Graduate Q&A — Kinga Ratiu

Kinga is a Graduate DBA at The Hut Group.

What do you enjoy about THG?

“For me, the most amazing thing at THG is the fact that two days are never the same. Because it is such a fast-growing company, the issues and problems you face today will be completely different from what you will have to deal with tomorrow. This allows you to develop as a person and assimilate essential skills that will also help you outside of the work environment, in your everyday life.”

Do you feel you’re working on valuable projects?

“Definitely. As far as I am concerned, servers are one of the key components of the company as they are the ones who store all the information that we display on our websites. The projects I work on are focused on improving the performance of certain queries, adding more reliability and scalability to our estate which will affect every area of the business.”

What makes being a DBA unique at THG?

“Being a DBA at THG gives you responsibilities right from the first day as all our websites and production applications interact with our servers making you feel important as everything you make will have an impact. This implicitly involves interacting with all the other development and infrastructure teams which leads to easily making friends from all over THG.”

What’s your tech stack like — what technologies have you implemented?

“As our main production servers are running Microsoft SQL Server, the main technologies I have used are SQL and PowerShell. However, because the DBA team is providing self-service tools for the developers, I have also worked with Python and C#. Moreover, we are constantly trialling different technologies to see whether they are suitable for us, so I have also played with PostgreSQL, Kubernetes and CockroachDB.”

Describe THG in one word and explain why.

“Amazing. This is the one word that always comes to my mind when somebody asks me about THG. When I hear that question, there are so many things that I would like to include in my answer just to then realise along the way that no matter how much I try to shorten my reply, I will never be able to mention everything I want to, so I just stop midway and I say ‘Amazing’.”

What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned at THG and from whom?

“This is a difficult question to answer as being a DBA at THG involves working closely with many other teams and constantly learning about other technologies that are not directly related to DBAs. However, the most interesting thing I have learned is probably how geo-clusters (servers consisting of multiple nodes spread across multiple data centres all over the world) work and this is something that my team explained to me.”

What inspires you about working for THG?

“The most inspiring aspect of THG for me is the people around me. Everybody is very relaxed and funny, but at the same time very passionate about their work and driven. I have been lucky enough to witness how ideas are born out of what seemed to be only random discussions in the beginning, just to be then turned into new features used in production.”

How does THG compare to your previous experience whether professional or educational?

“As being a DBA at THG is my first role, I can only compare it to what it was like in University. Honestly, I feel like I have learned a lot more in two weeks since I started working than in two years of University.”

If you could advise future new starters at THG, what should they know?

“The best piece of advice is most likely not to be afraid. Whether it is about asking questions or coming up with innovative ideas or different ways of doing something, always speak up your mind as you are listened to. The THG community is very friendly and helpful (yes, including managers) and will never judge you.”

What do you see as your future at THG?

“I like thinking of THG as the company that can help me develop not just as an individual, but from a technical point of view as well. I find myself learning new things/technologies every day and I really hope that this fact will also be reflected by my progress within my career. Who knows, maybe in a few years, I will manage to become a Senior DBA.”

Finally, if you could open a new THG office anywhere in the world, where would it be?

“The one place that I would really like THG to open an office in is Madeira. I have been there a couple of years ago and I found the views stunning. Not only that, but there, even in December, there are around 25 degrees.”

Thank you, Kinga.