Frederick, what did you do before craftworks?

I studied at the TU for some years and started in autumn 2017. At first I studied pretty fast, but especially once corona hit, my progress slowed down. Now all that’s left to do is writing my Bachelor’s thesis. But I was already at cw in summer and autumn 2016 for two internships. I was fresh out of high school except for the VWA. Back then cw was pretty different - smaller. Chris joined when I was there in summer and Alex during the fall. I didn’t have so much experience with informatics, I only took one class during school. Programming was my hobby. Still the internship worked out. craftworks is the first company for me.

What’s your position here, and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

My position for now is backend developer. In the first month I worked on an internal project and now on first customer projects. During my bachelor’s I put an emphasis on security and cryptography, so that’s where I might be able to help out.

What energizes you at work?

Hard to say. A few things can energize me. Usually the work is new or exciting enough to be its own reward. But when it does get tedious, the impact the project is having on the world can get me through it.

Which craftworks value is most important to you and why?

Something I liked during my internship as well as now is that you are given enough trust to work on projects independently, but you also know there are people you can ask for help if you do get stuck.

How do you prefer to start your day?

I sleep as long as possible and usually set my alarm to 15 minutes before I have to leave. Then I just jump in the shower, brush my teeth, frantically gather my things and hop on my bicycle. When I workout, I like to do that right in the morning before doing anything else.

How do you keep developing your professional skills?

I didn't have to do that because I’m fresh out of uni. But now I develop skills regarding practical experience f.e. with the projects it's all new to me. So this is the part where I develop my professional skills at the moment. In the long term I’ll definitely be looking for other ways to keep learning and growing.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

I don’t know because I’m pretty open with the things I want to share, and if there’s something most people don’t know about me, it’s because I’d rather keep it private.

If you were the only human left on Earth, what would you do?

Probably die, because I don’t know how to grow food. I’m not sure how long I could survive on beans and rice alone.

Which music is playing on your player right now?

AJJ- folk punk thing. But I listen to a lot of other music as well. I might go from Jazz to grind core to something that’s somehow both at the same time. The most common through line in the music I listen to is a certain dissonance or chaotic element.

Only 4 short questions left:

Tell me one place you always wanted to travel to? I’m not a travel person. I don’t dislike it, but there’s not really a place I dream about going to. I make the place where I am nice, instead of going somewhere nice.

Coffee or tea? Both! At work I make use of the fancy coffee machine, but at home I like to drink tea. Green, white, oolong, pu\er - I’m a teahead.

Mac or Linux or Windows? Linux.

What's your favorite meal? Difficult. I don't really have one but maybe one more people should know about is tavce gravce. It’s baked beans but better and comes from Macedonia. It takes three hours to make, but most of that is just cooking beans or having them in the oven. Definitely worth it.

Thank you, Frederick!

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