Agnė Misiukonytė: Don’t Hold Yourself Back by Thinking That Something’s Impossible

What’s your name and job at Vinted?

I’m Agnė, and I work as an Analytics Engineer in the Transactional Experience domain. Analytics Engineers at Vinted are responsible for taking raw data from different primary sources and translating it into meaningful analytical tables, which can help tackle business questions for anyone interested: data scientists, product owners, leaders, customer support. The Data Science & Analytics department’s vision is to make data obvious throughout Vinted, and I feel my role plays an important part in achieving this.

When and how did you join? Why? (Be honest!)

I joined Vinted four years ago when there were only around two hundred employees here. Before that, I was a financial analyst in a manufacturing company, doing all kinds of reports, analyses, and process improvements. Even though I wasn’t looking for a change, somewhere deep down I wanted to move into the tech industry.

I’ve heard friends talking about Vinted’s culture before. It caught my interest. So one day, when I stumbled upon an ad for a Product Data Scientist role, I decided to apply, wrote a warm motivational letter, put an honest effort into my homework assignment, and, to my surprise, was hired!

How is Vinted’s mission important for you? 

It’s a great feeling to be working with a product that contributes to the growth of sustainability worldwide. It brings a deeper purpose and meaning to everyday tasks.

Tell us about your typical work day? Do you have a morning ritual?

I usually prepare for the workday ahead before it even starts. I wake up, drink a glass of water, do a fifteen minute morning exercise, meditate, prepare a nutritious breakfast and treat myself to a cup of strong black coffee. A successful morning routine sets the mood and productivity level for the whole day.

During working hours, I divide my time between concentrated individual work and collaboration with stakeholders while sorting out data nuances or requirements.

What makes you excited to wake up and go to work each morning?

Firstly, no two of my work tasks are the same — and that keeps me continually stimulated, and always learning something new. For instance, we’re now preparing for the migration from the on-premise data warehouse to BigQuery (Google Cloud) and dbt (Data build tool). I feel a bit nervous about it, but it’s a good feeling because it will be a tremendous opportunity to grow my knowledge. 

Secondly, we use world-class technologies and processes, which put us at the forefront of the world’s data market. In parallel with the cloud migration, we’ll also be building a Data Mesh — the data platform version of microservice architecture. It's one of the hottest data buzzwords right now, and I’m more than excited to be a part of this.

And finally, we truly have a data-driven culture here at Vinted, so the work I’m doing feels necessary and meaningful. 

You’ve been at Vinted for 4 years now. What was your first position?

I started out as a Product Data Scientist in a cross-functional product team in the Trust domain. My responsibility was to answer various business questions using data from our app. Sometimes those questions were very abstract or oriented toward future opportunities. You had to call upon your knowledge, data, and creativity to answer them. 

Product teams act autonomously, so it was great to drive our initiatives and see the impact we make. It’s like a micro-entity inside the company.

Why did you decide to switch career paths? What was the main motivation?

While working in a product team, I felt I enjoyed and brought more value to the technical side, such as writing data jobs, tackling data inconsistencies, and improving datasets. Back then, we didn’t have specialisations. Product Data Scientists were responsible for the whole pipeline: from preparing data in the data warehouse to providing business insights out of analyses. 

With Vinted’s growth, the role inevitably split into three positions: Data Scientist, Decision Scientist, and Analytics Engineer. Then I realised that it was a perfect opportunity for me to switch roles. My lead was super supportive, and here I am.

What was easy and what was hard about it? Tell us about the process.

I wouldn't say anything was particularly hard. I was already doing some analytics engineering in my previous role. The only difference was how I divided my time; I switched from full-time analyses to full-time engineering. It wasn’t a massive change, but significant enough. It also didn't happen overnight. I shifted into it gradually and had to prove my capabilities.

I had (and still have) to deepen my technical knowledge, which was challenging, but also enjoyable. My greatest advantage was my knowledge of how both the data and product teams work. 

I now see my work as a product I supply to the end users. The end user used to be me, so I find it pretty easy to understand data requirements when the demand arises. For example, when we launch a new feature, I can quickly understand what kind of tables will be useful and how to design a new dataset from the raw backend data or tracking events.

What would be your top advice for someone who wants to change careers to something they virtually know nothing about?

The most important one — please don’t hold yourself back by thinking that something's too complicated or impossible.

One interesting fact about you?

It might sound unusual, but I’ve been wearing only black for almost twenty years. It started as a gothic teenage rebellion and developed into my own individual style over the years. 

No, I don't get bored of it, and yes — it gets a bit warm during the summer!

By the way, do you use the Vinted app? If so, what’s your way of using it?

I was using it a long time before joining Vinted as an employee. Usually, I buy black clothes! 

When I see something I like in a clothes shop, I memorise or write it down and wait for the item to appear on the Vinted app. Someone might have bought it and didn’t like it, so I’ll buy it second-hand from them. It's a definite win-win situation.

Aiming high daily is not easy – how do you relax?

Music takes up a lot of my spare time. I listen to a variety of genres, visit concerts weekly, and travel to watch my favourite artists’ shows across Europe. I also attend online music history courses and read biographies and I’ve been going to music quizzes with a group of friends for years. I secretly cherish a dream of creating some music myself. I reckon it would be very structured and mathematical, yet delicately emotional.

Pick one piece of media to recommend. Why do you think it deserves someone’s attention and what role does it play in your life?

The School of Life instantly pops into my head. If you’re either going through a tough period in your life, as we all sometimes do, or you simply want to grow as a better human being — The School of Life books and videos are a great source of wisdom. They cover various themes. From relationships, self-love, and work to philosophy and art. But most importantly, they teach a more empathetic approach towards life, ourselves, and others.