Jan Vaněk: I came to the signing of the contract in a kilt and now I lead the SWAT team

Honzo, do you remember what your journey to JC was like and how do you remember your first days at the company? Is there anything that positively surprised you?

I was positively surprised by the friendliness of the people at JC. I came from a company where a lot of people worked from home and here I found the exact opposite. Everyone wanted to have fun, already during the selection rounds I perceived a nice atmosphere in general. When I passed the JC day, Lukáš Karlovský was behind me. Overall, I remember that day fondly – we went to Vietnam for lunch, I worked out a task in Power BI, everything went well. When we agreed to work together, my future colleagues invited me to a Halloween party. I was thinking about what to wear and thought of wearing a kilt I bought a few months ago in Scotland. Honestly, it was an experience for me: meeting CEO Tomáš Tuček also in disguise (he was a zombie) – I didn’t recognize him at all and for the first few minutes I had no idea who I was signing a contract with. At the same time, thanks to this experience, it became clear to me that there is an interesting group, unlike the corporate environment I came from.

In the beginning, I quickly went through Project “0”, and thanks to that, I was able to quickly focus on Azure and the fulfillment of 2 certifications, which I had the opportunity to do for free. Then I jumped on the Swiss project.

I also found out from the beginning that there are parties here on various occasions and he was worried that my wife wouldn’t see me at home anymore (laughs), but it was solved by her always going out with me.

What is your vision in JC?

Since we have a new strategy for the next 5 years and we have defined our product portfolio this year as well, my vision is to start using it, apply it at the client, and also build a team that we can be proud of and thus reach an ideal state where we we choose from projects. My goal is certainly to be a TOP competence center and to be able to do any data project.

What did you learn at JC and what are you proud of?

I came from a background where I developed an internal product and at JC I had to learn how to work for clients. So I had to improve my soft-skills and learn to speak more business language.

I’m proud of the SWAT team. One of my initiatives is this team. I felt that after a year and a half in the company, I had already gained experience that I wanted to spread further in the delivery team – for example, how to work with a client. In particular, it is not enough to do only good projects for them, but it is also necessary to introduce potential clients to what we can do and why we should be their number 1 choice.

SWAT team sounds cool! How did the SWAT initiative come about?

We completed the tender process for the Swiss company – we were in the top 3 companies they had to choose from. But we didn’t win it and I saw the reasons why and it blew my mind – we put a lot of effort into this pre-sala. I told myself that we have to make big changes for the next time – there were certain parameters that another company had and we didn’t, so I wanted to introduce these parameters to us as well. After a few months, this initiative is starting to turn in our favor – we are starting to win more and more pre-sales in which we participate. When I saw this problem, I wanted to create a team of people. I came to our CEO Tomáš and he did not hesitate. He was enthusiastic about proactivity and it was he who gave it the name “SWAT” and started presenting it that way – then he did not interfere and gave us the space to devote ourselves to this initiative. Tomáš is generally such that when he sees proactivity, he is happy to support it and share his decision-making authority in favor of JC.

Do you have someone around you who inspires you in terms of work?

The entire SWATU collective is inspiring to me – they are people who came to this group voluntarily, no one forced them. They find space for it and it’s altruistic from them: they have their work, but they still do something extra so that others don’t have problems, for example, due to a lack of work or projects.
For me, it is inspiration when I see enthusiasm in someone. For example, with my colleague Lukáš Karlovský, who runs Fabric here. Or my colleague Jarda Dvořák from the sales team is also an inspiration to me, who takes it to a high level here and is able to move others too, for example, in making delivery speak business language. I generally take everyone on the same level and we are all an inspiration, I can take something from everyone in JC.

Who are you looking for in the team and what do you expect from them?

I consider experience with Cloud technologies to be such a basis. We are looking for someone who has gone through a migration project, managed a system with Azure databases, knows the CICD pipeline or already has an overlap with Fabrik. At the same time, we are also looking for qualities such as initiative and the will to lead, to be proactive, to want to learn. Someone who wants to do modern things and be in such a role as a thinker on the project – if I explain it: the client has its internal team and you are the one who tries to lead them forward, bring new ideas and proposed solutions and not just be a number.

Is there something that a future member of your team should definitely not miss?

Proactivity – our people are used to always inventing something, looking for new solutions, because they want to do their work better and better. Furthermore, he/she should not lack communication skills and willingness, the ability to know how to present oneself or the ability to lead the client to the fact that he/she trusts us and is satisfied with us.

Besides working on the project, what kind of entertainment can he look forward to?

We always have some events going on. We have a JoyFund (budget for corporate events allocated by our owners), from which we draw funds for various events. The last time we were at a weekend team building in Malá Fatra. But we like to have fun every day. In the summer, for example, we like to play foosball on the terrace or have a beer after work (we have our own, where we enjoy Pilsen).

Can you describe to us what a typical day looks like in your team or what the day of someone joining you will look like?

Most people are on a project that they have either chosen themselves or been assigned. When pre-sales comes to you, you become the so-called center (note. some roles in the company are named after the world of sports) and you supervise that you communicate with the customer and with the “tech” side of the client, participate in the creation of the offer, do then presentation of the proposal (in person or online) and you do everything necessary. We have people who enjoy pre-sales a lot because it’s a challenge, they enjoy going to the client and it’s something different than just technical tasks. It’s also a great way to learn something new – when you talk to a “tech” representative of the company, you can also learn through this process, you can try to design the architecture, and you’ll also learn what kind of solution might be out there outside JC, to which you would otherwise have a hard time getting to.

What is the biggest challenge your team has faced and how did you overcome it?

The challenge in SWAT is that the market evolves quickly and priorities come quickly. Something will arrive on Wednesday and the documents must be ready by Friday. It is therefore necessary to set priorities. Since then, we have tuned the capacity system so that our people can count on these fast cars. The biggest challenges are tenders, where a high level of professionalism is required. The competition is the top companies in the field and they are fighting for orders worth millions.

What motivates you to stay at the head of your squad and what do you enjoy most about this role?

I am motivated by JC in general – I have a direct impact on how economically JC will do and to some extent I have taken this responsibility upon myself. I care about it. I want to do the projects we have here and I want to do them together with everyone. JC is the company you want to go to. It’s a second home for me, so I want the business to do well.

What is your JOY at work and outside of it?

When they say “Joy at work” – I have a passion for what I do. I like to talk about work and outside of work because what I do is fun for me. The other joys are being together with people. I enjoy it when the barrel hits, the sun is shining on the terrace and we have a chill and a good time. There are still some initiatives, someone comes up with events every month just because they want to be with others.

I like to go to work out to release pressure and lift weights. I also like to go to basketball once a week with my colleague Honza Kult. Paradoxically, we are the two lowest in the company, but that doesn’t matter, we enjoy it.