Fireside Chats at KI labs; ep.16
“A true Bavarian! Talk about growing up in this area.”
I grew up southwest of Munich at Wörthsee, one of the five lakes there. I would say I had a great childhood. I had an early attachment to computers and I was fascinated by games and how the computer worked. During school, I spent a lot of time playing CounterStrike but I enjoyed so many different games throughout childhood and into adulthood.
I moved to Munich for school, studying Physics for three semesters before starting computer science as a side subject. I decided I liked Computer Science much more than Physics. So I started over, majoring in Computer Science focused on Media. I really enjoyed my new major and ended up finishing second in my class (the first was a good friend of mine. I actually tried to convince him to work at KI a while ago.)
I started my Software Engineering masters in Munich but moved to Augsburg. The program was a joint program in both cities, involving 3 different universities. For my thesis, I moved to Calgary, Canada. I wanted to go to an English-speaking country and my favorite professor had a connection in Los Angeles, California and a connection in Calgary. The opportunity in Los Angeles was Army related and this was not something I wanted to work on.
My thesis was on the Optimization of Energy Consumption in Water Distribution Networks — trying to have several agents in this water network to check the current state and send that state to an optimizer. This would optimize a solution for the current situation and send corresponding control commands to the agents. For optimization I used a particle swarm optimizer. It worked out quite well and a paper was published.
Soon after my thesis, for a number of reasons (including a baby), I decided to end my education and start looking for work.
“Did you know you wanted to work in Munich?”
Yes, I really like it here. I have many friends here and most of them also came back from other places of study. I think most people are attracted by the larger cities. Munich is very close to the mountains which is important to me with nearby outdoor activities: skiing, mountain biking, bouldering, etc. It’s quite a green city, as well with the Isar. I live a bit outside the city so it’s cheaper than the city center which is nice because I am very close to a lake and the outdoor sports are very available. I can sail or windsurf quite easily on my days off.
“What did you do after university?”
I went to a camera company here in Munich and worked there for 5 years. I liked the setting — people working in the movie business — and I liked the projects I was on. I worked there on different cloud projects. Nearly all of my employees were German, which makes KI labs a quite different environment. When I first joined [KI], it scared me a bit. I thought, “why would no German join this company?” But soon after, KI hired a few more.
I decided to leave the camera company because I was mostly working alone, without much of a team. I felt I was stuck without an opportunity for advancement. I looked for many different companies that would be okay with my current working schedule, just 4 days per week. KI labs was one of the few companies that allowed me the flexibility.
It’s worked well so far, with just a few weeks demanding the full 5 days (project deliveries and so on). I would definitely recommend more people try out this working style, but I think it’s not seen so positively.
“What are the benefits of a 4-day week?”
One, I have much more time to spend on my hobbies. I do a lot of sports and also spend more time with my family. I can be a better father at home and I also think I’m more motivated at work, in the 4 days I work. For this reason, I think it works out well for the employer, too. Once we had our second kid, and my wife wanted to work as well, we had to find a model that worked.
“Has making 20% less salary been an issue?”
Not really, my wife works as well 60%, so we come out to about a 140% income. In the past, often just the man worked 100%. So we are doing better than that, even with my 4-day week.
“You were promoted to Tech Lead at KI as well, how has that been?”
I didn’t expect this promotion while working a 4-day week so that has been a great challenge. I’ve advanced in my career, learning leadership and people skills and also helping with interviews. I try to make sure my team members are reaching their own goals. This was difficult since the project deadline was tight, but after the deadline, I think it’s been working better. It’s important to give people the freedom to experiment and grow technically.
“Favorite thing about being an engineer?”
You are the one who has the power to create. The developers are the ones who deliver. You are creating something out of nothing.
“Last question; How did you pick up Windsurfing?”
My father had the gear so I started learning as a teenager. South Germany is not especially known for strong winds, but I spent most holidays in my youth going to windy spots. It’s quite difficult, probably more difficult than Kitesurfing because of the balancing aspect: you have to balance with your rig instead of being pulled up by the kite.
Last week’s episode with our working student, Wiktor.
If you’re interested in hearing more about KI labs, check out our website at ki-labs.com.
