Inside Infobip – the Story of Košice
How Infobip Košice started
In the summer of 2020, a year full of screaming headlines, the Wirecard scandal may have crept under the radar. Years of book cooking to artificially inflate profits resulted in €1.9bn simply vanishing. Wirecard AG went from reputable DAX indexed company valued at €24bn – to owing €3.2 billion.
Even though there have been some rumors of Wirecard‘s fraudulent activities a couple of years prior, it wasn’t until June 2020 that we as employees fully understood the seriousness of the situation. We weren’t receiving much information from the headquarters in Munich at that time so we learned most updates from the media.
Jana Nagyova, Office Manager
Meanwhile, 280 IT specialists in the company’s Košice development hub in Slovakia feared for their futures. Promises of restructuring and buyouts, as well as months of backpay, all turned out to be as empty as Wirecard’s coffers.
We were asked to keep on working with promises of salaries being paid, but the money never came. So after 6 years of Wirecard Slovakia, it was time to say our last goodbyes to the company we all so much loved working for. By the end of July, almost every Kosice employee delivered their resignation with immediate effectiveness.
Jana Nagyova, Office Manager
Word about the Wirecard situation reached Infobip HQ. Wasting no time, executives reached out to ex-Wirecard department heads – who wanted to know how many people Infobip could hire. The reason being that they wanted to take as many co-workers with them as possible.
A seamless transition
I joined Infobip two months after it was established in Košice. Even with the pandemic going on, it was established so fast that it was almost impossible. People worked hard to make it happen. I decided to join Infobip because I knew people from Wirecard who were working there were going to be good managers. From the very first interview I had, I just felt this positive, good energy – and I understood exactly why wirecarders wanted to work for Infobip.
Jana Nagyova, Office Manager
Marathon interviews ensued, with up to 60 held in a week. Infobip sent a delegation headed by CTO Izabel Jelenić to meet – and contracts were signed on the spot. In all, 47 employees were hired.
We came over as a team. For me, it’s more like we changed projects, not the company. This helped because we knew what to expect from each other, and that’s very important.
Jakub Dzubak, Software Engineer
New opportunities
Onboarding was a new challenge during the pandemic, but within two weeks, the local teams that came over were ready to get started.
For me, onboarding was valuable because it helped me understand the big picture. Every day we had 8 hours where we worked in groups and had tasks. The first week wasn’t technical – it was about working in teams. I met a lot of new people from different departments and got useful info about everyone’s position. The second week we got technical mentors, the sales got sales mentors – so the second week was more technical.
Jakub Dzubak, Software Engineer
Transitioning into an established dev organization, especially one as massive as Infobip’s wasn’t without its challenges.
It was challenging. I had to choose between front-end or back-end development. I chose back-end because I wanted to learn something new. I know how back-end development works at Infobip, and this was valuable.
Jakub Dzubak, Software Engineer
Challenges are just opportunities to grow – and being in an organization that lets you grow is key.
We have free hands with regards to technology. Nobody tells us what we need to use, we’re free to pick what we want.
Jakub Dzubak, Software Engineer
Culture fit
Company culture is important – it helps everyone facing the many challenges of exponential growth come together more easily to rally around the common goal. Fitting into that culture as an individual and as a team benefits everyone involved.
When I joined there were about 40 people from Wirecard, and I could just see this cultural match. I don’t know if it’s because Croatians and Slovakians are so similar culturally, or if it’s a match made in heaven. The positive impression I had from when I joined is still there. Very friendly environment, people are mostly the same – but even the people I work with from Croatia and other countries – the approach, the way they work and communicate is just the best thing that could have happened.
Jana Nagyova, Office Manager
The positive impacts of a good culture fit go beyond creating a positive workplace environment – it impacts the way we work and how we feel about it.
I like the culture here. Everything can be solved on Slack. The Slack culture is a perfect fit for me.
Jakub Dzubak, Software Engineer
Grow with Infobip
At Infobip we believe that challenges represent growth opportunities – and this challenging situation helped the engineers in Košice grow their careers further, while Infobip grew its engineering capacities with a fantastic team.
Infobip is fueled by people who relish challenges and are passionate about generating growth.
If this matches your description, visit our careers page and see where you can help us grow.
