This is the latest instalment in our ‘a day in the life’ series, where you get to see more beyond the Angry Creative brand and get to know our incredible employees.
David Lockie: So Farhan tell us about your background, how did you end up in the tech industry?
I always wanted to be a mechanical engineer actually. It also made my mum really happy and I loved my mum. So it was like a mutual connection between us that she would help me become a mechanical engineer.
DL: What did you want to do with that? What was it about being a mechanical engineer that you loved?
Whenever I saw cars or motorbikes, it always used to fascinate me. It would be so interesting to build cars or motorbikes. I had no idea that it’s not something you actually study in mechanical engineering!
DL: This was back home in Pakistan?
It was in Pakistan. I was in Pakistan. Just before my bachelor’s degree. Unfortunately, there is a very high competition to get into mechanical engineering programmes at universities in Pakistan and I didn’t get in. The other choice I had was computer engineering. I used to code a little bit, but it wasn’t my dream, but it was the opportunity I had. That’s how I became a programmer.
DL: Do you think you’ll ever go back to mechanical engineering, do you have hobbies like building drones? Or do you think when you retire you’ll be tinkering with motorbikes? Do you still have that love for mechanical engineering?
It’s a bit funny, I don’t have the same feeling now. Over the years I’ve tried a lot of things, and the only thing I could see myself doing besides freelancing is event management. When I did my bachelor’s degree, I joined an organisation called ACM (Association for Computing Machinery).
I started as a photographer for them and eventually I started organising events for them. It’s something that I really, really loved. I could see myself as an event manager if I wasn’t a developer or programmer. Being a programmer is something that pays well in Pakistan. And of course, you have to be able to pay the bills. So I couldn’t do it full time. And here I am now, as a programmer!
DL: It sounds like you could be a good candidate to run a local WordPress meetup or maybe volunteer at a big WordCamp. Events are a really important part of the WordPress ecosystem.
Before I had been to a WordCamp, I always thought WordPress was really interesting and useful, the community was incredible online. But after maybe five years of working on the project, to actually go to a WordCamp and meet all these other people who had all these different experiences, totally changed my relationship with WordPress. I think community events are very important to a lot of people.
Maybe we can find a way to channel your love for event management and being a web developer!
I think that could be really nice as it’s been a while since I organised a professional or academic event.
DL: So you were freelancing as a web developer before you joined Angry Creative, right?
Yeah, that’s right.
DL: And how long was that for?
I think it was for four or five years.
DL: Okay, and was that primarily with WordPress? Or was it other technologies as well? Or did you find WordPress quite early on and start specialising?
Either it was template development, not in WordPress – just simple HTML development, or it was projects in WordPress, usually those kind of projects are easier to get when you’re a freelancer, and they pay a decent amount.
DL: Okay, so going from working as a freelancer to working at an agency, I usually compare it to going from being a one-man band on the street corner, to instead becoming part of an orchestra. You choose a couple of instruments that you can develop your skills with. That was my experience or the experience I’ve seen other people have. What was that experience like for you, going from freelancing to being part of an agency?
What I missed about freelancing was the contact with my colleagues. Before freelancing, I was employed by another company. That’s something I missed because that way you get to learn things every day. Just by talking to your colleagues, it could be technical, it could be that you learn something life-changing or just something general. That brought me back to the corporate lifestyle. You’re probably right that you were just a solo singer on the street corner and now you get to synchronise what you’re doing with all your workmates and with knowledge sharing it takes you to a whole other level, so that’s something that I missed as a freelancer.
That’s where Angry filled this gap. I used to talk to clients all by myself. I used to do programming all by myself and you still do it the same way here at Angry, but what’s changed is that you get to work with colleagues and share things with each other every day.
DL: That’s nice. Is there anything you miss about being a freelancer or have found challenging compared to working at an agency?
Schedule? I’m terrible at planning my day. As a freelancer, you can work at 3am if you want. That’s still the case with Angry, but with some restrictions that we have to be present during the day for a few hours, so I find it a bit challenging. I’m working on it, but it’s still challenging.
DL: You are a bit of a night person?
Yes, I definitely am.
DL: Yeah, that’s a reasonable challenge to have I guess. But then I guess if you weren’t present during the hours of the day with everyone else then you wouldn’t get the benefit of working with everyone. So yes, difficult to balance.
Yes, yes. It’s like you have to sacrifice something to get something
DL: So I guess that leads us on. Can you tell me about what a day in the life of Farhan looks like?
We’ve already established that I’m not a morning person! I wake up around 8.30am, have a quick shower and go to work. Something missing in that respect is a very nice breakfast.
I think there are two types of people – one believes in breakfast being very important and the other is more of a dinner person. I’m on the breakfast side, but that’s missing in my life because, again, I’m not a morning person so when I wake up I have very little time to get to work!
DL: What is your favourite breakfast? If you could eat anything in the world would it be like a Swedish, a Pakistani or English breakfast?
It would be a Pakistani breakfast. What I would love to do is have a paratha with a fried egg or maybe two. Yeah, and then a really good cup of chai. Oh, yeah. Okay. That would be my perfect breakfast.
DL: Can you make paratha yourself? Or have you found a good place to buy them? Do you have the opportunity to eat this breakfast a lot? Or is it more of a dream?
For like a year or so I ate a lot of paratha. My sister lives like 40 minutes away from me. So she used to make them. She didn’t fry them, she froze them.
DL: So you would visit her and take one with you?
Yes, so I could take one every morning, fry an egg and then make some tea. That was perfect. That was my breakfast before I started working at Angry. But since I started working at Angry, it’s disappeared from my life 🙁
DL: What about at the weekends? Do you like to treat yourself then?
I do actually. Yes, I make either an omelette or a fried egg. And some tea with it. So yes, at the weekend I treat myself.
DL: That’s lovely.
So when I’m homesick or when I feel I need to eat properly. Then I visit my sister and tell her in advance that I’m coming so she can cook something amazing. Oh wow. She is an amazing cook. So that’s my escape from reality.
DL: And what is the best thing she cooks? What’s your favourite? What do you ask her to cook for your birthday or something?
She cooks a lot of things. It’s really nice. If I had to choose, I would choose lamb karhahi.
DL: Sounds good. Now where were we? Oh, so we had breakfast and then we got distracted by food! So you come to work and do your team meetings. What does the rest of your day look like?
The morning is usually just working on errands. I take a break for lunch and I eat my lunch out with a friend or by myself depending on if I see anyone on campus walking by.
I’ve started going to the library in the afternoon, so I can be a little more focused, it’s a little quieter, and I can take the same physical breaks and be around people. Then I just go on with my work until the end of the working day.
DL: When is that?
I’m usually there until six or something because, well, I start my day late so of course I finish late. After work I go for a little walk around the nearby lake. It takes about an hour to walk around the lake which is really amazing, it’s always refreshing to do that.
After coming back, I usually cook, eat, take a little break and watch something.
DL: Okay, and then you’re basically done? Or do you like to work into the night?
It depends on my mood. Sometimes I work a little bit more. It can be literally anything. It could be editing a photo I took a year ago. It could be working on a project with a friend of mine. She’s a DJ and he uses visual art when she plays music. So I talk to her and try to help her in the best way.
DL: Thanks for sharing all that. I have one last question. What would you say to someone who is thinking about working with Angry Creative or working with us?
I’m from Pakistan and this is my first job here in Sweden, so I can only compare how I work back home and how I work here. I think it’s quite normal here. Back home in Pakistan, you are expected to work almost overtime every day, it’s not like that here, which was a bit surprising. You don’t want to contribute to a bad working environment by constantly working overtime. You only have to do what is necessary, which is really nice. And of course you get paid for it. So that was the first thing that was very surprising. The second was that at home, sometimes people pulled their legs out from under each other, which I didn’t see here at all.
DL: How do you mean “pulling the legs out”?
I mean, taking credit for someone else’s work. You know what I mean? And then undermining other people’s confidence which I think is very unnecessary. Even at home, I used to just be quiet and wonder why others liked to undermine each other?
It was very surprising. Here it’s the opposite, actually, everyone supports each other. Everyone tries to motivate each other to do better, to be better at what they do. This culture at Angry was very surprising. For me, you know, it motivates one every day to, to be nice to each other, to be kind to each other, to learn more technical skills and to become a better programmer and a better person in general. It’s really cool.
A third thing I would like to mention from my work team. The culture in our stand up is amazing. If you wake up and you don’t feel like working today, you go into the stand up meeting. Everyone makes a little joke. You know, everyone seems to have a smile on their face, even though they’re going through things in their life. But just seeing that, you know, motivates you and you feel like you’re not alone in this, you’re fixing this and let’s take on the day. We’re all just people trying to do a good job, right?
DL: That’s really lovely to hear man. It sounds like you’re having a positive experience here, that warms the heart!
I definitely have. Yeah, I’m happy to be here. I’m glad I joined Angry Creative.
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