We are NCC Group: Everything but routine

The work life of a project manager is everything but routine, according to Zinovia Manousaki. Zinovia, or Zina in everyday speech, is one of the everyday heroes, who makes sure that projects run smoothly while keeping all stakeholders happy.

What do you do at NCC Group and where are you located?

I have worked at FortConsult for three years now and I work remotely from Greece, in the beautiful city of Athens!

I am the Project Management Team Lead at FortConsult. If I was to give you a formal job description of my role, I would say that the main objective of my job is to manage resources in order to deliver projects within the time and the budget allocated. I make sure that the end result provides the highest possible value to the clients, in accordance with the set expectations. 

In reality, I consider my job to be much more than that. Being in charge of a project entails a variety of duties that make Project Managers (PMs) responsible for the people involved in the project. Overall, I would define a successful project as one where the sense of achievement is shared among all involved parties, whether it be clients, consultants, salespeople or other PMs.

In a nutshell, I believe PMs are business wizards who sometimes make the impossible possible.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

The life of a Project Manager is everything but routine. Every day is a new journey that brings unexplored and exciting challenges with it. Each project creates a world of its own, populated with people to communicate with, problems to solve, and features that make it unique. Managing and keeping track of multiple tasks and projects requires a never-ending adaption and ability to anticipate possible challenges. This ultimately means that I always have to be on my toes and on the lookout for potential improvements and different ways to keep myself organised. Having everything under control and coordinating between team members are two key factors that will always be part of my typical workday.

What’s the best thing about working in a global company?

Working in a global company gives me the possibility of interacting with people that come from all over the world and get to know more about different working cultures. I believe that this has helped me expand my knowledge base and skills, my point of views and undoubtedly my experience of working in a diversified team.

What was your path to cyber security?

I obtained a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance, and experienced working in the financial sector for a short period of time. This brief experience made me realise that I was seeking more interaction with people in my daily job going forward.

Ultimately landing a position in an IT security company was a result of a combination of two factors for me. Firstly, I have always found the security aspect of Information Technology fascinating. The hacking mentality and the constant requirement to think out of the box are the two distinguishing components that have always sparked an interest. Therefore, the idea of working together with professional security consultants has always been enticing. Secondly, my sister happens to be an ethical hacker and shares the same passion for the industry. She was the one who introduced me to this world

You work remotely, from your home office in Athens. What is the best and most challenging thing about working from home?

My daily tasks are varied and the constant context switching can represent an added difficulty at times, so, having a quiet environment where I can really focus without any external distractions is most likely the best aspect that comes from working remotely. On the other hand, being a project manager requires constant coordination between all of the company’s departments, which would be a bit easier if I was based in an office with my colleagues, as this would speed up the communication and could reduce the going back and forth with emails to fairly short conversations.

And on a more personal note, seeing my colleagues in person is always a delight, and since I don’t get to do that every day, I look forward to that even more when I do visit our office in Copenhagen. Getting to catch up with these people at our office every other month or so helps consolidate that sense of extended family that every company should have.