{"id":1303,"date":"2012-04-16T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=1303"},"modified":"2021-02-03T17:11:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T01:11:37","slug":"vesna-uljarevic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/vesna-uljarevic\/","title":{"rendered":"Vesna Uljarevic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yardi's<\/a>Vesna Uljarevic\u2019s outlook on how to best approach life\u2019s difficult moments is simple: You should not get upset about things that you cannot control. But the story behind how the Toronto-based technical account manager for Yardi<\/a> came to have that perspective is a true drama.<\/p>\n

A native of Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina that was under siege for four years during the Bosnian War, Vesna and her husband Velimir moved to Canada as refugees after fleeing their birth country during the war.<\/p>\n

Initially, they did not want to leave. But the danger of living in close proximity to bombs and sniper attacks, and no foreseeable conclusion to the conflict, gave them no choice. Velimir left first, to avoid being conscripted into the fight, and Vesna followed several months later in a harrowing escape on foot, and then hitchhiked her way to Croatia. It has been reported that 11,541 people lost their lives during the siege, which was the longest in the history of modern warfare.<\/p>\n

The Uljarevics lived in Croatia for several years, but jobs were near-impossible to come by. In 1996 the couple applied for a Canadian program that accepted immigrants from war-torn nations as refugees.<\/p>\n

\"Vesna<\/a>\u201cWhen we were accepted it was the best day of my life,\u201d Vesna told us. The program included plane tickets to Toronto (which the refugees must later repay), assistance with housing and food for the first year of residency, and English as a Second Language classes.<\/p>\n

A work-experience program led to her first job in Canada at a corporate office for United Colors of Benetton, the clothing retailer. She then had a data entry job, and decided that she really wanted to learn more about how software worked behind the front-end user interface.<\/p>\n

When she started at Yardi, the learning curve was steep. \u201cI am not really a technical person,\u201d Vesna explained. \u201cI was discouraged at the beginning, and thought \u2018I am never going to get it. \u2018\u201d But she stayed the course and was able to fully understand the Voyager platform and begin supporting residential clients.<\/p>\n

Her favorite part of her job is producing client satisfaction and positive results for their businesses. She also enjoys the residential services team that she works with, describing them as fun but also hard-working. The group fits perfectly with her outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line of my life is that you should not get upset about things that you cannot control. That\u2019s something I tell my clients after their first initial frustration. Let\u2019s fix the problem and if possible let\u2019s laugh while we are fixing the problem and working. If it helped to cry, I would cry 24 hours a day if it was going to resolve my issues. But it doesn\u2019t. You just make yourself more miserable. I\u2019m not saying don\u2019t take the job seriously, but if you can joke and laugh while working and make it pleasant, it does make a whole lot of difference.\u201d<\/p>\n