5 questions for a new employee

1. Hey Ted! Great to have you here. How did you end up with us?

You know, I wanted to become a web developer and skate to work. Really. So I typed "webdev" into Google Maps and searched nearby. 10KB was one of the options. Luckily you had a vacancy open, and then I applied.

2. How did you find applying with us?

An assessment is secretly quite tough. It had been a while since I had done one, so that format took some getting used to. Solving puzzles is fun, but because you want that job so badly, the fun wears off faster than you would hope. In the same period I also applied somewhere else, where they made me plough through five hours of assessments. By comparison, the 10KB process is a lot nicer, to put it mildly.

3. And, how is 10KB treating you so far?

I am enjoying myself. The workplace has an informal atmosphere and the team feels like a nice mix of characters, and I get a lot of freedom. That freedom took some getting used to at first. Having some say in things, I can handle that. But charting for yourself what makes you happy and what you pick up, that is new for me. Third workday: I had hassle at home that morning and was suddenly half an hour late. Awful. For half a second it shot through my mind: what an impression as a new guy, after not even a week. At previous jobs I got grief if I was five minutes late, so the whole ride I was imagining all sorts of things. Would they say something? And: will this now be a strike through my probation? Once inside, nobody, and I mean nobody, said a word about it. When I asked, it turned out it was zero issue what time I arrive at the office, as long as I am on time when there are client meetings. It saves so much worry that I do not have to fuss every morning with side issues like "am I on time", just space to focus on the important things. Or whether my code is any good. And by the way, I find it fantastic that we have a dog in the office!

4. What do you want to learn here?

Ultimately I want to become a really good full-stackGlossary · In brieffull-stackFull-stack describes software development that covers both the frontend and backend of an application. It can refer to a developer, team or technical tool.Read more developer, someone who knows how to get things done. PHP is familiar to me and I know it well, but I itch to take on a stack that asks more of me technically. My eye is on DevOps, where I want to go deeper with Docker and Kubernetes. And if I may daydream about the ideal combination: a frontendGlossary · In brieffrontendThe frontend is the part of a website or application that users see and operate, such as pages, buttons, forms and interactive screens.Read more built with TypeScript and Next.js, complemented with NestJS on the backendGlossary · In briefbackendThe backend is the part of an application that processes data, applies business rules and communicates with other systems on the server. Users usually access it through a frontend or API.Read more side. That just sounds spot on to me.

5. What can we learn from you?

What I am best at is going deep into the tools I work with. Down to the bone. I figure out where the outer limits are and how you then use them smarter than the manual prescribes. Finding the life hacks and benefiting from them. I am very happy to share that knowledge with colleagues. At the same time the human body fascinates me endlessly. The odd thing is that this society has come to find it normal to hang in a comfortable chair for days, then move to a soft sofa, and then sink into a nice bed for a few more hours. Meanwhile more and more research shows mercilessly how bad all that sitting actually is. That gets me thinking. So lately I have been figuring out how to take better care of myself on that front. Concretely it means I walk circles when I need to think, preferably sit on the floor or a low table, and change posture regularly. I would love to bring that to the office, to inspire people with a different perspective on work postures and movement. Now and then getting up out of that chair by force.