Who are the people behind trbo? In our blog series our employees introduce themselves – and answer five questions about themselves and their work. Today with Katharina Sabel, Senior Project Manager.
1. How did you hear about trbo and when did you start working?
Looking for a new challenge but without exactly knowing what I was looking for, Caro – one of our trbo colleagues – came up with the idea that I should definitely switch to her new employer, trbo. Caro is one of my former colleagues from windeln.de and good friend who already tried to convince me to switch to her previous employer. At some point she got me to open the trbo career page. There I discovered the position of the Senior Project Manager, which described exactly what I was looking for. That same day I sat down to write the application and just one day later I received an invitation for an interview. It only took about two weeks to go from “yeah, okay, I’ll take a look *eye roll*” to “wow, now I suddenly have something new going for me” – and signing the contract went really fast too! I’ve been working for trbo for about 1.5 years now.
2. What is your job at trbo?
I mainly support clients with whom I implement A/B testing on a large scale. We define detailed goals of the individual tests, create the technical setup and check the implementation before going live. The tests are monitored on a daily basis and evaluated at the end of the testing period to define recommendations for further action. I also take on various other projects, which can be completely different – both in terms of subject and scope. Part of this is, for example, the conception and support of new features of our trbo tool, which is extremely exciting.
3. What would you have said 10 years ago about your current career choice?
Probably around the same thing I now get to hear from those people who have nothing to do with online business and to whom I try to explain trbo or my job: “Huh? I don’t get it, what exactly do you do? You mean like advertising on Instagram? Well, as long as you like it…” 😀 That has changed a bit in the meantime, and I think I have roughly understood what we are doing. And yes, I even like it too.
4. What do your colleagues not know about you so far?
I suppose there are a lot of things my colleagues don’t know about me… Including the fact that I really enjoy anything that has to do with altitude and speed. At least as long as I don’t have to control it myself, and there’s a professional at work – I rather trust others 😀 Most people give me a funny look when I’m excited about turbulences in the airplane. Things like paragliding or ziplining are cool, but not too thrilling. It was rather the 45m jump that made my knees shake a bit. A skydive from a plane is definitely still on my bucket list!
Many are also surprised that I am really into handicrafts and that I enjoy building furniture, for example. If anyone ever needs a hammer drill or a handsaw, get in touch!
5. What has been the most embarrassing moment in your working life so far?
Up to now, I don’t think there has been anything embarrassing in my working life. To remember the day after the company party that you went to the bar with a few colleagues, danced on the bar and then slipped each other money is quite normal, isn’t it? But during school, a friend of mine tried to fake pulling down my pants. But it went easier than I thought, so suddenly my pants were hanging at knee height. In order to quickly pull my pants back up, I tried to speed up the whole process by bouncing slightly. Unfortunately, I also turned around 180° and thus presented my bare backside to the whole schoolyard. I must admit, that was a bit uncomfortable for me.
Bonus question: What did you want to be when you grew up?
As a child, I loved to design dresses – especially wedding dresses – and I also tried my hand at the sewing machine quite early. My mom still thinks that fashion design would have been the right career choice because I was “soo creative”. I could also imagine myself working as an interior designer, but I can still enjoy the opportunity to let off steam with my friends and family from time to time.
At some point, I also wanted to become a stewardess. Even though I still love traveling, I’m glad that I changed my career choice.