We meet Ductus IT Consultant Karl Jonsson in the Skellefteå office and find out what assignments he has worked on, his goals, and why he believes every experience can contribute to your personal development.
Tell us a bit about your background.
It’s very varied. I’ve been a server technician, freelance web designer and developer, worked in a high street store and call center, and I headed up regional logistics for a delivery company. And now, here I am at Ductus, a software consultant.
That’s some journey, what was most interesting?
I firmly believe that the jobs you do and the setbacks you overcome enrich you. I was freelancing when the IT bubble burst, so I moved to London and worked in a photo development store in central London. Thanks to my interest in IT, I took on the responsibility to fix any issues with the company’s local photo kiosks. After moving back to Sweden, I worked as IT support in a call center, then worked the night shift delivering newspapers, before being promoted to delivery manager for northern Sweden. I’ve learned so much, met so many interesting people, including my partner, and found my way to a great company in Data Ductus.
How did you end up joining Data Ductus?
A friend of mine introduced me to Ductus a few years back. It sounded like a great place to work for someone like me, who had always been involved with IT, had aspirations to work with it full-time, but hadn’t kept up with the absolute latest trends. At the time, I felt obliged to fulfil my responsibilities at the logistics company and to my staff. However, the stars began to align. I met a Ductus employee who it turned out was a former colleague from when I was an intern. We kept in touch, and eventually, one thing led to another, and here I am.
What type of projects have you worked on at Ductus?
I spent most of my first year helping customer with their Microsoft 365 environment, particularly Teams – and working on an ERP system for a large company. Also, I’m particularly proud of the solution I developed for a production company. They had a robot running on an older version of Microsoft Office – which is essentially obsolete today – on their production line. I set up a virtual development environment to build a solution that would futureproof the robot to operate in modern Windows environments. It’s been working flawlessly since deployment. Essentially, I’ve had a lot of opportunity to learn and develop my skills in projects where I can support customers.
Talking of personal development, what are your goals?
I want to be the Azure guy, or at least one of them. I’m intrigued by cloud engineering and hope to become a cloud solutions architect. I’m currently working towards that starting with Azure certifications. I also want to become a better coder – the two are a good combination. Being able to contribute with Azure expertise will greatly benefit our customers. So, I hope to continue my education and skills development in cloud computing.
OK, work aside, what do you like to do?
I love fly fishing. We have one of the best wild salmon rivers in Europe and possibly the world on our doorstep. That’s where you can find me when I’m not spending time with my partner and young daughter.
If you’re interested in joining us – please have a look at our careers page!