Hi Jose! Tell us a little about yourself and your job!
I was born in Madrid, but I live in Vinaròs and I work at Digitalist Sweden as a Drupal backend developer. In the photo above I am about to show off my extremely limited surfing skills to my Swedish colleague Anders Söderström, visiting our office in Vinaròs.
How did you end up working for a Digitalist Sweden in Spain?
Six years ago, me and my family wanted to move to a country in the North of Europe. After I talked with some friends in a Drupal conference I ended up in Stockholm having an interview with four different Drupal companies. Maybe the fact that I arrived to Stockholm the day before the Digitalist summer party which they invited me too helped, but Digitalist was the company I liked the most. Then, the whole family moved to Stockholm and we stayed there for one year and a half.
After that time, we decided to move back to Spain. Digitalist wanted me to keep on working for them and I wanted to go on with them, so the company opened an entity in Spain so they could go on paying my salary without tax problems.
What is it like working remotely with Swedish colleagues?
It has always been easy to work with my Swedish colleagues. I think that Swedish people are very respectful and nice. Regarding the remote experience, it has always been good. In my team there are other people working remotely, so it has been a must to respect the remote experience. After corona, everything went fully remote, so it has become more natural.
Tell us a little bit about the Spanish office!
When I came back to Spain, I was the only spanish employee. After some months, another Spanish developer came in and then another, and another. Right now we are six people working from Spain and some of us go to work at an office in Vinaròs. For us it’s a normal office, but our Swedish colleagues just love to come to our office by the mediterranian!
What kind of clients and projects do you work with?
Most of the clients are Swedish, and I really like the projects that I’m working with like NGOs and trade unions. For me it’s important that the companies we work with care about the environment and other good causes.
What is most challenging working with Swedish colleagues and clients?
The schedule is a little bit different, in Spain it is not common to have lunch at 12h or dinner at 18h, which is very common in Sweden. We are not forced to follow that schedule of course, but some meetings can be at our lunch time which can be tricky some days. But maybe the most challenging thing is the language. Even though people at the Digitalist always speak English when a non Swedish speaker is present, you have to deal with websites that are in Swedish. In some cases, you have to work with admin UI in Swedish or some documentation written in Swedish. But you are never alone, there is always someone to ask.
Is it true that there are polar bears in the streets in Sweden?
Yes! But you get used to it quickly when you have to share the bus stop with them.
Anything else you would like to add?
Digitalist Sweden is hiring people all over! Check out our job openings here!
