Think bigger than you can imagine, keep your eyes open and stand up against all odds. Then the opportunities will come!
My name is Adela Mehic-Dzanic, I am a fresh new mom of a beautiful daughter Esma – she is turning 5 months next week. I am living and working in beautiful Vienna, Austria together with my husband Zlatko. Happy 3 families.
My husband and I came to Austria exact 8 years ago and started from 0. Both of us. We didn’t have a job, we didn’t speak the local language – German (we spoke English and our mother tongue is Bosnian). Both of us have studied at the technical university. I hold a master’s degree in telecommunications and my husband is the civil engineering.
Now, 8 years later we are both accomplished in our respective fields and by the end of the last year (Dec 2020) I launched the YouTube channel and decided to invite more people like ourselves who have a great story to share about their career and their beginnings here in Austria. They can share about their business, their career, challenges and obstacles they met during that journey as well how did they overcome it and what would their advice to the people considering to move to Austria. Is it the German language or the community / network or having the courage to start over again and sometimes start from the scratch. We talk this through and much more.
Currently I have recorded 57 episodes, from more than 25 countries on my YouTube channel and my goal for this year is to have 100 episodes and people from 50 countries.
This is slowly turning into a platform / a community of likeminded people – from the business professionals, founders, managers, community owners, artists, writers and much more and all of them share a fire for making an impact, serving their communities and paying it forward. This is a unique community, I would dare to say one of the most diverse and inclusive communities here in Austria where over 75% of members are women. And it is not exclusively for women, it is for everyone who is making a difference out there and this platform – Making it in Austria is about shining the light to this person’s activities and bringing it forward for more people to see, connect with them, learn from them. They are the role models of integration and many of them have started here in Austria from the scratch.
So, why not allow others to learn from the ones who did it on their own?
So in the essence, we have the YouTube Channel, the LinkedIn group, and recently I introduced the monthly get2gether – as an opportunity to network in a casual setting over a food and drinks as well to connect and create more business opportunities.
I am looking forward to launching the podcast out of this as many people have asked for it – so they could listen to it while jogging or on their way to work. Hope to make this happen beginning of 2022.
Apart from it, I am actively looking for the media and PR coverage of the Making it in Austria, like I am doing right now as well looking for the other communities where I could share my insights on making it in Austria as well invite other members to share their stories and be the role models, especially for the younger generations.
I have lots of planned ahead and the most important goal is to keep everyone connected and created the community out of the individuals who are ready to connect, share, care and on their journey to create more impact.
As we say, if you can make it in Austria, you can make it anyway 😉. Join us on making it happen. Listen to the exciting stories, learn from the experts, connect with them in the LinkedIn group and get your journey to more impact started.
Kindly mention some of the notable recognitions and accreditations received by your organization?
Recently, making it in Austria has been nominated for the Digital Female LEADER Award Audience Award (Category Global Hero) – DFLA, that is organized on a yearly basis by the GDW – Global Digital Women as their journey to diversity from Germany. Around 840 applications from over 40 countries and the Making it in Austria among them, which is a great honor. The winners will be known in the coming months _ fingers crossed.
The pandemic has changed the global economy; consumer behavior had changed significantly. Where do you think the real-estate market is heading post-pandemic?
What are the challenges / obstacles you faced along the way?
Many as many of us have. Moving to a new country is never easy, even is one knows the language, culture and has a job. I didn’t have any of that and one of the most important goal for us was to find a job within the 6 months as we moved to Austria. That is how much savings we had to pay for our living expenses and the German classes. I must admit that along the way I had a tremendous support from the people I met here and some of them I call now friends and family. I am true believer in the life long learning and that we can transform in a good way and live a great life supporting and empowering the others along the way. Those obstacles I faced at the beginning of my career made Making it in Austria possible and I am curios to see what comes next and what learnings I can get and stories I can share.
As a fresh new mom, I am learning as we go and it is certainly a very different life than myself and my husband had before. I am on a maternity leave now and one of the ways I stay connected with the profession is through the making it in Austria community as well the support network I have build along the way. It is very little time left during the day to call a friend, go for a coffee, read a book, go for a course and sometimes just taking a shower or having a cup of coffee is a challenge – and that is why I am acknowledging that my life and my identity is different now and day by day I learn to follow my daughters pace and learn about myself and develop myself as much as I can. And I sure see that we have come far away and there is so much ahead of us. One day at the time.
We live in a world that is dominated by the masculinity. What is your advice to women entrepreneurs across the world?
Indeed, by men as well women being led only by their masculine energy and leaving feminine energy outside of the picture, not showing it as it might have seen as weak. And I myself have been thought the same, who need emotions, work hard – hustle, be like a man, dress black and white suits, go to a golf course and network etc. I see this changing slowly, at least in my circle of women and I am very happy about it. I try to encourage it among the making it in Austria community and lead the way and go with the flow and stop controlling everything and celebrate the culture of the winner takes it all.
I believe in collaborations, I believe that we achieve great things when we cheer one another – men and women and when we surround ourselves with people that will celebrate us and challenge us along the way.
Build a strong network around you, pay forward by mentoring others and trust yourself and your guts.
Adela Mehic-Dzanic is a Forbes featured female tech leader, frequent international speaker, and a Women Tech mentor. Originally from Bosnia, 7 years ago she moved to Austria with her husband and started building her career in Tech from scratch. Without any job, contacts and not knowing German language.
Today, she works at the executive level of the IoT software company MAVOCO AG and serves as the VP of the Female Leaders Network of the WU Executive Academy (Business School of Vienna University of Economics) as well the VP of the Association of Business Women of B&H.
In December 2020 she launched her own YouTube Channel – Making IT IN Austria, where she interviews real people who share a similar story like herself and who have made a successful career in Austria.
She strongly believes in the power of networking and building long-lasting relationships for advancing one’s career and she had been very vocal about it through her extensive LinkedIn network.
Adela’s mission for 2020 was to impact 1000 women and girls in IT and beyond with her career story. This experience allowed her to meet women from all walks of life, who are determined, ambitious, supportive and very often the only woman in the room.
