The first thing that goes through your head when you enter EyeEm Mobile’s office in Berlin: Take a deep breath – here you have plenty of space. Space to live and space to grow. Immigrant Spirit GmbH interviewed Fabian Heuser (Head of PR) and Lotti Müller (HR Manager) about career options for photo fans.
Fabian: EyeEm is a photography community and -platform. Through its free-to-download application for iOS, Android and supporting web platform, EyeEm is a place for photographers of all abilities to share, interact, and learn more about taking pictures on any device.
IS: Fabian for your personally what are you most exited about, when you think about EyeEm?
Fabian: The community is great. I work a lot with the community team. And it’ so great to see that we have a global meetup on November 1st. In all sorts of cities and all continents there are meetups: In New Delhi, in Brazil, in San Franciso and New York. It’s a great experience to work in an international company with an international community – where everyone shares this passion for photography.
IS: You even gave out an award to your community…
Fabian: We always try to give back to the community. We had the EyeEm festival and awards in September. There was one category “The EyeEm Photographer Of The Year”. We selected David Uzochukwu. He is a 15 year old photographer who lives in Brussels. And it’s just stunning what amazing self portraits he does.
IS: What makes them so special?
Fabian: David is only 15 years old. And it’s incredible that he has this sort of reflection and distance to his portraits. There is so much space for interpretation. There is all this storytelling in his pictures. It’s brilliant. He was featured in Huffington Post, in Italian newspapers, in South American newspapers… and he is part of the EyeEm community – now he is a photography star.
IS: You are very passionate about quality in EyeEm. How does this affect your daily work?
Lotti: I really love to work here. I always liked my job – but here is the first time that I really love it. I can give an example: I was sick for a few days and when I came back everyone asked me: “Oh Lotti, do you feel better?” I really felt like coming home.
We are all very hearty – and very passionate about EyeEm. This is also the feeling that we want to give to candidates and new employees.
IS: How does this passion to EyeEm show in your daily work?
Lotti: This morning a colleague asked me: “Can I show you something?”. He asked for my opinion on something to get another perspective on things.. I have the possibility to share my point of view on something that is not officially part of my job. And we try to constantly live team collaboration. You can always give feedback not only about your own work – but also to other teams.
IS: One strength of your company is, that colleagues are not limited to their own team. How does this play out in reality?
Lotti: We have a great feedback culture. All teams want our continuous feedback: A question they ask to increase the retention could be: “When you use the app what would you like to see improved?”. This is something special: The collaboration between the teams.
Fabian: When we have a new version, we have something that we call the “Bug Fest“. We get together for a few hours, we all sit together and everyone takes a look at the new version and tests it. The whole company goes on bug hunt.
Lotti: And in between we take pictures, so it’s a lot of fun. The person who finds the most bugs gets a prize and the person who finds the craziest bug gets a price as well.
IS: If you think about the professionals – who do you want to join your company? Which characteristics does this person have?
Lotti: What’s really important for us is that the person is passionate about EyeEm. I really look for people who say “Hey, I love EyeEm, I use your product on a daily basis because I believe this can become something very big – and I want to work for you”.
IS: If you think about the best people in your company – what characterises them? What do they do different from other people?
Lotti: What characterises them is that they always try to improve everything. Not only on their own work – but also to look around and talk to colleagues – and help them with their work. People who give feedback and offer another view on things. We want you to think outsite of the box!
Fabian: We have a product that everyone in the company uses. I don’t know if that’s an average thing – but we are all passionate about photography and we all use our app. That’s an advantage, because you always come up with new ideas showing the app to your friend. And then you go back to the product team the next morning and say: “Hey, I discovered that…” We have a culture of exchange, a culture of constant communication.
IS: When it comes to positions, who could help you the most right now?
Lotti: The community is really important for us. So we are hiring community managers for Germany and also in the US. You can see: Also from the US we try to grow the community and to help improve it.
IS: If you look ahead one year – which achievement would make you the most proud?
Fabian: If “coming to work” still feels like this one year from now – I will be very happy. If everyone still uses the product and everyone is still so eager to show it to their friends. That’s so much… It doesn’t sound like much – but that would be great.
Lotti: To grow, to also grow the processes but to still keep the culture.
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