Confluent Champion Maria on the Power of a Motivated Workplace

In the three years that staff solutions engineer Maria Berinde-Tampanariu has been at Confluent, she has received two promotions. And that’s just one of the many things that keep her motivated.

Let’s learn more about Maria and how Confluent’s supportive culture encourages collaboration and personal growth.

How have you grown or changed since joining Confluent?

The short answer is: I’ve grown a lot! I was given a tremendous amount of opportunities to grow and the support to overcome obstacles along the way to gain new competencies. At Confluent, I get the chance to work with large customers across different territories and industries, mentor others, and become a more confident public speaker.

What's unique about Confluent's company culture? What’s one question you would tell people to ask about the culture during their interview

Confluent has managed to bring a truly exceptional group of people together and enable them to work as one team. The all-hands meetings are a great example; once a month our leadership team walks us through updates in a way that is relevant to everyone at the company, so that we’re all on the same page.

In interviews, I recommend applicants ask about the leadership team. They will be surprised to hear how close the leadership team is to everybody at the company.

What motivates you to excel in your role and how does Confluent support your ambitions?

My manager and the entire management team are very supportive. It’s very clear what is expected of me, I know where I can get help, if I need it, and I get the opportunity to discuss and learn from my colleagues. There are also opportunities to receive and provide coaching, mentoring, and feedback. I received two promotions in my three years at Confluent and I constantly feel like I am working toward the next one. It’s a very motivating feeling.

How does your company encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion?

There are Employee Resource Groups that foster inclusivity, provide support, and create a sense of belonging for employees from diverse backgrounds and interests. There’s one for women, which organizes very interesting events. For example, there are networking lunches at conferences organized by Confluent, where I have the pleasure of hearing inspirational stories and learning new skills. My favorite one was about how to create your own board of directors in order to deal with challenging situations and make better decisions.

What skills or technologies have you learned since joining? What are you looking forward to learning next?

I was not very familiar with Apache Kafka when I joined Confluent, and immediately after starting I trained under the guidance of more experienced colleagues. As a result, I became both administrator- and developer-certified just a few months later. Learning stream processing technologies followed, and since the Immerok acquisition there are a lot of new features developed in Apache Flink that I am eager to learn about.

Rapid fire questions:

1. What job did you want to have when you were a child?

   1. I always wanted to be a writer, but was more passionate about STEM subjects in school than languages and literature. Nowadays, I think that my passion for creating content shows in the conference talks I do.

2. What’s the best decision you made in your career?

   1. Joining Confluent, for sure.

3. What’s your favorite TV show set in an office?

   1. Suits

4. What’s your work-from-home must have?

   1. Indoor plants

5. If you could have your team offsite anywhere in the world, where would it be?

   1. Hawaii is by far the most beautiful place I have ever been to, so that’s where I would take my team. 

6. What’s your favorite way to unwind after work/on the weekends?

   1. I love taking long walks with my dog, especially in off-leash areas like the beach or the woods.