Faces of Field Nation: Arefin Hossain

“I’ve always been more interested in technology,” says Arefin Hossain, SQA Engineer at Field Nation. “It was always a goal of mine to break into the technical side of things, and Field Nation made that dream possible.”

Arefin is one of the 118 members of the Field Nation team that live and work in Bangladesh. These team members work on everything from support to product to marketing and more.

After initially joining Field Nation as a support coordinator, Arefin pursued his natural interest in the platform’s technology and developed his skillset.

“I’m actually a pretty curious person and I’m always eager to learn new things, so it happened pretty organically.”

Soon, Arefin moved into a quality assurance role, which immediately yielded a set of stimulating new challenges.

“I like being able to improve the quality of the product itself. I find it really exciting. It’s not just about finding bugs––it can also be an improvement in design, or whatever helps the customer navigate the platform more smoothly.”

This open-minded approach to problem solving is a part of what made Arefin a good fit within Field Nation’s culture of skill and career development.

“I would definitely describe the culture as nurturing,” he says. “I can’t tell you how many people have helped me here. When I reached out to colleagues looking to learn more about the tech element of Field Nation, no one told me, ‘Hey, that’s not really a part of your job.’ Instead of that, everyone helped. They appreciated that I was trying to learn something new.”

As for the relationship between the Minneapolis and Dhaka offices, Arefin says that the geographical distance is bridged by a culture of transparency.

“We’re transparent in two senses. We are transparent to our customers, and we’re also transparent internally. Whenever an important decision is reached or a change has been made, management always gives us a proper sense of why.”

This has led to a sense of closeness with Arefin’s US colleagues. He shares an Audible account with one.

“The Minneapolis and Bangladesh offices don’t feel like separate teams,” he says. “Apart from geography, I don’t think there’s any difference to be honest.”

In his spare time, Arefin enjoys console gaming (Horizon Zero is a favorite), playing basketball, and traveling.

“I want to visit Egypt and see the Pyramids of the Giza. That’s definitely on my wish list.”

This adventurous spirit isn’t surprising coming from a motivated, curious person like Arefin. It’s the same type of independent thinking that led him to his new career in tech.