3 min. read
Career Change: From Frontend Engineering to Product Management
3 min. read
A Day in the Life: Junior Software Engineer
Welcome to our latest blog post, where we dive into the daily life of Ania Czechowicz-Tatała, a Junior Software Engineer at OLX.
Ania shares her experiences, from her typical day coding and collaborating with her team, to her exciting involvement in GenAI projects. Discover what makes her role fulfilling, the opportunities available at OLX, and why teamwork is her favourite part of the job.
Hi Ania, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Ania Czechowicz-Tatała, and I am a Junior Software Engineer located in Poznan, Poland. I started as an intern through the OLX Academy in July 2022!
So I have been with OLX for over 2 years now working as part of the Posting Team – where we handle the OLX ads posting form and collaborate with various categories like Jobs, Real Estate, and Goods to ensure an intuitive user experience.
What does your role involve on a typical day?
On a typical day as a junior Front-End Engineer, I spend a lot of time coding for the posting team. We’re always experimenting with new features, and recently, we’ve even been integrating AI trying to make posting easier.
But it’s not all just code and chaos. I also get to play detective, testing and reviewing my colleagues’ work to make sure everything is working well. I attend meetings where my team and I discuss our plans and brainstorm innovative solutions – it feels like we are planning our next big adventures. Since our work connects with other teams, I often assist them too.
And of course, I can’t forget the coffee breaks. We drink coffee, joke around, and have a lot of fun.
Can you tell us about any GenAI projects you have been a part of? How did you get involved? What was the process and outcome?
It all started at our OLX hackathon where we came up with a cool idea to make posting ads easier using AI. We won 2nd place!
Following that, we immediately started working on bringing the idea to life. I led the front-end development, but it was a collaborative effort involving the PM, back-end developers, data scientists, designers, data analysts, and our mobile apps team for Android and iOS. We started with an ABC test and then rolled out the final solution.
The results were impressive: users were completing their posts in one go more often, fewer users encountered errors while posting ads and ads in the AI group had 26-27% more details filled out – all thanks to the AI adding information users might have missed.
In short, this GenAI project was a fun and collaborative effort that made posting ads easier and more convenient for our users.
What do you think is most exciting about GenAI?
The most exciting part about GenAI is that it’s like having a personal genie who makes your everyday life so much easier. With this one new feature, we made posting much more convenient for our users – and we are just getting started.
What opportunities are there at OLX?
OLX is always searching for new solutions and innovations, which means you have the chance to bring your ideas and visions to life. This environment not only boosts creativity but also encourages continuous learning and personal development.
What is your favorite part of your role?
My favorite part of my role is teamwork. I absolutely love the people I work with and our collaboration always brings me joy. This is a very supportive environment where I can ask questions and also provide answers when needed. The atmosphere is cool and fun, allowing me to be myself. At the same time, everyone takes their part seriously and strives to do their work as well as possible, which makes day-to-day work smooth and enjoyable.
Thanks so much Ania!
We have a whole bunch of new and exciting things happening at OLX. Keen to be a part of it? Click below to explore our open roles.
