Welcome to the team Maria

In our usual Newicon style, we caught up with our newest member of the team to find out a little bit about Maria and her background and most importantly what led her to join us on our exciting scale-up journey!

What’s your working background, and how did you come to work for Newicon?

I have been working as a project manager with a variety of digital agencies in and around Bristol for the last six years. I’ve come to really value teams that encourage trust, honesty and individuality, so I was immediately attracted to Newicon from the moment I interviewed for the job. 

Prior to project management I was a freelance dancer in London, mainly focusing on ballet. This was an exciting yet challenging career path, with some incredible highlights such as performing at Sadler's Wells, Edinburgh Fringe and the 2012 Olympics. My time as a professional dancer taught me a lot about resilience, organisation and attention to detail, which has certainly helped me in project management too.

Describe your job to a six-year-old

I ensure people around me do all their tasks on time, and make sure they feel comfortable to come to me if things aren’t going to plan.

What are you looking forward to working on the most?

I have always been drawn to creativity, and I think there is so much creative thinking that goes into digital solutions! I really enjoy working with skilled people of all specialties, seeing their process, and empowering them to collaborate in creating the best possible results in all sorts of projects.

What tech breakthroughs do you think we’ll be seeing in the next ten years?

I think that it would be amazing to see tech assisting those in high-stress and highly demanding professions - for example hospital workers. Nothing will ever replace human skills, but I believe so much can be done to assist with manual tasks and improving people’s safety.

What do you like doing outside of work, any unusual hobbies?

I have a billion hobbies and I love to travel, so you will never find me bored. I have always been someone who gets really into pop culture things, so I really enjoy going to comic cons. This led me to discovering cosplay, which means in the last 10 years I have explored and taught myself everything from sewing and leatherworking to prop making and wig styling.

Favourite film/TV show/podcast?

These change all of the time - currently Everything Everywhere All At Once/Ted Lasso/Dimension 20.

What book should everyone read?

Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb series. It’s about lesbian necromancers in space and I have reread it upwards of 10 times (it keeps getting better).

At Newicon we listen to a lot of music and make far too many playlists. What are your go-to songs and/or artists?

I predominantly listen to pop/rock/musicals, currently my most listened to artists are Billie Eilish and Halsey.

Share a meme that sums up you or your job…

Draw yourself! 

If you'd like to get your next digital project off the ground get in touch today!