Let’s get to know another fairowner: Kairi Aadli, our Operations Team Lead.
Kairi started at Fairown about two years ago when she really needed a career change. Her job as our Operations Team Lead is never boring and always challenging - if you’re responsible for back-office operations and fulfil the roles of accounting, IT and customer support, how can it not be?! Kairi’s job enables her to grow as a person and professionally, and achieve the goal of making the world a better, greener, and more sustainable place.
Tell us about your professional background.
I studied Swedish in high school and that skill has had a huge impact on my professional career so far. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration. I started off 10 years ago as a Swedish-speaking Sales Agent at Tallink’s call centre. I worked there through my university studies, and after graduation, I started to look around for a new job.
My only requirement for the new career challenge was that it had to be a Monday-Friday kind of job. I think that everybody who has worked on a schedule knows the struggle!
Then I found my next job as an Insurance Support Specialist at If Insurance in the Danish team. That was scary at first because of Danish. But having spent five and a half years in different teams, positions, and handling various tasks, I felt that it was time to move on.
Why did you choose Fairown, what stood out for you?
I learned about Fairown thanks to my good, life-long friend Annelise (we have known each other for 14 years!) who is the Product Owner at Fairown. I guess I have to start believing in manifesting, because about two years ago, I felt that I really needed a change. It just so happened that Fairown was looking for a Back-Office Specialist.
The first thing that stood out to me was that Fairown was a start-up and I had always wanted to work in one. When I had the job interview, I remember how passionate our CEO Hendrik was about the sustainable future that Fairown endorses. I was sold. The idea that we make the world a better, greener, and more sustainable place had me right there.
What has your journey been like at Fairown? How has your career evolved?
I have been at Fairown for almost two years, but it feels like a lifetime! Jokes aside, I have had the opportunity to impact the formation of the position of the Back-Office Specialist. I hope I don’t flex too hard when I say that the position looks like me now.
I have learned a lot during my journey so far. It has been a challenge at times, but I have had the best team supporting me. When I started, the idea was to help Product Owners with tasks that took away their time from analysing and building better products. Creating reports and being customer support robbed a lot of their valuable time. That is when I stepped in!
What has changed during these two years? I still create different reports and provide even more customer support with the help of my good colleague and the other half of “support sisters”, Joanna, our Support and Back-Office Specialist. As Fairown has grown, so have our tasks. We have processes in place to support many other functions and processes in our company which means fulfilling accounting, IT and customer support roles all at once.
From April, I started a new journey as an Operations Team Lead. Definitely a lot of learning and growing to do, but I’m looking forward to building a strong team with the help of my great colleagues!
What have been your most interesting projects at Fairown?
That’s a tough one, because there is so much interesting happening at all times! Sometimes the interesting part hits when the project is over and Kelly Clarkson stops singing, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” You re-evaluate the challenging part of the project to be interesting and realise the key learnings.
The most interesting project has been product renewals and developing the internal back-office part for this process. Also, how the support has had to adapt to our product launches.
Name some fun facts about yourself that we can’t find on your CV or social profile.
Actually, there are quite a few:
my first paying job was at my grandmother's farm, where I used to herd the cows. It was a very long time ago, even before I started school. My first paycheck was about 7 euros, which was mostly spent on sweets;
I may be cancelled after this, but I cannot stand blackcurrants. I love blackcurrant jam, which is suspicious, but otherwise, redcurrants all the way!
I like to work out, I especially enjoy a good spinning class;
I have gone to the same school with three other fairowners. I went to the same elementary school with one of them, and the other two were my schoolmates in high school.
What drives and inspires you the most in your daily work?
My colleagues! Also, I think that my job is really interesting and helps me grow as a person and professionally. I really like to come to the office every single day.
Where do you see yourself and Fairown in a couple of years?
On the Estonian Wall of Fame!