During the summer 2006, I was contacted by Overlog for a position as contractor in Amadeus. Although Amadeus was unknown to me, I decided to learn more about this company and to go to the interviews. Attracted by the reputation of Amadeus and the sweet climate of the French Riviera, I accepted the offer I got and I now work here. I joined the Schedule department where we develop systems which handle flight schedules. These high-performance systems are interesting as they process huge amount of flight data in a very small response time for both travel agencies and airlines. As a software development engineer, my mission does not only consist of developing new softwares according to the airlines requirements, but also taking part in the analysis phase, architecture software design, giving technical expertise and support. The tasks to perform and the technologies used are various, which makes the job more enjoyable and enriching. I have acquired a strong experience in many fields since I joined my team and I have the opportunity to take up lots of challenges on cutting edge technologies.

You have recently graduated and you are thinking today about your first job experience, just like me two years ago…

The first steps with OVERLOG…
I have been contacted by OVERLOG which proposed to me a job opportunity as a Product Definition engineer, for one of its customers: Amadeus. Amadeus is the first European Global Distribution System in the field of airplane seat reservation for more than 400 airlines, and moreover additional services such as Hotels, Car rentals, or Insurances. After interview sessions with Thierry CHRISTOL (OVERLOG chairman and managing director) and Amadeus managers, I have integrated the AIR Department teams dealing with airlines seat distribution.

What does the job consist of?
There are basically three entities in the department which strongly interact; The marketing teams, the product definition teams, and the development teams. Airlines work with marketing teams on daily basis, in order to express the business needs to enhance the seat distribution capability of the Amadeus system.

Customer needs analysis
Those needs are then transferred and analyzed by the product definition teams, in order to translate them into Functional Products. Then, a functional document is written to constitute the basis of soft development to respond to customer’s requirements.
Software validation and enhancements
Once the product is developed, Product Definition engineers are in charge of its validation (functional validation). Then, when it is placed on the market; Product Definition engineers are the technical experts who may intervene for later product enhancements.

Functional expertise
In parallel, there are several projects for which expertise on the products is needed. Product Definition engineers are involved in projects for feasibility studies, technical decisions and problem resolution.

Interesting aspects of the job
After 1 or 2 months, you have sufficient knowledge to be considered a functional expert. Depending on the products you may be involved in (one to several projects) you will be required to participate in meetings, identify future enhancements to be done, solve problems, and when needed make decisions on specific questions. After two years, what I appreciate the most is the association of the technical aspects of the job and the communication with marketing and development teams. I have also learnt pretty much in terms of project management, communication systems, and of course in terms of product definition which is critical. You have lots of responsibilities as a product definition engineer because a product correctly designed is a product which fully satisfies the customers!

In 2005 I received a double degree in Master of Science from the Politecnico di Torino and from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya(UPC) in Barcelona. After my final thesis in an IBM project I have been working as a Software Developer for "Centro Ricerche Fiat" in Turin when I realized that Fiat can't give me the career and the environment I was looking for. So I put my CV in monster.com and among the many contacts one in particular took my attention, Overlog proposed me a job in Amadeus in Sophia Antipolis. I knew Amadeus in Spain when I was looking for a final thesis project and I know that Amadeus is an international company that works on a very powerful software used all over the world. I was very happy when I was accepted and in a couple of months I moved from Italy to France, new country, new house, new job, new language. The environment I found in Amadeus was wonderful - young and international. With the Overlog Team we had great feelings from the very beginning and my manager helped me, not only with the problems related to the work in Amadeus, but also with the every day life in France.