Takwa Bouallegue

I grew up in the city of Tunis, where I lived for my first 24 years. I have never been by my own anywhere further than 30 minutes from home until I got an internship in Austria. And that’s where the real adventure began!

I studied “Embedded Systems” and graduated as an engineer in Applied Sciences and Computer Technologies in Tunisia. During my first couple of internships in Austria, I discovered this beautiful country and just fell in love with the culture, the people and the change of seasons. I decided to move to Austria and I applied for a position as a Junior Developer at Parkside.

When I started at Parkside, we were around 25 employees. There was a nice and cosy homey feeling. It felt more like being part of a family than of a company. In the last 6 years, we almost tripled the company size, but we didn’t lose that special inclusive culture. Parkside is mostly ruled by a strong sense of ownership and responsibility shared by everyone which makes working at Parkside feel like a natural activity and not an obligation.

What I enjoy most while working at Parkside is the flexibility of one’s position and the focus on new learnings. I started as an Android Developer for the first 3 years. Whereafter, I switched to Frontend Development for the next 3 years. The switch was very smooth: I had Senior Developers that were always more than happy to help out and onboard me from the start. The company also invests in conferences and encourages us to learn and further improve our skills. This was also useful while pursuing my doctor thesis. The team leads and the partners were more than understanding to allow me to find the necessary time to finish my work and obtain my doctor diploma.

More than a company, you get people that care about you and are always there to help you out. From relocation logistics, to working permit bureaucracy, through German courses, I was assisted and supported all the way.

I had the opportunity to work with most of our major US based clients, which lead me to do numerous trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. It was a chance for me to reach that part of the world and check out yet another continent.

I am a very curious person and I am driven by the desire of continuous learning. I find myself at the right place at Parkside because of the diversity in technologies used in different projects or even within the same project, the huge knowledge base of our more experienced developers and the investment that the company puts in skill improvement.

Today, 6 years into this adventure, I find myself settled down, with a very positive look into the future. I see myself growing even more as a developer and further strengthening my expertise.