Interview with Øystein Malt
“Thank you for being a reliable coworker. You’re one of the most diligent workers I’ve been around.”
A lot of us at Dataloy can relate to the sentiment as we bid farewell to Øystein Malt, our Front End Lead Architect.
Øystein has been part of the Dataloy family for almost 5 years, starting off as a Masters student and rising to become a Front End Lead Architect.
I caught up with him to hear about his experience in Dataloy.
- How would you summarise your 5 years at Dataloy?
While pursuing my masters, my study buddy who was already working here suggested I should send my application here, which I did and within a month I was on the payrolls.
So, yes the five years have been fantastic from working part-time at 25% to a full-time employee and being promoted to Front End Architect within a year, many wonderful experiences, friends gained and challenges tackled.
- What was your happiest experience at Dataloy?
On the professional side, my happiest experience was to start my career with a company where autonomy, openness and collaboration were not just principles that they spoke of on a webpage or a client pitch, but the culture in Dataloy is built around these principles. I never hesitated to speak or voice my opinions to the management or the leaders, it was in fact heard and considered whether right or wrong. You can equate this flat structure as the relationship between management and employees as good colleagues working in a team rather than boss and employee.
Other than that, ping-pong, go (the Japanese game), conversations from the spiciest chilli to React to politics and latest technology were all welcome and happy distractions.
- What was your favourite thing about working with Dataloy?
Everyone knows that question can only be answered in one way- the colleagues.
The teams are very inclusive and the people are friendly and warm. It is a diverse, multicultural and amicable environment. It is very easy to feel that you belong – belong as part of a team. And this makes it a fun place to work and enjoy. This is very important because if you can’t enjoy working with people you can’t enjoy work.
- Have you had enough growth opportunities while working here?
Definitely, yes! I was able to learn and restore. The ability and opportunity to put learning to practice (what was interesting and smart to try) was definitely motivating.
- What message would you give the person taking your place in Dataloy?
Be bold. Be bold enough to try and get your ideas across. You have to try and design it and be able to argue your case. You have to dare to do that. And, of course, you won’t get it right every time but sometimes you will and that feels very good. And the times you don’t get it right you still would still gain insights and learning after a healthy discussion.
But do this you need to have a culture that promotes openness- openness to ideas and open communication and Dataloy does just that.
Well, thank you Øystein for that quick round-up.