What is your role in the company and what does it entail?
Melanie Cevik: I work at Tito & Friends, the holding/support company in the MindTake group. My official job role is Office Management, but what it means is that Everyone Comes to Me for Everything. A lot of it is office management things one expects: I pick up the phone, order supplies for the office, book meetings, hotels and flights, help with bookkeeping and payroll, organise documents in the archive, buy the flowers for reception, call the handyman when the printer or the coffee machine act up – the coffee machine especially is a major emergency. But there are also some very fun and strange things particular to our company, for example the task I like to call “alcohol management” – ordering wine and champagne for the 5 pm ‘aperitivo’, or making Glühwein in the winter and cocktails in the summer. Our house cocktail is called ‘The Titonic’ , and by now I am an expert mixologist!
What is exciting and what is challenging about your job?
Melanie Cevik: The most exciting thing about my job is the learning curve - the tasks are always different and I seem to be learning something new every day. It’s never boring, although sometimes it gets too much, especially as the company grows at this fast pace. Some days I am “in the zone” and I manage to finish a hundred different things, others I am sitting at my desk at 5 pm wondering where the day went and why is my task list still full. I guess that’s when all the wine comes in handy.
What’s driving in your job?
Melanie Cevik: Definitely the people. My colleagues give me a good feeling, they are fun to talk to, I feel supported in my team – with some we are friends and hang out outside the office also. And because we have a creative and technical department, there is no shortage of eccentric characters. Once I opened a package addressed to the office, thinking it was office supplies – it was wooden swords and shields, Viking style I think and Roman, and two of the partners proceeded to chase each other around the office and have a sword fight. I still laugh thinking about that scene.
What kind of job would you do, if you were not employed in your current post?
Melanie Cevik: I had thought of being a stewardess because I love travelling, and I like the idea of being paid while doing it – but I think it’d be very difficult being away from home so long, and there’s a lot of responsibility and stress, so I am not in a rush to go sign up! Whatever it would be, it would have to involve talking to people, being social. I could not be a programmer for example – too quiet for me!
Describe your education and professional path up to now.
Melanie Cevik: I started my education in a Handelsschule, but broke it off and did a training and traineeship (Lehre) as a beautician, hairdresser and makeup artist. I worked in a variety of cosmetic salons for 6 years altogether - it was a good experience and something I was good at, but there was also a lot of drama and intrigues, so it was not a good fit for my personality. So I went back to school and did my Matura, and then tried to find work in office management. It was hard to get a foot in the door because I was older and had no relevant experience, although I was very motivated and literally sent out a hundred CVs. In the end I was lucky to find some wonderful people in a firm in Obereoesterreich who gave me a chance on a trainee position, and I learnt a lot ‘on the job’.
What are your hobbies? What are you doing in your spare time?
Melanie Cevik: I love music, especially the lively kind that lends itself to dancing, like Latin and Hiphop - I occasionally take classes but mainly I try to go out with my friends and simply dance. I travel a lot and try to combine a trip with seeing favorite artists in concert, and I like going to museums, especially historical museums that help you understand how objects and buildings were created, the people who imagined and made them and the meaning they had in their time. And as anyone who knows me will tell you, I love food and cooking – if it’s a cold and rainy day, I can for sure be convinced to make Kaiseschmarren in the office kitchen.
Which is your favorite book and which is your favorite movie?
Melanie Cevik: My tastes are relatively mainstream, but they also vary with the season of the year and the mood I am in. Like now, during the Christmas period, I love Frank Sinatra, it just fits so well! As for films, I actually prefer TV series to movies – Peaky Blinders is my current favorite, I watched the last season in a single day.
What is your idea of happiness?
Melanie Cevik: Having a family and children and living happily ever after! Ok, I know that doesn’t happen exactly like that, but let’s say that’s the goal and the dream. Otherwise, I think that working every day to improve myself, becoming more sure of my abilities and more self-confident, is something that will bring me closer to happiness.
What natural gift or what talent would you like to have?
Melanie Cevik: I’d like to have the ‘gift of the gab’, the ability to talk and convince people about everything, even if what I am saying is half-true. I am a bad bluffer and a terrible liar, so I think it would be fun to have this ability, to sound so authoritative and confident that people can’t help but to always say Yes to me!