BlaBlaCar

As Data Engineering and Business Intelligence Manager at BlaBlaCar, Kineret Kimhi sees herself as a key driver of the vision of the data and analytics team. When recruiting new roles, she looks for empathic team players who also have solid technical skills.&nbsp;The power of self-educationI've been working at BlaBlaCar for two years. I'm originally from Tel Aviv, but I grew up in the U.S. I've always been interested in data analysis and like the user behavioral aspects that drive the economy. After graduating in Economics, I started working as a strategic consultant. I've always been very drawn to numbers, analytics and regressions — there are so many insights you can extract from the data.At some point, however, I realized that when you’re dealing with data you can become blocked if you don't know how to code. So I started taking coding courses and learning how to deal with Big Data. That’s how I ended up working in tech as a Big Data Analyst. The fact that you have a specific education does not need to block you in any way. No matter what you want to do, you can self-educate, and especially in tech, there are other examples of the sky being the limit — such as many college dropouts who eventually founded their own startups.Living up to our valuesAfter my partner and I moved to France, I heard about BlaBlaCar and was intrigued because of the positive environmental impact this company has in the world. It makes me proud to work for a company that actually betters the world and doesn't just make money for the sake of making money. Also the fact that the company's product is constantly developing, which is good from a data perspective, there are constantly new features and challenges to extract insights on. This is appealing to&nbsp; junior profiles specifically, because the bigger the company is, the more data people there are to learn from.&nbsp;BlaBlaCar really lives up to its values: Share more, Learn more. These are values that are part of the core culture, and you really see them in the day to day. We have regular sharing and learning sessions. And once a week, we have an all-hands session where a specific team presents what they do and their future roadmap. I've never seen this in any other company. We also have specific share&amp;learn sessions within each department. It's cool because you can always keep yourself informed and focused on the vision.&nbsp;&nbsp;OnboardingIn the first three months after joining BlaBlaCar, you should expect to get to know the people that you will be working with, as well as your stakeholders upstream, downstream, and the relevant product managers. New joiners can expect a lot of onboarding sessions. During the first week, there is a company-wide onboarding process for all our offices globally. Then there is also a specific engineering onboarding week that is more in-depth. Towards the end of your onboarding month, you will be required to have some amount of delivery, but always with the help of a mentor who will work with you during the first three months of onboarding.I really enjoy that we work in hybrid mode, where you can choose to partially work from the office or go fully remote. Personally, I like to come to the office twice a week to socialize and meet people face to face. You get these teeny tiny catch ups with people, which are essential. You are free to choose your own rhythm at BlaBlaCar.Data as a vessel for business goalsAs a leader, I define my role as the driver of the vision of the data and analytics team. I’m constantly trying to get other people’s ideas as well. My day is filled with meetings, but they all have a very clear objective. In the engineering team, we have daily meetings, retroactive reviews and planning sessions. I try to talk to all stakeholders at least every other week to better understand what they need and where they're trying to go.&nbsp;&nbsp;We’ve recently switched from teams based on profession, to full stack teams because we wanted to create a strong lineage across the product engineering and business units. We want the engineering and product teams to be focused on these KPIs and bring everyone closer in a way. However, everybody has their own business domain, and data is like the vessel for scoring on our business case—to improve our product with far better features and maybe testing.&nbsp;Looking for team playersUnfortunately, most of the candidates who I see when interviewing are male. There are lots of reasons for this, and some are more difficult to pinpoint than others. I know it’s sometimes a matter of confidence. Some job offers look so intimidating that some women don’t even consider sending their CV.&nbsp;At BlaBlaCar we are actively working on improving our job offers so that they reach a more diverse audience and get a 50/50 split between men and women applicants. Regardless of the role, we're always going to be looking for a mixture of technical skills and soft skills. When you're interviewing, you really need to be aware that even if you're acing the technical tests for everybody, we are also looking for a team player—somebody who is capable of being self-critical, humble and communicative.

“There are so many insights you can extract from data”

Julien Londeix