Employee Spotlight: Faces of Tronel


Recently, we celebrated the 13th anniversary of Tronel. This milestone fills us not only with pride but also gratitude, as none of this would be possible without our exceptional employees. Their dedication and hard work have been the driving force behind our continued growth and success. They are the ones who make Tronel what it is, therefore, today we want to shine a spotlight on a few characteristic members of our remarkable team. Some of them have been with us almost from the beginning, while others joined Tronel just a few years ago.

Meet Tomasz, Żaneta, Rafael, Magda and Andrzej, and learn more about their journeys, what they enjoy about working at Tronel and even get to know a few fun facts in the meantime!

The faces behind Tronel

Tomasz Szczyrbak, C++ developer

Tomasz Szczyrbak
C++ Developer

Having joined Tronel eleven years ago, Tomasz has been a part of our journey almost from the beginning. He started as a C++ developer in the telecommunications project (LTE team) and is now a member of the NR5G team, which is responsible for developing and maintaining a 5G New Radio base station simulator – mostly for the first and second layers of the NR5G Protocol stack.

Żaneta Błaszczuk, RTOS & DSP Expert

Żaneta Błaszczuk
RTOS & DSP Expert

Żaneta started her journey at our company seven years ago as the first member of Tronel’s FPGA team. As she reminiscences: “My start was a part of many changes on the customer side, so I was lucky to be a part of that. It allowed me to gain experience in multiple different teams and work with different devices and technology. I ended up leading a small team in one of the main customer’s products”.

Rafael Pakuła, Test Engineer

Rafael Pakuła
Test Engineer

Rafael has been with Tronel for nine years, starting as a test engineer. His role evolved over the years and now he is responsible for software quality control in the integration, verification, and validation department. Rafael’s tasks include supervising the software integration process of current and upcoming features and verifying them from the user’s point of view to ensure their seamless performance.

Magda Pietrzyk, R&D engineer

Magda Pietrzyk
R&D Engineer

Magda began her journey at Tronel five years ago as a software engineer on the team that supported the maintenance of our client’s older hardware platform. Currently, she is an R&D engineer focusing on the development of the latest wireless networks’ features and enhancements. Magda’s responsibilities include analysing client requirements and implementing them in the software, as well as providing technical and substantive customer support, and conducting training.

Andrzej Gil, Software Engineer

Andrzej Gil
Software Engineer

Andrzej joined Tronel four years ago as a software engineer. His role at Tronel involves providing new functionalities to our client’s desktop control GUI software, ensuring high code quality, and meeting customer requirements. Besides his technical contributions, Andrzej is also known for his sense of humour. As he says: “I try to maintain the status of the king of memes on the company’s Slack, although more and more of my colleagues want to dethrone me”.

Not Only Developers

Our employees are not only true experts in their field but also unique and vibrant personalities with various passions and diverse interests. From cycling and hiking, through singing in the choir to flying drones – our team is always open to trying new activities and exploring different hobbies.

Tomasz

Family is very important to me. In my free time, I enjoy various sports activities such as football, swimming, and cycling. I enjoy reading historical and adventure books and travelling whenever I get the chance.

Fun fact: In the past, I was a finalist of the Polish National Olympiad of Technical Knowledge (pol. Ogólnopolska Olimpiada Wiedzy Technicznej) and a member of the team participating in The National Sports and Firefighting Competition for Men’s Firefighting Teams (pol. Ogólnopolskie Zawody Sportowo-Pożarnicze Męskich Drużyn Pożarniczych).

Żaneta

Lately, I have been really into designing and 3D printing tools and parts for devices around the home. My favourite use case for a 3D printer is to make existing things more customized and versatile. I keep making new things for my other hobbies: special holders for my road bike, parts for my smart home electronics, new elements and storage for board games, tools for baking, stakes for plants and accessories for my two cats and fiancée.

Fun fact: I know how to milk a cow, gut a chicken, grow crops, cook, bake, sew, fix electronics, wire electric cables and build things in general so I’d probably make a great companion for a zombie apocalypse.

Rafael

My 14-month-old daughter does not allow for free time. Just kidding, ha ha! I mainly ride a bike and hike, I like to plan tracks and explore areas I haven’t been to before. The more difficult, the better. However, if the weather encourages me to stay at home, I follow financial and crypto markets and play computer and board games. Practically each of these activities requires more or less analytical thinking, just like at my work but with one difference – estimating success chance. It never tires me; it always energizes me.

Fun fact: Once I went on a three-day bike ride. Without any electronics, with a tent without a floor, NRC foil, and money for just one day. It was raining every day, the raincoat was torn after two hours of downpour. It sounds intense, but in the end, I managed to reach my destination and in hindsight, I think it was not a big challenge. Today I would do it differently – I’d leave the tent and money at home 😉

Tronel's employees at a cycling trip.
Tronel's employees on a cycling trip
Tronel's employees on a cycling trip

Tronel’s team on a cycling trip

Magda

I have many different interests that I like to do in my free time, but definitely one of my favourite hobbies is singing. I’ve been singing in various choirs since I was a child, and for some time I also led a four-voice choir. I like singing both in a choir and solo, sometimes at karaoke and sometimes at home playing the piano.

When I have extra time and space, I ride a bike, sometimes on road routes, sometimes in the forest. However, in the evenings I like to read books, watch a good movie, or read about programming news. In particular, I have recently become interested in the topic of image processing and computer vision.

Fun fact: Throughout high school (and most of college) I told everyone that I would never be a programmer because it was boring. And of course, right after graduation, I started working as… a programmer.

Andrzej

In my free time, I try to clear my head of programming. This is a form of hygiene so as not to be overloaded with work and not to burn out too quickly. So, my free time is filled with cycling, flying drones, meeting friends, playing board games, and for the past year, my new love – badminton.

Fun fact: I can perform magic tricks with cards. But you have to be careful with dark arts! 🙂

Tronel's team with the gifts for Szlachetna Paczka

Tronel’s employees participaiting in Szlachetna Paczka

More Than a Software House

The average engineer tenure at Tronel reaches five years. Moreover, some of our employees, like Tomasz, have been with us almost from the beginning. But what exactly are the reasons our employees decide to stay with Tronel for so long?

Most Important? People

When we asked our employees, what they value the most at Tronel, most of them immediately answered – the people.

Tomasz: The most important thing here is the atmosphere. I met many valuable people here – many skilled engineers and, or maybe above all, good colleagues. Many positive people and many individuals. It’s a pleasure to work among them. There is always occasion for very interesting discussions and many opportunities to smile. Also, our management created a very good employee environment – you can talk to anybody anytime.

Rafael: There are many such things, like flexibility of work, and independent workflow organization. But above all, I think it will be communication with people. COVID-19 and our life decisions very often moved us to full-remote work. In my work, I usually have to talk to people from different teams, and departments, some of whom I have never talked to before. Some of them turn out to be new employees whom I am just getting to know, but always, regardless of who it is, after a few minutes of conversation, I get the impression that we have known each other for a long time. This gives me an incredible sense of comfort and trust that even if something doesn’t work out as it should or I make a mistake somewhere I shouldn’t, I have someone who will help me figure it out at my fingertips.

Magda: I think what I value most about Tronel is the people and relationships we create. I work with many people on a daily basis and working in a team would be difficult without mutual respect and the ability to listen to each other. And of course, I really appreciate the fact that at Tronel I also found friends with whom I meet outside of work. We like to spend time together, for example, riding a bike or playing board games.

Organizational Culture is Everything

Turns out not only do we have the best employees, but – according to our team members – also a pretty great management team that takes care of the good atmosphere at Tronel and provides an exceptional working environment.

Żaneta: The way that the company is managed makes it easy for employees to get all the needed help and tools. I value that after having experience working in a big corporation.

Andrzej: What I value the most is definitely the atmosphere throughout the company. I have had various experiences. From small companies to large corporations, but nowhere have I seen such an organizational culture as here. At this point, Tronel is the company with which I have been professionally associated the longest and I don’t see any chance for it to change (sorry LinkedIn recruiters – it’s true).

Tronel's company's party
Tronel's company's party
Tronel's company's party
Tronel's company's party

Tronel’s team building event

Moments Worth Remembering

Last but not least, we asked our team members, what are their favourite memories from their time at Tronel. It turned out that many of them have fond memories of our integrating events, but also of daily conversations with co-workers in the Tronel’s kitchen.

Rafael: I’m probably going to be nostalgic at this point, but I really miss conversations in the kitchen on all sorts of topics. They were controversial but also instructive. I always said: “The man always comes back wiser from Tronel’s kitchen” and that’s what I reminiscence the best.

Żaneta: My best memories have to be related to the opportunity to go on multiple business trips. Especially trips to South Korea and California. It not only allowed me to see amazing places but also to gain precious knowledge and meet co-workers on different continents.

Tomasz: I have many good memories from ordinary working days or corporate events, however, I don’t have one favourite memory.

Magda: I think my favourite memory is the first company party I attended. It took place in a rope park, so I had the opportunity to try such an activity for the first time in my life. The event ended with a bonfire and singing together with guitar accompaniment.

Andrzej: Unfortunately, I cannot reveal my favourite memory here without revealing a company’s secret, but I have very fond memories of every meeting, from small ones within our team to company-wide integration events. In times when most of us work remotely, it’s nice to talk live with people with whom you work closely and from whom you learn a lot.

Of course, the individuals described here are just a drop in the ocean of the wonderful people that Tronel has on board. We are fortunate to have a diverse and interesting team, comprised of great colleagues who are always ready to offer advice and assistance.

If you would like to learn more about working at Tronel, the history of our company, and our future plans, be sure to check out the latest interview with Łukasz, our Performance Solutions Architect, as well as interviews with our founders – Marcin and Paweł, and our new CEO – Piotr.


By Anna Kazarnowicz