{"id":39046,"date":"2020-09-11T15:33:37","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T12:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bondora.com\/blog\/?p=39046"},"modified":"2020-09-11T15:33:37","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T12:33:37","slug":"bondora-superstars-kaarel-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/blog\/bondora-superstars-kaarel-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"The real role of a Dev team lead: Making everyone happy. Meet Kaarel, Bondora’s Captain Cheerful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Get to know the people who are working to make Bondora the best online investment platform in Europe through the exciting Bondora Superstars<\/strong> blog series<\/strong><\/a>! This series will showcase their passion for what they do, their personal investment experiences, and a few fun things you didn\u2019t know about them. Curious to know more? Read on to see how our second Bondora Superstar got into investing (Hint: It\u2019s not what you expect):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udc68\u200d\ud83d\udcbcBondorian since: <\/strong>2015
\ud83d\udcbbRole: <\/strong>Development team lead
\ud83d\ude80Team: <\/strong>Capital \u2013 Growth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bondora
Kaarel Soon \u2013 \u201cCaptain Cheerful\u201d \u2013 The sweetest, goofiest goober, who loves to dance and mix a cocktail at the same time.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A day in the life of Kaarel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kaarel\u2019s official title may be \u2018Developer team lead\u2019, but his real role is to keep everyone happy. And with such a goofy, always-smiling and full of energy personality, he excels at it every single day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting his Bondora journey in 2015 as a UI Test Developer, he has worked his way up to his current position as Dev team lead. Most of his day he spends communicating with people; be it a developer, marketer, support exec, the list goes on. He\u2019s the middleman responsible for understanding and conveying information from one party to another. And, of course, making sure that it\u2019s implemented smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spirit animal:<\/em><\/strong> The platypus. It\u2019s a genuinely interesting combo of an animal from ancient times. Plus, it’s super cute.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you see Kaarel work, you can tell he just loves every moment. When asked which other role he would choose at Bondora, he chose Dev team lead again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing with Bondora is that we have a multitude of responsibilities, so I already feel like I\u2019m tapping into several aspects at the workplace, be it UI design, marketing, support, accounting… You never get stuck in one place for long. Here you can make a difference and not feel like a cog in a machine. I have kind of made the Bondora platform my responsibility, so to see it improve and flourish \u2013 that\u2019s the best feeling.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only time when Kaarel isn\u2019t smiling is when you give him goat\u2019s cheese. He absolutely hates it. He once accidentally ate sushi made with beetroot and goat\u2019s cheese, and in his words, it was a total \u201cabomination\u201d. Instead (take note colleagues) give Kaarel Kirju koer<\/em>\u2014it\u2019s his favorite sweet treat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcda Kaarel\u2019s must-read book:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDune<\/em>\u201d by Frank Herbert. One of the recurring themes is to never depend on something fully, but to try and be as independent as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s talk about investing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When and how did you start your investment journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn January 2015, when I made my first investment into Bondora. It all started when my wife attended a women\u2019s investment club. She got the bright idea that I should start saving money and investing it into our future. Funny thing is, that was the last time she attended that club\u2026\u201d \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that first initial investment, he\u2019s been adding something new to his existing portfolios each year. Because working at Bondora for over 5 years has taught Kaarel that diversification<\/a> is the holy grail of investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this year, he decided to focus on another kind of investing; emotional investing. It\u2019s a fantastic way to grow yourself, which, in turn, will have a positive effect on you and everyone around you. Kaarel is a \u201csocial animal\u201d, and by investing in his emotional growth, he can be better equipped at understanding people, communicating in his job, or just making someone smile at the workplace. And for him, that\u2019s the best return on investment there is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wise words:  \u201c<\/em><\/strong>Live and let live.\u201d My mission is to make others happy by being happy. And if I can spread joy around that people will share in turn, then I\u2019m happy as can be.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s it from Kaarel, our goofiest, most cheerful and smiling Bondorian Superstar. Stay tuned for the next one, coming soon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The views and opinions expressed in this article is that of the individual, and not Bondora\u2019s official view.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get to know the people who are working to make Bondora the best online investment platform in Europe through the exciting Bondora Superstars blog series! This series will showcase their passion for what they do, their personal investment experiences, and a few fun things you didn\u2019t know about them. Curious to know more? Read on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":39048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bondora-news"],"acf":[],"featured_image":null,"categories_names":["News"],"category_name":"News","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goandgrow.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}