Meet Merix: Marcin - Chief Operating Officer

In Merixstudio, we have our Warrior of Order and Entering the Data. It’s Marcin - our COO. Marcin is a person who not only oversees our work and tasks, but also the one who will help you solve any problem you have. Every single day he fights for the correct placement of all necessary data. Privately he shoots beautiful pictures, which you might often find on the Internet. Besides that... he has a really cool dog! :)

• Tell us something about yourself.
  A perfectionist who is fixating on the smallest details and heavily engaged in everything he does. Stubbornly pursuing the objective. Has a lot of hobbies, by not enough time for them. Has feet on the ground and is quite bad at acting (apparently one look at my face will tell you what I’m thinking about). Well organized - sometimes too well. Inquisitiveness, accuracy and the fact that I like to have everything on paper are my strengths, but sometimes can be seen by people as a disadvantage. Loving husband.

• What are your main responsibilities at Merxistudio?
  I am a COO, but I can also be described as Director of Operations. I am responsible, among other things, for the daily functioning of our software house as well as the short- and long-term planning of each department. List of my tasks is very long, but in a nutshell, I organize the work of various departments, construct and negotiate contracts, maintains a relationship with customers, sometimes I also consult the projects and approve specifications. Most of my time is occupied but affairs such as the development of strategies and plans of the company, financial control over projects, recruitment, development and implementation of procedures/software. I am present at many stages of work in our business.

• How do you work? What is important to you while working?
  It's hard to say because different tasks (and their priorities) require from me different approaches and levels of flexibility. What to me is extremely important is the ability to focus on the task and that no one disturbs me when I’m in the zone - then my tasks are executed at the speed of light. :) What I would like is the slower dynamics in changes of what we are planning "on production", but in this industry, it’s probably impossible. :)

• Tell us something about your beginnings in the company.
  I started working at Merixstudio on 13th November 2003. It might be surprised that I remember the date, but it also has another significant meaning for me (actually I started with 3-month internship). From the answer to this question I could make a pretty thick novel, but I will try to summarize.
  To be honest, I don't remember how many people worked in Merixstudio at that time. I think about 8 or 9. Due to the fact that back then we were an IT services company, I was employed as a second technician. I was 20 years old (a long time ago, in the galaxy far ;)) and everyday working life was new to me.
  Taking advantage of this opportunity, I’m sending my regards to Paweł, my first supervisor, from whom I’ve learned a lot. I have very fond memories from that times - the only thing that was troublesome was reconciling obligations of the student with those from work.

• You are working in our company for quite some time. How much has Merixstudio and your work changed since the beginnings?
  How has Merixstudio changed in the last 12 years? Intensively and dynamically :). These were the years of continuous development of the company, the introduction and development of new technologies, enlargement of the team and countless time spent on the realization of projects of all sizes for customers from all over the world.
  My duties changed with the development of the company- there was even a time when I worked as an Account Manager. For many years I was leading projects of various sizes as a Project Manager, in the meantime, I was an Office Assistant and then Manager.
  I'm still doing things that are similar to the ones I was doing when I started in the company. However, right now I’m not dealing with workstations but with the entire server infrastructure of the business.
  Three years ago I was promoted to COO (wow, how the time flies!) and what my tasks are I’ve already told you in previous answers.
  If I had to point out what is the biggest change over the years it has to be the number of employees :) - it's impossible not to notice how much we have grown. I am glad that during all these years we have managed to keep the foundations on which the company was created, which are a strong emphasis on the quality of projects and the partnership approach in communication with our customers.

• Have you learned something while working in Merixstudio?
  When I started, I had only the (wrong) idea about how everything works in the IT industry. I can briefly say that I have learned a lot of things here. It’s important for me to be in an environment that allows me to explore constantly, develop and take on new challenges. From the very beginning, Merixstudio gave me that possibility - thanks to the people I work with I can say that every day I learn something new.

• What do you like about working at Merixstudio?
  The variety of tasks, challenges and people I work with. The constant development of the company and regular appearance of new people gives me a lot of energy - because only through the teamwork with different professionals we can implement projects that distinguish us on the market.
  I'm not saying that everything is fine and dandy and that there are no troublesome days. We solve many problems together, sometimes we are tired and think that we have enough of this, but that's natural. I always try to work in a way that "cons are not obscured by pros." The development of the company and the time that I’m working here can be seen as proof that it all goes well. :)

• What was the biggest challenge you faced while working in the Merixstudio?
  Over the years, I met a lot of challenges in every area of my work. One which occurs to me happened a few years ago when all hard drives of our server suddenly broke down (it was a long time ago when we had one server with a simple matrix) because we were incredibly lucky to buy an HDD from Seagate from the so-called “black series". Retrieving lost data costed me a lot and time and energy, but thankfully it worked.

• Which project from the ones you worked on in Merixstudio you liked the most?
  That's a tough question, even very tough when you are working as long as I do. I was a part of a lot of interesting (and less attractive as well :)) projects for many recognizable clients. Currently, I can say that I know something about almost every project that we worked on in the company, despite the fact that I am not directly responsible for their execution.
  Projects in which I am primarily engaged are those internal, designed to optimize procedures and work of Merixstudio. The latest project I worked on was a tool to help short-term and long-term planning with consideration of leaves of absence. For quite some time we couldn’t find anything that would be compatible with our procedures. Finally, we wrote our system that is connected to Redmine, thanks to what we are saving a lot of time during the planning of project schedules and assessment of risks. We worked on it for about a month (briefly), and we are very satisfied with the final effect - I am proud of what we created.
  Soon we will show you the website of our new brand! I’m very involved in this project, but it’s still a secret - I can only promise that it’s going to be great.

• What was your first contact with web technologies? When did you make a decision that you want to work in IT?
  Actually, I was always interested in electronics and computers. I got my first PC as a Holy Communion gift :)- it was the Atari 130XE (hello Commodore64 scene, you know what I mean). Then came the technical telecommunications school with a specialization in IT, after graduation I joined Merix (at that time we didn’t have the “studio” part in our name). While I was working here, I became an IT engineer and defended my master thesis of Management in IT. As you can see, everything has always revolved around the electronics and IT. So, answering your question "when it started?"... hmmm - when I was eight years old. :)
  The first contact with the web-based technologies? Atari was not connected to the Internet, and this function was not widely available in Poland for a very long time. The first browser which I used was Netscape Navigator for Windows 3.1, the search engine was Altavista (I didn’t understand what was going on with this whole internet thing). I firstly saw the "backstage" of the web when I came to Merixstudio.

• What do you think is most difficult in your work as a COO?
  The hardest thing is to reconcile the needs of all parties - customers, coworkers, and guidelines from CEO. Unfortunately, I have a limited amount of time, what right now is my biggest problem. Because of that, I’m always trying to optimize all possible measures and procedures, thanks to what I can maximize the efficient usage of every hour at work.

• First thing you do when you arrive at the office
  Usually, I am the first person who arrives, so I open the office and try to get some fresh air into it after the whole night of closed windows. Then I read emails and plan my day while eating some small breakfast.

• iOS or Android?
  Where is Windows? I prefer iOS, but who knows, I’m considering coming back to Android. :)

• What do you do in your free time after work?
  I spend it with your family - obviously, there is time both for responsibilities and resting, but we are spending a lot of time on walks (loads of walks!), visiting some interesting pubs or going on out of town trips. I spend the completely "my" time with the camera while I snap some photographs (mainly landscapes and macro). I also love to tinker with my car or grab a soldering iron and spend some time on DIY, which I find very relaxing - it’s all about getting my hands dirty from time to time. And you can laugh here, but an hour ago I fixed (with success!) the dishwasher at home, which apparently needed to refuse to work today.

• The best hero from your childhood is...
  MacGyver :)

• What is your favorite place in Poznań?
  My apartment, which has the best view on whole Poznań :)

• Beer or vodka?
  Beer, but only If I have to choose - would like to receive a different set of options :)

• Favorite sport.
  I’m not a fan of any particular sport. If trekking can be called a sport, then it is something I can say that I’m involved in - I love the Slovakia High Tatras and Bieszczady. And what I watch? Motorsports (what supposedly is quite trivial) and struggles of Polish volleyball, handball or sometimes football teams. I also like boxing. I'm not a compulsive watcher and I very rarely turn on the TV - I find time for only the most important events.

• Dog or cat?
  Dog (mine really hates cats).

• What website do you visit the most?
  Have I to pick only one? Right now, apart from those related to my work, it will be 500px

• Favorite app.
  500px :)

• Dark or light side?
  “A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.”

• If you could only visit one website for the rest of your life, what site would that be?
  The Internet and visiting only one site? It would totally lose its purpose for me. :)

• If you could have your dream job, what it would be?
  I recently read somewhere "Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life" and to keep it simple I just have to say that I like my job (though there are times when I would change it on the spot;)). If I had to answer the question of what else I could do with my life, it would have to give you a whole list of jobs! :)

Want to read more interviews with our coworkers? Check out our blog and #MeetMerix!