Welcome back to another installment of Journey of a TTT’er, where I get to learn more about my fellow TTT’ers. This time, we sit down (figuratively speaking) with TTT Project Manager Emma Konrad. My first impression of Emma was largely influenced from what I’ve heard from others; that she was an extremely talented, hardworking person and a master communicator. That couldn’t have been more true. On top of that, I was delighted to find out that she was a badass, and a proud fellow nerd who was into board games, Dungeons and Dragons, and videogames.
Quick intro:
Position: Project Manager
Favourite Game: Fable
Fun Fact: Avid player of Roller Derby
Last Movie Watched: Disney’s Atlantis
Favourite Food: Sushi
Tell us about yourself. What’s your story/background?
“I grew up just outside in Vancouver, and ran away for 8 years to try to become a journalist. After working in communications for a few years, I realized I wanted a little bit more out of life than telling other people’s stories. At that point, I went back to school and got my Masters in Digital Media, and now I’m enjoying my role as Project Manager at TTT.
I still have a bit of journalism in me, and having a creative outlet has always been important to me. I’m currently working on a screenplay and two novels as a side project. Without going into too much detail, the screenplay is about a failing comedian who finds out his mother has dementia and he has to learn how to communicate and interact with her all over again.
As a kid I was super anxious and quiet, so I spent all of my time reading. I think that’s where my love of storytelling came from. I loved books growing up, and I always wanted to be able to tell stories the way my favourite authors did.”
How did you end up at TTT? What were your first Impressions?
“Through the vast network of my grad program, another Mobile Developer who worked at TTT, Becky, shared the job post on Linkedin, and it got passed along to me.
This was the first job where I felt surrounded by people like me. Every other job I went to, I felt like a young, out-of-place kid, where everyone else was in a different stage of their lives.
TTT really felt like a community instead of a group of colleagues.”
What is something interesting about yourself?
“Any meat that I can eat raw, I will. I love things like blue steak, sushi, sashimi, carpaccio etc. I think it tastes so much better. I think the more you cook meat, the more flavour you lose. My parents took us travelling a lot when I was a kid, and I was always encouraged to try new things. From a very young age, food wasn’t allowed to be gross to me.”
What’s your most memorable moment working at TTT?
“In terms of work, running my first discovery session. It was so fun and exciting to see a product shape up before your eyes. It can be really challenging but it’s so rewarding at the end of it. I’m a naturally curious person and I like to learn. With discovery sessions, I feel like I’m always learning new things about all these different markets and having my world view opened up.”
“Culture-wise, the most memorable moment would be playing Ultimate Werewolf. I remember it was the first time I felt comfortable being a little weird. I also didn’t expect everyone in the company to join in since it was an optional happy hour. There was such a large group of us and everyone was into it and people didn’t wanna leave which was a new thing to me when it came to work.”
What is your secret super power? (something you’re very good at, that not everyone knows)
“Learning things. I’ve always been very teachable and learn most things very quickly.”
What do you enjoy working on the most?
“I like puzzles, so I enjoy the part of my job where I’m presented with a challenge that requires me to think creatively to try and solve it. As a Project Manager and one of the few people involved on a project from beginning to end, I’m always looking at all the different puzzle pieces and figuring out how design, development, and QA all fit together.”
What do you like to do in your free time?
“I watch a lot of movies and TV shows. I read a lot of books and play a lot of video games.
I love Dungeons and Dragons. I also love roller derby and just recently started to try out park skating.”
Who do you look up to? (Who is your hero?) Why?
“My mother-in-law. She worked at Nortel at the height of the tech boom in Canada. She was one of the only women in her office and she worked her way up to VP while simultaneously being a mom. She has this intense, take no shit, get it done attitude that I aspire to have.”
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