David Lockie: Hi Mikael, thanks for agreeing to do this interview! So you’re based in Sweden right?
I live in Sweden. Yes, I’m based in Norrköping (Angry Creatives HQ) I usually work in the office but sometimes I’m at home, like today.
DL: And before the coronavirus, did you often go into the office?
Yes, I’ve been working here for about 17 months now. So when I started working, we still had the old office.
DL: I think the old office is before my time here!
I went to the old office a lot when we were still there. And then I was in the new office for a few months before I started working from home.
DL: So tell me your story. How did you come to work at Angry Creative? Did you go to university? When did you start coding? I want to hear your story!
Yes, so I actually have two degrees. The first one is in business administration. So I have a master’s degree in business administration, and I worked in that field for a couple of years. And I was really excited about doing Excel spreadsheets and doing calculations.
DL: So did you get to the level of “I can write macros” for Excel use?
JJ: Yeah, yeah. A little bit, yeah. I thought it was really fun. So people said “maybe you should do programming, maybe that’s your thing.” So I started experimenting with that and discovered WordPress, and did some WordPress sites, started my own business and did some business sites on the side and realised that that was what I really wanted to do. So I started studying again. I ran both school and work in parallel for a couple of years. And then, when I was about to graduate, I really wanted to move back to Norrköping. I think it was because it was where I was born. So I found Angry Creative, I don’t remember exactly how, if it was through social media or if I just found an advert for a job, I’m not sure. But I thought it seemed like a really cool company. So I think I applied for every job opening!
DL: Like a brute force attack!
Yes, I did a brute force attack! And then I contacted Malin a couple of months later, and I asked her about it. She said, “Well, we’re not really sure what you want to do because you applied for all the jobs.” I had a good chat with her and explained why I really wanted to work at Angry and she said, “Well, we have a position that might be for you,” which was the position of a new WordPress developer.
DL: Good. So that was the path you took in the end. So you went back to school to do some formal computer science? Or are you still doing your business and economics school?
No, I went back to computer science, a two-year programme. It involved a lot of JavaScript and front-end stuff. Basically not a lot of WordPress, ironically. But, you know, you still learn a lot about both functional programming and object-oriented programming from that. So the step to WordPress was, since I had already worked with WordPress, not that big.
DL: That’s cool. And do you still do anything with business and finance? Just as an interest or not even that?
I don’t do much of that. It’s kind of hard to do as a hobby. So no, I focus on programming.
DL: Okay. So Angry Creative was your first job besides working for yourself and your own company.
Well in this industry, yes.
DL: Okay, and so, in your day-to-day life, as a web developer at Angry Creative now, do you use those front-end skills? Do you get to use a lot of front-end JavaScript? Or does it become more back-end? Or is it a good mix of both?
I do a little bit of JavaScript, but I really like PHP development the most. So I try to work on that as much as I can. But you know, WordPress is getting more into JavaScript with the new Gutenberg blocks. So I think it’s just a matter of time before it starts taking over more and more.
DL: So you wake up in Norrköping. Tell me about a normal working day.
So a normal day, if I go to the office, I wake up, have a coffee, take my dog for a walk, pack my rucksack and leave my dog with the dog sitter. I have a small dog, a Pomeranian Chihuahua mix!
I arrive at the office usually around eight o’clock and you know, have a chat with my colleagues. Then I sit down and start working. Log time and make some tickets.
DL: What do you do about lunch? Do you bring a lunch or go out in Norrköping? Do you have any nice cafés? Do you go out and walk something?
Norrköping has some really nice cafés and places. But I usually take lunch with me. Most people bring lunch to the office and we all try to eat at the same time. So this is a really nice thing about being in the office that I’ve really come to appreciate now that there’s so much remote working.
DL: Eating lunch on your own can be a bit lonely.
Yes, it can be.
DL: So you’ve finished your lunch. You chewed through a bunch of tickets and finished the day. What do your evenings look like?
Obviously during Corona everything changed. This is the new normal. But what we used to do before was that we often went out for a beer or something after work. Not every day, of course. But we were pretty good at doing those things. Which is a really good thing about working at Angry. There are many people who value social activities after work. Of course, there are those who just want to go home and be with their families, which I totally understand, but it’s really nice for someone like me who doesn’t have any kids yet to be able to have a lot of workmates who want to socialise after work as well.
DL: They’re a nice bunch too. You have some nice people to socialise with over there.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely… I think I’d say that’s one of the best things about working Angry – the really cool mix of people that work here.
DL: Okay, so you might go out for a couple of days and then you’re a “take a ready meal from the freezer and microwave it” kind of guy or do you like to cook?
I have to admit that I’m more or less a microwave snob but yeah, I might end up doing that. I like to cook but I’m not really in the mood to do it all the time. Especially not on my own. So I try to cook a lot. And then I have a lot of ready meals.
DL: Ah okay so you buy ready meals…
No, I cook them myself but I make a lot of food at once when I do that.
DL: Yes, I do the same thing. Batch cooking for the win! And we were talking about the guitars that I can see behind you now. So what kind of music do you play?
At the moment I play a lot of blues. It’s a really good style to play when you’re playing on your own because you can basically just loop a few chords and then solo for 15 minutes which means I’m not as reliant on playing in a group. It’s something I try to do in the evening so yeah, I come home, sit down with my guitars and just try to play a bit. It’s a good way to clear your mind after a day of hard focus.
DL: Yeah, it’s a nice way to unwind, isn’t it? Are you up for some exercise? Do you go out and run? A lot of the people at Angry are very health orientated and they’re always out running or walking or being outside.
Yes, I really like to walk. I like to go to the forest and go for a long walk. So I usually take my dog and walk, maybe drive out to the lake and walk around the lake or something like that. I really like that. And then I go to the gym from time to time, and then I do yoga from time to time.
DL: It’s important if you’re sitting at a desk all day to make sure you keep going and stretch your body and stuff like that. Maybe not because you’re a young whippersnapper, but when you get to my age it’s very important!
Yes, it is. You really have to think about keeping your back elevated and straight. You have to make sure you’re not just sitting hunched over a laptop all day.
DL: One of the things that I found most interesting when I started at Angry Creative was the standardisation of all the tools and processes of being a developer. So did you experience that kind of a pretty big transition when you jumped from being a freelancer to working at the company? Do you have a lot of infrastructure and standardisation? Was that a change or were you quite organised anyway?
When I was working by myself, a very nice part of it is that you can set everything up exactly as you want. And you know all the details of the whole process. When you’re at a really big company like Angry, you have to learn how we do things and a lot of its internal stuff, so you can’t Google it. You just have to learn it by heart basically. So that was actually a big challenge when I started, but now that I know, it’s very helpful to know how everything works. We have our hosting, we have our dev environments. I know how everything is set up, and it’s really set up in a good way.
DL: I think that’s definitely one of the most impressive things about the tech side of the company is how everything fits together to make sure it’s efficient.
Yeah, absolutely.
DL: So for people who are thinking about applying for jobs here or clients who are curious about what it’s like to work with Angry. What would you say? What would you want them to know?
That’s a tough question. I guess for someone in my position, who is relatively new to this industry. I think it’s a really good way to really get to know how the industry works. You do a lot of different things. You’re not just on one project and then you do that particular project for six months. In my time here, which has been a little over a year, I’ve done a lot of different projects, using a lot of different settings, and it’s been a lot of different things. So you really get to see many different aspects of development. In my career, it’s really good to get to try a lot of different things. So that’s a really good thing about working here.
DL: Where would you like this role to take you in the future?
I’m not sure actually, I really want to learn as much as possible, I’ve been here for over a year now, but I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. Every day is a school day. So I really just want to learn as much as possible. There are a lot of really good people at this company that I can learn from. And I guess, you know, I’ll just find what’s my thing eventually, but right now I’m happy to just learn new things.
DL: I think as long as you’re learning, that’s kind of the point! Is there anything you would tell someone who wants to work in the Angry team or with us as a client?
I would say that if anyone is reading this and thinking about applying for a job as a developer – it doesn’t have to be at Angry, it could be anywhere, really – but if you’re thinking about it, maybe you’re not sure if you’re ready for it. I would say – go for it! Because I’ve learnt so much more working here in one year than I learnt in two years at school. So I would definitely say if you’re thinking about it, just go for it.
DL: It sounds like you would also recommend it as a rewarding career?
Oh, yeah, definitely. There are always new things to learn. There’s about 100 different fields within it to try and figure out what you really want to do.
DL: Last question. Is there anything you would recommend to people like a book, audiobook, a TV show, a film or a computer game? What have you thought is really cool lately? Does it matter if it’s personal or professional?
I would really recommend an artist called Gary Clark Jr.
He is going on tour next year. I know he is coming to Sweden. He is like a modern blues rock. Gary is really good, really good!
DL: I’ll listen to him after this.
Hope you like it!
If you’re interested in working with a WooCommerce-focused company that’s always in need of good web developers, find out more and feel free to contact us!