The Job To Want

Finding interest in what you are doing is the utmost level of satisfaction in any form of work. Equally essential, and also difficult, is to find a work that interests you. After having landed in Denmark, I started searching for a part-time job for myself. I needed to cover my living expenses, preferably decently, and try and stand on my own two 'long' legs he he. Though I could not find something immediately, I was hopeful something nice would come up - something, I might eventually develop a mindset for. Some fine day then I came across my boss, Steen.

I read an advertisement on the DTU notice board, which read - 'C Programmer needed for PIC processor'. Hmm, I was skeptic. But having waited for 3 months now, with no responses, from several applications that I put on company websites, and having given one informal interview without any decision so far, I was not willing to accept that I should not go against this skepticism. The fact was - PIC was something I had never heard of in my life. It was only C that invigorated me - and I immediately made a call to Steen asking to arrange a meeting!!

Steen Stapen has been working with IBM Denmark for nearly 25 years now. And inspiringly, he is still going strong. IBM Denmark mainly operates in setting up and maintaining servers for companies in the rolling industries as banking and telecom. With such a busy schedule normally, Steen is an enthusiast - an enthusiast for work and for what he likes to do. It is this project of his, that began as a small activity with a colleague; that has eventually grown to give him a one-man company called Diaprint. The project - embedded solutions for churches - to manage bells, carillons, clocks - on the basis of timings and other configurations (complex, it is)!!

Though he could live a lavish life with the IBM salary on, he prefers to work on this project in his 'extractable' free time. And when his former programmer colleague parted off with him, on mutual grounds, he sought for a programmer for himself, to keep his next project ideas going and the money rolling (they had developed a full running version, which is installed in churches all over in Denmark). The target was to improve the previous version, and have a modern (in terms of utilising the latest processors and resources in market), more featured and efficient version. And this search of his got us in contact!!

Though I thought this might be a tuff call, I was pretty surprised at the outcome of our meeting. We met in the DTU cafetaria, and it was as informal as it could be. He never looked at my CV, never asked me how good my PIC knowledge was (which I told him frankly) or anything. He was right away on with the project description, and what he had in mind to achieve, while sipping a glass of cola. I was ready to take the challenge, and he was ready to give me the opportunity. Under all this, there was this layer of 'trust' which Danes are very fond of - something really admirable from our point of view, having seen how things work in our homeland.

As months have passed by, my knowledge in the field has grown immensely. And with this has come a lot of personal experience as well. Steen holds a small laboratory in the basement of his home. And I go there once a week normally in the evenings, to sip some hot coffee and feed on varieties of cakes - with the part time work. On occasions, I have been invited for lunch by his wife, which contain cuisines from the typical Danish home. We share discussions and exchange information, on sides of the highly technical talk. Ofcourse, not to forget, I get suggestions on getting a Danish babe for myself, and settling down!! All this, and much more, makes it an environment very conducive to work-and-enjoy attitude. And most importantly, I have been able to live upto the expectations and deliver my part effectively.

In general, this is one very significant trait of engineers - applying common knowledge in a variety of dimensions. I would not have believed this, until experiencing it. Its logic at the bottom of everything, and thats what can drive one into any appropriate form of work. Now when I look behind in time, I think it was one very fortunate turn in my life - with the kind of success I have been able to achieve in the work with my boss. Not many might expect to find a nice white collar job in Denmark, owing to various reasons. And me getting one, which is just a learning experience at every stage and enjoyable to the heart, makes me feel lucky all the while.