We visited Amal at her office and asked her about what the past 3 months at Zalando have been like. Learn more about Amal’s experience at her new job and the recruitment process with Xena.

1. How is your experience so far at Zalando?

I am doing what I love the most which is developing software. Something that I really appreciate about Zalando is the team work and no-blame culture. My colleagues are so nice, understanding and I’m really happy here. I am finding Berlin amazing!

2. What is something new you’ve learned?

I am learning lot of new things, I feel like I am learning every day like here and that makes me happy. I am learning about software development, design patterns, architectural decisions and also learning how to deal with people from other cultures. It is not necessarily easy but it is quite interesting to find out what other people like, since it is so different from culture to culture – its been nice to learn about it.

3. What is your favourite part about the new job?

The best part about working in a big company is that it makes you learn and thrive. I am working with experienced individuals that are experts in their domains and makes me really happy to be able to learn from them. It is a great opportunity to work Zalando for me, I am very happy.

4. How was your experience with Xena and the recruitment process?

I feel like Xena is different than other recruitment agencies, the recruiter was like a coach to me.  The recruiter believed in me and made me believe in myself. It’s not easy to move to a different company,  country and culture – everything is different and scared me. The recruiter made me feel comfortable in every step. I kept getting asked how I felt during every step and  if I wanted to move forward.

Other recruitment process are just about getting the job no matter how you feel but with Xena it’s different, they take into account what I felt and not about just filling a role. Xena was the best, I felt cared for.

I connected through LinkedIn with the recruiter and we discussed opportunities and kept in mind whether I liked the companies and positions available. It felt like a good match with Zalando and enjoyed every step. This position suited me the most and I am very happy here.