January 19, 2012
Interactive Solutions brought John Welle on board six months ago
To begin with, I would like to welcome you to Interactive Solutions, says David, Head of Personnel at Interactive Solutions.
What is your background? What have you worked with previously?
I'm a programmer with a background as freelance webdesigner and small business owner.
In 2006, I was approached by a childhood friend who needed someone to help him with starting up a community for poker players, and being both a programmer and an active poker player, I naturally triggered on the idea. We managed to build a strong community, which later enabled us to purchase our own gambling platform a few years later. Before we sold our concept and platform in 2011, I had been working on both backend and frontend programming and design, CRM, customer support, game theory, budgeting, and general business management.
Although this was a very exciting and rewarding period of my life, it was also a very stressful period with the ups and downs caused by the inherit variance of running a gambling platform and working around the clock.
What brought you to Interactive Solutions?
This should be answered in two parts. Being Norwegian, it might seem a bit unusual to seek work in neighboring Sweden (it's usually the other way around due to generally higher level of pay in Norway,) but.. I got caught up in the age old story of boy meets girl, and in this particular tale, the girl happened to be Swedish, and well, here we are! As for why I ended up with IS, that's mainly due to a perception of IS being a work place where my background in the gambling world would be and asset, and where I would be able to work on interesting projects. IS being located in Uppsala where my girlfriend currently studies wasn't disadvantageous either.
What are your expectations of Interactive Solutions?
I expect a dynamic work place with interesting and positive colleagues, where I get to work on stimulating projects. I hope to learn a lot, as well as being a resource for the company and the projects I'm working on.
Now that you have been at Interactive Solutions for 6 months, are things as you expected? Are you satisfied with it all?
It's hard to know what to expect when you start working on a new work place in a new country, so I consciously tried to keep my expectations low. Luckily, language differences between Norwegian and Swedish haven't presented too much difficulties (well, at least for me!), and I'm very content with both my colleagues and the projects I've been working on. Hopefully, the feeling is somewhat mutual...
We are super glad that you applied to Interactive Solutions, concludes a pleased David Jonson.
Presentation av John Welle
The person: Norwegian programmer/designer in Sweden for love.
The ideology: Always look forward. Corollary: Looking forward is easier if you pursue what you love.
The tools: A solid dose of inherit geekiness and curiosity. Also, coffee. LOTS of coffee..
The reason: To learn and to develop.