We take pride in our employees and love to see their growth and development in their roles and beyond. With 20 years behind his career and a veteran at Tern Systems, Ólafur- or Lalli- is no exception. Marketing had the opportunity to interview him the other day and ask him some hard-hitting interview questions.
Please introduce yourself and your role at Tern Systems.
My name is Lalli. I’ve been here for 20 years. I’m a system architect now, started here as a programmer. For a short while I did some project management, but didn’t quite like that, so I became a programmer again. But for the last few years, I’ve been a system architect.
How did you start working at Tern and what has kept you here?
It was a coincidence, I guess, that I started here. A financial manager, for a company I worked for, talked to his brother who worked here and they were looking. So he sent me over. I had an interview and started a few days later. The projects. The industry is exciting. The challenges.
How has Tern evolved since you began?
A lot more discipline. When I started we didn’t comply to - well, actually the regulations we are complying to today didn’t exist. So, yeah. Discipline, that’s the major difference, I think
What’s a day-in-the-life look like at the office?
A normal day for me is being all over the place. I am doing my stuff - doing some modelling on architecture, and answering some questions. Doing debugging, testing. Yeah, most of the time I’m kind of all over
You travel a lot for work. What is that like for you?
Well, travelling is a part of my job and I travel quite frequently. Short trips, long trips, one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. My longest trip was kind of long. 62 days. That’s too long (laughs).
Where was that?
In Thailand. During COVID. Well, it was kind of different. Especially because of the situation in the world. It was kind of strange passing through Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. The airport was empty except for me and Gusti, and a guy from Sweden we met.
What has been your greatest achievement at Tern and alternatively, what is a challenging aspect?
The greatest feeling is getting systems into operation and the feeling of finishing projects. On the other hand, a challenge is when you encounter something unknown and you will have to figure out how to solve it. And all projects have things like that.
What do you enjoy most about working at Tern?
The challenges of the projects and overcoming the unknown things we encounter. I quite like travelling and it’s just so much fun working here.
What is a piece of advice for someone starting in the domain?
Be patient, it takes time to get into the industry. So, hang in there.
What hobbies and interests do you have outside of work?
Outside of work, I like to ride my Harley and play golf. Although, not at the same time.
Rapid fire questions
Favorite city? Kópavogur
Favorite season? Summer
Favorite animal? Cat
Favorite colour? Black
Favourite food? Pizza
What was your last vacation? Spain
What’s your go-to pastime? Riding my Harley
What is a dinner you enjoy cooking? Pizza
What secret talent do you have? I’m a human debugger. I can find bugs without using tools.
We’d like to take this time to express our appreciation for Lalli’s dedication and contributions to the company. Happy 20th anniversary and congratulations!