With today's blog post you can get to know our Business Manager ICT Consulting&Projects Dominik Pauli better.
Dominik Pauli holds a degree in computer science with a specialization in project management and has also successfully completed an EMBA program in general management. His master thesis deals with strategic recommendations on the current topic of Unified Communications. His focus is not only on technical solutions, but especially on the customers with their needs and daily challenges.
Dear Dominik, thank you for taking the time for this interview! The summer is slowly coming to an end and Corona still has a firm grip on us. How did you experience this time including the lockdown and how did it change your work?
Apart from a certain uncertainty about how things will continue, I tried to make the best out of the situation. From one day to the next, working life took place entirely in the home office, even for our son. Fortunately, I was able to take my various mandates home with me and had been used to "remote" work for years, although not with this intensity. In many cases I was more tired in the evening than when working with clients or in the company office, not least due to the many video conferences. All the work more or less took place in front of the screen. But I also thought a lot about those who were not allowed/could not work from one day to the next, even had to close the business and therefore could not generate any income. This touched me very much and at the same time I was very grateful that I could continue working almost seamlessly.
Coopers - internally we also kept in touch with regular video conferences and tried out various tools.
In addition, I got to know and appreciate the nature and the silence during countless walks with family members, as well as alone. There I regained strength and energy for the coming home office day. We were able to observe various bird and plant species, which we had not noticed before, or which had not come so close to us humans.
In the neighborhood we supported each other, and my wife did e.g. shopping for older people. Our neighbor also started to teach us Qi Gong exercises (martial arts and Chinese meditation, concentration, and movement forms for the cultivation of body and mind) on the large lawn and whenever possible various neighbors like us participated in these trainings.
Also, in our private lives we often held video conferences and held several virtual small birth celebrations and aperitifs.
In any case, I try to take the various positive experiences and aspects with me and, if future mandates allow it, I would like to continue working from my home office for a day or two.
You have been working in the IT sector for many years. Where does your interest in the IT industry come from?
It developed during my commercial training. On the one hand, I was soon allowed to make certain queries at the terminal during my apprenticeship if information on the corresponding insurance case was missing, and on the other hand I decided to choose "IT" as an additional subject in KV. Then I bought a Commodore 64 with a "Tape Drive" with my apprentice's salary and experimented a lot with it. After the apprenticeship I got the chance to switch to computer science and learn Cobol programming. When the first PC's were introduced it was clear to me that I wanted to deal with IT, but also with people and their IT problems and needs. Over the last 30 years or so, I have had the opportunity to take on a variety of roles in IT in various companies, combining my practical experience with continuous further training.
Can you explain your work at Coopers a little bit more precisely?
I have been working for Coopers IT Services for more than 5 years and since then I have been working in various exciting consulting and project management mandates. Since February 2019 I am also responsible for the further development of Coopers IT Services and therefore, I work about 4 days a week at my customers and 1 day a week at Coopers. "On Coopers Day" I review applications, conduct interviews with potential candidates, give presentations to potential clients, meet interesting people and work with my Coopers colleagues on bids based on WTO tenders etc.
What has changed in all these years?
In the past, IT with its possibilities was still in its infancy and was not yet recognized as a support for the business. I can remember how my first customers used to use a typewriter to write their correspondence during a network interruption, smiling. It was a pioneering time where they tinkered and tried out what works and what does not work.
Today, IT has become an indispensable part of companies and a critical business factor. If an IT service is not running, this has direct consequences for the business. As a result, the IT business has probably become more hectic and is undergoing a constant and faster change. The possibilities are growing more and more and with it the whole complexity. In the past, depending on the size of the company, a few IT specialists had an overview of the IT environment, the systems, the applications and the data, and today it takes a wide variety of know-how carriers in different teams to have a complete overview. In addition, there are topics such as organizational agility and the digitalization of processes that still run analog today, which place additional demands on companies and their employees in IT and other areas.
You work and live in Bern. What makes this city so attractive to you?
I was born near Bern and spent a lot of time on the road in and around Bern when I was young. I also always lived near Bern, but never in the city itself. But I only really realized the great attraction of Bern when I joined Coopers after several years of work, during which I did not work much in Bern. Since then, I've been spending more time in Bern and the surrounding area again, enjoying a swim in the Aare, meeting for a meal in a nice restaurant, enjoying the view of the Federal Parliament building, the cathedral or the beautiful view of the old town from the Catinaccio, and feeling that I'm at home and at ease here.
Which career advice did you once receive, and would you like to pass on?
A great supervisor, from whom I was able to learn a lot, once told me:
"Never come to me with a problem if you don't have at least one solution to it". From that day on I started to think in solutions and not in problems, which has been very helpful during my career so far and has always had a positive effect on my environment and my customers.
Thanks for the interview and your time, Dominik!
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