Improving Energy Efficiency with Diana Muntea
Using technology to improve house efficiency has been one of real estate software developers’ main activities in recent years. When it comes to saving money or protecting the environment, software plays a key role as it can help managers, executives or residents to collect, analyze and communicate important information about energy and reducing consumption or CO2 emissions. This is where Diana Muntea and her young team come into play.
As part of Yardi Romania’s Programming department, the Pulse Energy team is a valuable component when it comes to developing new projects related to energy efficiency. Since 2011, Diana has learned different frameworks and tools top to bottom, so she has gained more experience with every project she has worked for. Currently, Diana is the team’s Technical Project Leader, so we’ve asked her to tell us more about the challenges she faces every day.
When and why did you decide to apply for a position at Yardi?
I applied for a junior programmer position at Property Shark right after I finished university, eight years ago. A year later, Yardi acquired Property Shark and this is how I started working for them. Since then, I’ve worked on several projects within the company.
What are your daily tasks as a technical project lead?
At this moment, we have a small team in Cluj-Napoca that comprises four people including myself, which recently started working on energy related products. All the people in my team are junior programmers. My main tasks are organizing and optimizing the team’s workload and assisting everybody with any technical or business challenges they encounter during their daily work. In the remaining time, I also do development work for the project.
What do you enjoy most about your job? How’s the atmosphere at work, in general?
The thing I enjoy most about my job is the fact that I can develop professionally by learning new technologies, improving my communication skills and working with talented people. The atmosphere is relaxed and efficient. I may feel this way because I’ve been working here for many years. For me it is an environment where I can do my job without feeling too much pressure.

How has the company contributed to improving your skills, especially since your job mainly involves team work?
I believe working on different projects and teams has helped me learn a lot of new things and I also had the chance to work with some very good developers and managers from whom I had a lot to learn. As a matter of fact, all the projects I have been working on over the years have involved team work.
What kind of difficulties do you usually encounter and how do you deal with them?
Through the nature of my job, I encounter either technical or communication difficulties. When I encounter a technical challenge, I first do research on my own, and if I can’t figure it out I seek help from more experienced colleagues.
Communication challenges are sometimes inevitable when you are part of a team. If that’s the case, I try talking to the other person and most importantly I try putting myself in their place and understand the issue from their point of view. It is important to be open and tolerant and accept other people’s opinions no matter how different they may be from you own.
What would you say to someone who is thinking about applying for a similar position at Yardi?
I would say do it, you have nothing to lose and it is very probable you will love the work environment and the atmosphere in the software development department.