Rocket Web has decided to draw attention to the people behind the scenes, as a business only performs as well as its team. We know we hire the best of the best and want to share some of what makes our employees who they are. That being said, Rocket Web will be doing an employee feature monthly, and to begin we will feature our newest employee, Michael Simmerson.
Michael Simmerson
Michael Simmerson joined Rocket Web in June 2020 as an Account Manager. His primary role is to manage client relationships and align to Rocket Web's products and services to our client's business objectives. Prior to Rocket Web, he spent five years at NetSuite both managing customer relationships and selling end-to-end ERP business solutions, among other services and offerings. Michael is also a licensed North Carolina real estate agent!
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was that “we are the sum of the 5 closest people we keep around us.” We must continue to audit our closest circle, because we become more and more like them. Who do we want to surround ourselves with?
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? To fly, of course.
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? It’s tough for me to repeat any show or movie… but I do love Shark Tank… another lifelong favorite is South Park
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? Computer games, sports, walking dog - the usual
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Agile, Fun, High-quality
Alexandra Dima
Alexandra Dima has been a Project and Traffic Manager for Rocket Web since September 2014 and has been practicing project management for the last 12 years in many industries including, Pharma, Auto, Beauty, News, Food, and Drink, as well as many platforms such as mobile, game, and ecommerce. She works exclusively with the internal teams specifically the development team for staying on track of projects, deadlines, hours, and team workload availability. After many years in the digital space, she prides herself on helping teams achieve their goals and motivated to make sure projects are finished under budget or before deadlines and having a content team.
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from? Well, you can get very good advice from books about management, but one good advise I once received from a former boss was to listen more and try to understand the other person when you are in disagreement.
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? I would like to transport anywhere in seconds. That way I can travel more and for free 🙂
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? I'm currently watching Friends on Netflix for the 7th time
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? I love travel - seeing new places, eating specific food, learning about the cultures. I've been working remote and traveling in Europe for the last 2 years and it has been great. (not traveling now because of covid)
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Grade A Professionals
Bonus: Here's an article featuring Alexandra, how life is working remote and traveling with her husband, who is a photographer: https://www.remoter.co/rolling-remote-with-alexandra-dima/
Margaret Petre
Margaret Petre has been a NetSuite Support and Implementation Lead for Rocket Web since May 2019 and been in the industry since 1997. She helps support research, reporting, and Netsuite client questions. Her experience comes from working with large companies such as Gaylord Hotel, where she helped rollout the entire Oracle e-business suite and trained over 500 employees on procure to pay, Inventory management, account, and projects.
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from? "Margaret, let it go, don't turn it into a crusade" from my Uncle, the Honorable Thomas Aquinas Higgins
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? Healing - to have the ability to help people get pass what pains them; whether it be physical or mental
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? Game of Thrones
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? Gardening, Cooking, Reading, working on the farm (I raise sheep and miniature cows)
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Virtual, Virtual & Virtual
Jakub Kulig
Jakub Kulig has been a UI Developer for Rocket Web since 2013 and in the industry since 2009 where an interest in creating engaging websites for local businesses led to further education in using HTML5, CSS3, modern JavaScript (ES2016). For Rocket Web, he creates user interfaces using modern front-end tech stack, enhances user experience and accessibility, as well as optimizes sites performance. He is behind the scenes and client facing, as his position deals with front-end aspects on projects that need solution proposals for issues that arise for client’s websites. He is Magento Certified, ‘Magento 2 Professional JavaScript Developer’, ‘Magento 2 Professional Front-end Developer’, and ‘Magento Front End Developer.’
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from? Something along the lines of "Aim for the moon, if you miss you might hit a star" - Mom
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? Cliché, but ability to fly would be nice
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? Only the greatest show ever made - The Office, also Arrested Development
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? Currently spending time with my 5-mo daughter, woodworking and 3d printing
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Reliable, Knowledgeable, Effective
Dorin Mirulescu
Dorin Mirulescu has been a Developer for Rocket Web since 2012 and in the industry since 2005, with Magento since 2009.For Rocket Web, he is mainly responsible with Rocket Web Magento extensions, working the helpdesk for Google Shopping Feed extensions and joining technical calls and demos occasionally to help with client projects. His experience stems from his passions for computers and understand the web. His knowledge expanded over the years by working as DevOps for Chef deployment, managing Amazon arrays, and QA automated testing. He also has experience traveling to train developers on Magento at the very beginning.
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from? I remember a lesson learned to ask questions and not assume, but more important what and how to ask. I got this from my former career coach many years ago and came with plenty other lessons for skill development. The coach was also my manager, which seemed temperamental at that time, but I’m still grateful for how much I learned during that time.
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? Never grow old :)
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? Star Trek Enterprise, I‘ll watch Discovery again, and check the animated Lower Decks.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? I’m not a computer games fan as some would expect. I Like nature and sports, so whenever I’m not working, I go outside, find a friend to do some crazy adventure.
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Performant Team that you can Trust.
Yurii Pochtovyk
Yurii Pochtovyk has been a Lead Solution Engineer for Rocket Web since 2013 and in the industry of software development since 2011 with Magento 1 and then 2. Being a Lead Solution Engineer, he is a technical and team lead on projects that come through Rocket Web. He runs backend development, team coordination, estimation, gathering requirements and architecting solution for clients, preparing documentation, and more! His expertise is in Magento back-end development (ERP, CRM systems, payment, and shipping), but also has experience in Magento consulting. His career path started early on as his father was a software engineer, which led Yurii to a Computer Science Education. He has been very successful in all areas, but especially proud of the work on one of our current clients by making sure everything runs smoothly for them day in and day out with initial consulting.
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from? One of the best advises was from Udi Shamay, my boss at that moment. He said that we should never tell Client what they must do, because it’s their business and they understand it better. We can only recommend, sometimes strongly recommend, but never push on specific solutions, especially about the business processes.
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? If I’d ever have an ability to get the superpower it probably would be reading minds.
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? I’m not watching any TV-Shows repeatable, probably supporting by watching games of my favorite soccer team, Real Madrid, may count as TV-Show.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? While not working I‘m playing soccer, strategy games, board games. But now, since kid is small, below one year, I spend more time with the family.
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Big Friendly Family
Dima Kolbin
Dima Kolbin has been a back-end developer for Rocket Web since May 2014. He creates and improves server-side applications/server-side logic and more. He has been a web developer since 2011 and a lover of computer science and logical thinking since childhood. He has experience in not only Magento, but Zend Framework, Yii, Wordpress and many more. As a developer at Rocket Web, he is not only behind the scenes, but also helps clients work through requested features, implementation, and questions/ concerns. His latest accomplishment was a large B2B M1 to M2 Migration project.
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from? Once, my mother said me that I should learn languages and computer science.
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? I'd like to have an ability to cast the dimensional door spell, which could teleport me to any location I wish.
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? I don't have TV at home ~10 years but based on my previous answer my favorite channels on Youtube are the channels about traveling or expats who live in foreign countries.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? Going for a walk or to the forest, watching movies, spending time with my family, playing self-made Monopoly etc.
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Innovating, Professional, Progressive
Gregor Pollak
Gregor Pollak has been a Deputy Director of Guidance for Rocket Web since 2014 and in the industry since 2011 where an interest in programming in the ecommerce world began. For Rocket Web, he is the technical connection of the company. From servers to NetSuite Connector TechLead. His role also includes demo maintenance/demo call presentations. Currently, he also serves as an Account Manager on one of our projects.
Now for some fun:
What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from? Back in "programming" days - Always do "Rubber Duck Debug" before you ask a question. My mentor here at RW said it.
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? Pssst... Already have it, need to keep it a secret!
What’s your favorite TV show—the one you’re always watching on repeat? Well, that depends on many things. The TV show I re-watched the most? StarTrek SG1
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? Spending time with my family
What are 3 words you’d use to describe Rocket Web? Family, Moon, TopGun