to-day tasks.
Usually when people hear “marketing analytics” the first thing they think about is evaluating and optimizing the performance of marketing campaigns. While it does take up a good chunk of time in my day-to-day work, marketing analytics is much more than simply analyzing the data. First, I need to do regular check-ups of my dashboards and reports to verify they are up to date with the management requirements and continue to contribute business value. Second, our analytics framework must develop in accordance with the latest industry changes, so I keep track of such topics as user privacy, innovative mobile measurement solutions, and new features announced by ad networks. And finally, I work on optimizing background data processes to ensure high quality of data and reduce processing time.
We have seen you at the office a lot since your start. What do you like the most about the GD office?
After working from home for a long time you learn to appreciate a proper workplace and office facilities. A spacious desk, a second screen, and an office coffee machine definitely contribute to the productive work environment. It is also much easier to participate in brainstorming sessions and ask for help in real life than online. And finally, the GameDuell office is located in the heart of Berlin, right next to Gendarmenmarkt. Just commuting here already puts you in the right mindset.
Can you describe the office atmosphere at the moment in three words?
Post Pandemic Renaissance
What is it that makes analytics so interesting to you?
What I enjoy the most is that there’s more creativity in being a marketing analyst than people realize. Sometimes you have to think out of the box and take a counter-intuitive approach to solve challenging problems and make complex decisions. As a marketing analyst, you will never get bored because the market and technologies evolve every day, keeping you on the edge of your seat.
MD
হ্যালো এবং স্বাগতম (Hello and welcome) MD! You are an agile project manager at GameDuell. Tell us about the most surprising thing about your job that you didn’t expect.
First of all ধন্যবাদ ( Thank you ) Gameduell!
I joined the Agile Project Management Team as a Scrum Master. As soon as I joined I had a very warm welcome, thanks to the People & Culture team for making my onboarding as smooth as possible. Among many positive surprises, I did not expect to be part of such a beautiful office space in the middle of Berlin. One of my motivations to come to the office quite often is to be around this beautiful location and in our humongous lounge to get together.
You just joined the GameDuell City Cycling Competition (STADTRADELN) and went to Prague by bike, how impressive! What other hidden talents and hobbies do you have?
In June there was a City Cycling Challenge for 3 weeks and GameDuell joins every year in support of sustainability and a greener planet. As part of the Green Team, I also was very motivated to join these initiatives and push myself the extra mile to also inspire others. I started the challenge by traveling to Prague from Berlin - 400 kilometers in 4 days. I am also a Visual Storyteller and International Wedding Photojournalist (Instagram @saltandpepper.lovestories). I love to be on higher mountains or volcanoes and photograph the beautiful landscapes. Did I mention I am a good Bangladeshi Cook? ;)
Currently we are looking for a new Project Manager Art, who would be in a team with you. Can you tell the world the coolest or quirkiest thing about working with your team and the overall team culture?
The biggest AHA moment during my work till now in GameDuell is the bonding and understanding between the teams and the culture that everyone nurtures is something magnificent. In my team we have different characters and expertise and all those combined makes us a great team to solve big obstacles together. Almost like the Avengers. And now we are looking for a new addition to the team.
Finally শুভ কামনা (best wishes) for all.
Jagriti
Hey there! Tell us a little about your background and what brought you to GameDuell?
I help organizations create better ways of working & impactful ways of leading. Outside of work, I am an avid traveler and an early-stage investor in startups.
I am from India and have worked across multiple geographies during the last 14+ years. Having worked with diverse teams from all over the world, I have meandered through various roles in the organizational process improvement space, management consulting in agile transformations, and being a trainer of internationally acclaimed lean-agile courses.
What brought me to GameDuell...well, a part of it is due to my constant search for purpose and meaning in life, this is what drives me! I had worked in various industries including software service & solutions, telecom, banking, and consulting; gaming was on my radar for a while as I am intrigued by its potential and expansive reach. My goal at the time was to work at a dynamic gaming company in Germany. So, here I am - enabling teams to have a good time developing games!
Can you tellus three things that you like the most about Germany, Berlin, or GameDuell?
Berlin is very cosmopolitan! I like the quality of life and opportunities that Berlin provides, it offers something for everyone! As for GameDuell, the support provided during recruitment and the onboarding has been great; special thanks to the people and culture team.
Laila
Bonjour Laila! How was it to start your job with an empty office and working at home? What was difficult and what did you like even better?
Bonjour! It's true that it was special to start in this atmosphere, but my team was top notch and everyone came one by one to welcome me during my training week. So we had time to get to know each other and even though we temporarily don't see each other very often, we created a real group of people who support each other and with whom I have fun every day. This year, I will try to come to the office more often (don't forget the Covid-test at the entrance!) to get to know the other team members at GameDuell. I am also excited to become a part of our belote team and explore new tasks by testing and implementing CRM content for our belote game.
You already speak four languages, right? And now you are planning on learning German as well, how does it go so far?
Yes, thanks to my studies, I can converse in French (my native language), English, Italian and Spanish. Because of my father's origins, I also have some knowledge of Arabic. I am passionate about languages and my move to Berlin was largely motivated by the desire of learning a new language that I haven’t been familiar with at all. After one year, I didn't reach my goal because it's a rather challenging language and it's hard to progress when everyone around you can speak English. But I started from scratch and now I have some very promising basics, so I'm not giving up!
What’s the funniest or coolest thing about your team and working there?
As I said before, I have an incredible team. From day one I have been included and now I feel like a full member of the GD family. We are not the same age and have different backgrounds but sometimes when we talk to each other we have so much fun that it feels like being five years old again. I really enjoy working with them and I can even say that some friendships are being made. I had the chance to meet other people from the company and it's amazing how welcoming, smiling and kind everyone is.
Shahadat
Hello Shahadat and welcome to the team! You are the first team member ever at GameDuell from Bangladesh. Tell us your first impression of Germany, Berlin and of course GameDuell!
It feels great to be the first team member ever from Bangladesh. I feel honoured to add one more flag under GameDuell, which already has an incredibly international team.
My first impression of Berlin was - "whoa! it’s so big!". The city is vibrant, I like that there are not many skyscrapers. During my first month I was living very near to the river spree, it is a beautiful river.
And my initial impression of GameDuell is that we are a highly professional company. From the very first step of applying for a job to finally arriving and working here was an extremely positive experience for me. Let me elaborate a bit.
I applied for a position for which I did not have any past experience in that field. I was a backend developer and I applied for a data engineer position. Regardless, I got the interview call. The whole interview process was very smooth. The interviewers did not ask me how to invert a binary tree, rather they wanted me to solve a problem that is very close to what I am doing currently. They didn't judge me based on what I already know about data engineering, but whether I had the ability to learn and be productive.
Then came the visa processing phase. My colleagues who handled that know every nitty gritty detail about the process. The way they prepared everything - I was impressed. I never thought the relocation process would be so smooth, especially from my part of the world during a pandemic. Even after I arrived here, everything was also taken care of - accommodation, bank accounts, city registration, blue card appointment etc. It was extraordinary.
And last but not least - impression about my team. My teammates are caring and open. They are super helpful, and assist me to get up to speed. The team environment is trustworthy, I am not afraid to make mistakes. And not to mention four of us are from four different countries.
Let us know more about the little welcome newbie session that you joined last month?
That was a fun evening! It was a get together for the newbies and some of their teammates. We spent time learning about each other, while enjoying delicious food. And one of the best parts was to prepare our own mocktails. It was quite refreshing to have such a session, since many of us had mostly been working from home.
Have you always been passionate about Big Data?
I would not say that I was passionate, but I had a mild interest in Data science and data engineering in general for a long time. Last year, I got the opportunity to do some online courses and then I became really interested. Now that I am working as a Big Data Engineer - I find this field fascinating and full of challenges. Every day I am learning something fresh. And I must say I am becoming more passionate day by day!
Rachel
Hey Rachel! Since you used to be a wildlife advisor, what do you think about our “Green Team” from a wildlife advisor's view?
I was so pleased to hear about the Green Team when I joined GameDuell - it’s always nice to see your company acting in a responsible and environmentally conscious way. We meet once a month and discuss how we can make the company more environmentally sustainable - for example by calculating and offsetting our carbon footprint each year. The Green Team was formed in 2009 when it was discovered that the crates of water bottles consumed annually in the office would result in a stack higher than the Berlin TV tower. Water dispensers were installed immediately - from then on, the money saved in this way was used to improve sustainability and to carry out charity campaigns - thus, the Green Team was born!
Let us know more about the little welcome newbie session that you joined last month?
It was great to finally meet my co-workers in person at the newbie dinner. We all introduced ourselves and spent the evening eating together, chatting and making mocktails. It was nice to finally put faces to some names as we haven’t been able to meet due to the pandemic and mostly communicated via Slack! The food was delicious and also environmentally conscious - everything was vegan (the salted caramel brownies were particularly good).
You are in the English Customer Support team at GameDuell. Can you tell us a little bit about your work and is there a difference to the non English teams?
I’ve been with the Customer Service team for about 6 months now. I would say the main difference between the English and other teams is that we help with our mobile app Grand Gin Rummy. As most of our players are in the US, Customer Support is almost entirely in English. My work mostly consists of helping players with any issues or enquiries they might have and helping to improve the user experience by collecting user feedback and making suggestions. We also do some translation work and a bit of content creation every now and then, which is a great way to improve my German!
Karthik
Hey Karthik! You came to Germany at the end of March 2021 from India. What is the biggest difference you noticed and what was totally different from what you thought it would be?
Oh yes, I landed in Germany in the midst of a pandemic!
Coming from an Asian country, the biggest highlight to me has been the cultural difference. The way of life is quite different and a lot less stressful here.
I read a lot about Germany before coming here and expected people to be a bit on the grumpy side. But I couldn't be more wrong! When I walk from my apartment to the tram station, I get a minimum of two greetings. People here have been very friendly, approachable and accepting. Berlin, especially, has a very international vibe and I have met a lot of interesting people who had interesting stories to tell.
You are part of our BITS-Team - give us some insights about the Business Intelligence Technologies Team and what you like most about working with Big Data.
I have been part of the team for more than 7 months now and it has been a fun ride! We are a very international team with different cultural and professional backgrounds. It's a pleasure to be working with these passionate colleagues, who not only bring different views to the table, but who are also very caring and supportive. Normally it's hard to create personal bonds when you are working remotely, but with this team, that has never been an issue. We talk to each other everyday via video calls and our slack channel remains pretty busy.
Data has always been a passion for me. It tells you stories which you otherwise might miss. I love how insights about various things can be derived by stitching the right data together, may it be about your customers, product, brand or even predicting trends for the future. These are the driving forces behind any business and I love bringing these stories to life.
What are the first three words that come to your mind when you think about GameDuell?
Great work culture!
It is really inspiring to be working alongside a diverse and international community. GameDuell encourages everyone to voice their opinions and they listen, which is very much required to be innovative.
Christopher
Hello Christopher. Before you came to GameDuell you were an artist, tell us more about it, and what was your reason to change your path?
I worked as a manager in a tattoo parlour for several years. It was a great experience because I am passionate about body modification and I had the chance to get on the other side of the needles and create my own designs.
But it's not always easy to make a living from your passions and after a while I realised that I was losing the flame a bit. Mixing the professional/business and artistic aspects didn't really work for me, so I preferred to keep this passion intact and I started to look for a way to mix my taste for human relations with another of my passions.
And what better way than a job in the customer service department of a video game company to fulfill my expectations! Now I'm starting to turn my job into a passion, and it's much better that way!
Can you tell us more about your experience in working for the GD customer support team? What is it that makes it special/ not special for you?
Hello! I joined the GD customer support team 6 months ago and I have to say I have loved my experience so far! The team is great and really close-knit.
It's a chance to spend my days surrounded by people from so many different backgrounds, but all of whom are passionate about games and motivated by the well-being and satisfaction of our customers. I particularly appreciate the compassion of everyone in the team and the care that everyone brings to the relationship with our community of players.
What makes the team special for me is its diversity, both cultural and professional, and its cohesion. Everyone brings their experience and knowledge to the team to find the best solutions to any problems our players may encounter and it is really satisfying to be part of that.
How was the onboarding process at GameDuell? Tell us how GD supported the process, especially regarding the remote working situation?
The onboarding at GD was great! From our first exchanges, the People & Culture team made a lot of effort to make me feel at ease, and was always there to answer my questions or offer to help me with any small difficulties I encountered. I always felt welcome and supported while I was making my way in the team.
Regarding remote work, it was one of my biggest concerns as I had never worked in this way before, but GD allowed us to adapt easily. Although there are restrictions, I was able to come to the office regularly, which helped me enormously in my first few weeks in becoming comfortable in the job.
In addition, the online work environment is very lively and you don't feel like you are alone even when working from home.
Mihail
Mihail, you are not only one of GameDuell’s new team members, but also a young dad. How can you combine your personal life and your work and how does GameDuell support you with that?
Actually I would say it is very easy for me, because luckily I live very close to the office and have almost none commuting. Also I go home during the lunch break (except on Friday, then we go with the team to the food marke). All this is an extra time with my family and overall great work life balance for me. It is great that in Corona times GameDuell still allows working in the office, because otherwise in home office it would have been very hard to concentrate on the work with an extremely active toddler around.
Would you recommend working at GameDuell to your friends, and if so, what would you tell them?
Short answer: yes, I would recommend GameDuell to my friends.
Long answer: "yes, but...": GD has great company culture with awesome team members, which are also very competent in their fields. It is great place to work and well equipped as well. As a developer I have an opportunity to learn a lot and exchange with my team mates... but taking decisions sometimes takes a very long time and lots of discussions, which sometimes (especially for a developer) can be very annoying. It is understandable that the company doesn't want to make too risky moves, but sometimes it gets way too conservative.
Amaya
Amaya, you have been going through a very exciting and long-term visa process due to the pandemic. Could you tell us how GameDuell supported you with that?
Relocating to Germany as part of my employment contract with GameDuell in the midst of a global pandemic was a really complex process. Added to the complexities that emigrating from Cuba to Europe already have, there were all the restrictions that existed between countries as a result of the Corona virus. We had to contact the consul of the German embassy in Cuba to make some concessions in the procedure, we had to translate legal documents here in Germany because in Cuba all the official institutions to do so were closed, we even had to get a humanitarian flight to be able to travel, among other details that are not worth to mentioning.
The People and Culture Team (Human Resources) of GameDuell played a fundamental role in achieving this. Barbara kept communicating with me during the 6 months that the process lasted (March-September) and supported me at every step. Upon arriving in Germany, she guided me through the onboarding and lovingly prepared a beautiful welcome to the office apartment in which I had been living for four months. Mathias helped and still helps me in every legal and bureaucratic process, always with a smile and an interesting anecdote to tell. Chi and Janett are always taking care of my well-being. The whole team (also Amina, Caro and Cathleen) is really lovely, they made me feel welcome and they are always ready to help me in any mishap. To them, thank you, and thanks to GameDuell for waiting for me, guiding me and helping me to become part of this beautiful group.
How would you describe the GameDuell team within one sentence?
GameDuell is more than a wonderful workspace, it is a collective of talented and caring people.
Are you taking part in one of GameDuell’s online sport offers?
Not yet, because I’m still learning a lot of new tools and software that are part of my work as a Ui artist and recently, I join the German class for beginners on Thursday, but I will love to you the back training someday soon.
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Please give a warm welcome to all of our newbies that joined during the last month. We are really happy to have you with us! If we got you interested and you would like to be part of our team, find a fitting job offer here.
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