A Day at the desk with Thomas

Software/Hardware Engineer

Hey Thomas, so what were you doing before you came to work at Frankly?
I was working in a Danish company doing R&D for nano technology and applications of nano technology in the industry. I worked on building instrumentation for producing nano particles, fuel cells and catalysis and software and hardware in these projects for 3 years. It was interesting but much more of a static and formal environment. It’s research, so it’s different than here in many ways. Prior to that I was in university, which is even further away from reality. In the sense that, what you do will probably never be implemented in the world since it’s research, but then again you get to do crazy things.

What is your job title here and what does your position entail?
I work on software and electronics here. I think its fun to do things you can see working now. So for example I’m building a platform for prototyping hardware and software solutions with radio wireless technology.

What do you find to be the biggest difference in your daily experience now and before you worked at Frankly?
People are very different! I worked in a group where we were 20 people with expertise in nano tech and we worked on projects that took 2–4 years so they were very long and ambitious projects. There was a classic company hierarchy there and you couldn’t wear shorts even in the summer. It was more scientific and while working at Frankly is more engineering and hands on! It’s much more informal here and I like that. The culture is more relaxed and the values are different. We have much more freedom for expression and choice to do whatever helps us create the best work with the best tools. There is so much more agility.

What do you find to be an important factor in your work environment?
Having fun! And nice colleagues. It’s nice to be stimulated at work and everyone here is so friendly and it makes it easy to be engaged and enjoy being around each other. It’s more like working with friends so it doesn’t really feel like work.

What’s something you can’t live without on your desk every day that contributes to your work?
My multimeter and my power supply.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I am Danish so I’ve really enjoyed seeing the sites in Sweden. I take my Lonely Planet book and explore southern Sweden. I still enjoy spending a lot of time in Copenhagen, so I also enjoy doing that in my free time. Traveling with my family, spending time with my daughter. I still do a lot of geeky stuff as well that has to do with electronics as well even when I’m not at work.