Abraham Mateos, technical support engineer at Tableau Software, tells us that not all of Spain is sun and sea, and why a good working culture makes for a happy life.
Where are you from?
I am from Santa Maria del Paramo, a really small village in Leon (in north-west Spain). My region is very dry and cold. It is not the touristy area where everybody goes for sunny holidays, but we get proper summers, 30/35 degrees.
How long have you been in Ireland?
Nine years.
Why did you move here?
I wanted to learn English, work, see and live with different cultural values in a different country.
What work do you do?
I am a technical support engineer. We help customers with issues when using Tableau products. My role at the moment is more related with the analytics part of the product. It is really fun to get data and see what you can read from that – it’s like telling a story. We help people to understand data, so we work really closely with the customer to get the most out of their data and create views from that.
We are a really close team so, when working on a customer case where they want to create a complicated visualisation, we use everybody’s brains and put ideas together towards resolving the project in the way the customer wants.
How would you describe your working environment?
Great, probably the best environment I have ever worked in. People here care about each other and work as a part of a team, we share ideas and knowledge among ourselves.
What do you like most about your job?
My team, working with these really smart people. Maybe the smartest people I have ever met. I’m learning a lot from them and about this awesome Tableau software.
Was it difficult to adjust to living and working in Ireland?
Not really. People in Ireland are very friendly, so it is very easy to feel comfortable at work, whenever you are walking around or in the pub.
What surprised you about moving to Ireland?
The weather and music – when I saw the amount of live music you have everywhere, every day here, it really surprised me. And the weather, well … is the weather.
How does your working life help to make you feel at home here?
They really take care of the employees. We believe in our values here and they are the core part of feeling comfortable, being a part of this community, the Tableau community.
What do you like most about your adopted home?
The people – I feel like I am welcome here.
