#MeetIronGalaxy – Andrea Conedera

Coordination on a project is key to helping people with different skills work together.  At Iron Galaxy, we identify individuals who can organize a group of people to help them do their best work. For much of our collaborative guidance, we depend on Andrea Conedera.

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Iron Galaxy: Hello there! Who are you and what do you do here at Iron Galaxy?

Andrea Conedera: Hi! I’m Andrea and I’m a Project Coordinator at Iron Galaxy. My job mostly entails assisting with various projects on the services side of IG. I coordinate meetings, make sure we are keeping within our timelines/deadlines, take meeting notes, and help track our project budgets.

IG: Thanks for keeping us responsible and timely. What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?

AC: Time management, without a doubt. Balancing multiple projects at once can be rough when you’re tracking documentation, attending multiple meetings a day, adhering to various deadlines, etc. Thankfully, balancing multiple things at once has been my bread and butter since I was in high school 😊

IG: Your experience makes you just the person for the job. When considering skills you’ve honed since high school, what’s one skill that comes to mind that you learned growing up that you use the most in your career?

AC: Growing up, I was always involved in choir, orchestra, and theater. On top of that, I was enrolled in a lot of AP classes and had an after-school job. I had to learn early on to be organized and manage my time well so I could be involved in so much.

IG: Multi-tasking and staying on top of all your advanced tasks sounds challenging. How is your specific job unique when comparing it to other roles at our company?

AC: The most unique thing about my job is that I work with both the development and services side of IG. My role is a relatively new one and has evolved quite a bit since I first stepped into it. Starting off I was mostly working with IT and our Head of Staff. Now I support multiple disciplines and departments within IG!

IG: Your resourcefulness is felt throughout the company. What would you say is your favorite perk of your job?

AC: Queuing up “The Room Where It Happens” from Hamilton while I answer this question.

I love seeing “behind-the-scenes” of how IG works! I had the opportunity to partner with Senior Leadership even more this last year. I’ve learned a lot about budgeting, how we acquire projects, what goes into keeping up with project needs as things evolve, and what it takes to make IG run as smoothly as possible.

IG: Seeing all the pieces to the puzzle of how IG functions must make your work all the more rewarding. You manage work between team members in Chicago, Orlando, Nashville, and Austin. What are the complexities of coordinating projects between multiple studios?

AC: Honestly the fact that the projects I work on are split between multiple studios doesn’t make the job more complex. Galaxy Services is an amazing team that works very hard and in-sync with one another to ensure that part of the job runs smoothly. Instead, the complexities come from having to coordinate around schedules. When everyone is passionate about what they do and works hard at it, you end up with a lot of busy people who are juggling time just like you are.

IG: What tools do you use for your day-to-day responsibilities?

AC: Mostly Jira, Excel/Smartsheet, and OneNote. Each of them helps me stay organized and be able to answer questions quickly.

IG: How did you arrive at working at a video game development company?

AC: It’s been a pretty weird journey! In college I was a Civil Engineering major, but after doing an internship with an engineering firm, I wasn’t happy with the work I was doing. It was an expectation vs reality sort of thing. One of my good friends from high school was working in the insurance industry and mentioned to me that her company was hiring. I spent roughly 10 years working in auto insurance, becoming a very niche employee working in both the Medicare and Private Client departments (read: very affluent people or celebrities with a firm requirement for privacy). I was working insane hours and was incredibly stressed all the time. Insurance is not for the faint of heart. After realizing the physical and mental toll stress was having on me, I started exploring other options. Eventually, I was volun-told to work on business projects and discovered that I really liked that line of work! I got my Professional Scrum Master certification in May of 2021 and after months of job hunting, I was referred by a friend to IG. The rest, as they say, is history!

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IG: What a journey! We’re glad you landed with us. What’s been your favorite in-studio events to attend and why?

AC: I really love board game nights! It’s great to have an opportunity to meet new people without the awkwardness that can come from making new friends.

IG: What is your hometown?

AC: I’m from Tampa, FL, right around the corner from the University of South Florida.

IG: Aside from playing video games, what is your favorite hobby?

AC: I started singing in a local community choir back in January of last year and immediately fell in love with it. I was in school choir from grades 3 through 12, but had to take a break in college because the life of an engineering major leaves little free time for fun. My sister-in-law had been in the choir for a couple of years now and told me I should join the spring season for their 100-year Disney celebration show. My response was something along the lines of “Say less.” I never realized how much I missed singing and being involved with music until I started back at it. It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, so much so that I’m thinking of joining the orchestra as well 😊

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IG: You know you have our support. Maybe it’s time IG establishes a choir group! What is something you feel everyone must do once in their life?

AC: Perform on stage! It can be terrifying and it takes a lot of practice, but it’s incredibly fun. There is a thrill about performing that you won’t get with anything else.

IG: What’s your favorite travel destination that you’ve visited?

AC: That’s a really tough question! My parents were homebodies, so I didn’t travel much as a kid. As an adult traveling for the first time, you get to experience new places as if you were a kid, except this time around you don’t have to ask for your parents to buy you a souvenir. Almost every place I’ve visited has had something there that made me want to come back. If I had to pick one, I’d probably say the New England area, in particular Boston. I love being surrounded by a city with such a rich history, great food, and a personality all its own. The fact that lobster is so delicious and cheap also helps.

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IG: You’ve painted the adult human experience beautifully. What’s one place that you hope to see one day?

AC: I’ve never been to Europe, but that’s all changing this year! My husband and I have started planning for a European cruise this fall. I’m hoping to get to see the town in northern Italy where my grandparents came from. Supposedly, the barn my grandfather built in 1893 is still standing!

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IG: Wow. What a way to connect with your family history while exploring the world. What was the last concert you saw?

AC: I’m a huge Swiftie and was lucky enough to be able to go twice to The Eras Tour last year. I went to the Tampa show in April and then LA in August of last year. I’m possibly going to go see her again in Paris this year!

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IG: It’s a momentous time to be a Swiftie! What video game have you spent the most time playing?

AC: Probably Dreamlight Valley. I love a good challenging game once in a while, but nothing beats the simple pleasure of just sitting down with a comfort game. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of hours on this game.

IG: What would be your comfort series to binge?

AC: I’ve seen Downton Abbey about 50 times all the way through. I’m a sucker for a good period piece but it took me a while to get on the Downton train. Everyone I knew at the time who watched it told me I had to but it took my husband, who is extremely picky about shows, telling me it was good to get me to watch it. Once I did, I was hooked. It’s now on whenever I have things to do around the house or when I just want to see Dame Maggie Smith deliver some of the best clap backs I’ve ever heard.

IG: What was your favorite movie that bombed?

AC: Call me crazy, but I love Batman and Robin. It is an awful movie, just awful, but it’s so awful, it somehow works. My husband contemplated breaking up when he found out that I actually liked that movie. What’s not to love about a movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers this gem of a line: “Allow me to break the ice: My name is Freeze. Learn it well, for it's the chilling sound of your doom.”

IG: You’re saying it’s awful, but we’re reading is that it’s amazing. What’s the one superpower that you would like to have?
AC: Definitely to be able to speak to and understand animals. I have a feeling I’d regret knowing what my dogs think.

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IG: We know your preferred superpower, now what would you wish for if you had one wish?

AC: Always health and happiness for all my friends and family. It’s been a rough few years for most people I know. I’d love to be able to change that for them somehow 😊

IG: That’s very thoughtful. Given a time machine, which historical period would you choose to experience first-hand?

AC: The early 1900s for sure. Everything was changing at an incredibly fast rate. New technology was becoming more popular, political landscapes were changing, economic classes in society were evolving. It wasn’t always positive, but it was always interesting.

IG: If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would you invite?

AC: Easy choice, Dolly Parton. The woman is a legend and if she is anything like her public persona, she’s smart, funny, and has a very interesting outlook on life.

IG: An iconic choice that’s been on the blog before! One last question. Which historical figure would you want to show the modern world? What do you think they’d say?

AC: Anyone from the women’s suffrage movement. I’d love to see how life for women today compares with their vision for life for future women and women’s rights.

Many exciting adventures await you in the future, Andrea. Thanks for sharing your career and life journey with us all while helping make IG a cohesive unit. We hope you enjoy Europe!

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