Our AWS and GCP Cloud Architect Nico is part of the DACH team and is one of the colleagues who are working remotely. Recently he was chosen for hero of the month after our customer gave him great feedback, so we decided to introduce him and his story.

1. Tell us a bit about your background. What have you done before coming to Nordcloud, did you have experience with consultancy? How did you end up at Nordcloud in the first place? 

Before Nordcloud, I worked in a midsize consulting company for about nine years. Mainly it was about the integration of enterprise applications in customer environments. The applications mostly helped with record management and content services. So I helped in the first wave of digitalization – from paper to digital documents. After the years, the problems in the projects were always the same: Lack of modern processes and modern infrastructure. Cloud seemed to be the enabler for both. While looking for a way to work with Cloud fulltime, I found Nordcloud on the AWS Summit Berlin in 2018.

2. How would you describe your daily work (how do your days look like, how often do you travel,..)? What are the challenges in your job in your opinion/experience?

My work differs a lot every day. Sounds challenging, and it is! But in an entirely positive way. I work very closely with my customer to help them on their Cloud Journey. The work can be something technical, a tool choice, or just helping the customer with their internal processes and barriers between departments. How often I travel is up to me and depends on the situation and the topic at the customer. Mostly this means traveling for two days a week. If there is an exciting summit or partner event, it can be more.

3. You are also supporting the recruitment in Germany as a technical interviewer as well as checking the technical solutions before the technical round. What is important from your perspective when it comes to the technical skills?

While checking the technical solution I take care of three aspects: First is how “cloudy” the solution is. Which tools are used, how automated it is, which services are used. Because we are consultants my second part of the review process is the why behind the solution. What are the arguments why the solution is designed like it is. Does it make sense for the given requirements? Last but not least: How good is the solution presented? Is there a powerpoint or other kind of documentation provided.

4. Nordcloud offers a lot of flexibility to its employees in terms of home office/remote work. Besides the colleagues in Munich (where we have an office) a lot of you guys are working also remotely. How (often) do you interact with your colleagues and what are the advantages (or maybe also disadvantages) of working completely remotely?

I’m a complete home worker because I live in the north of Germany. Besides traveling to the customer, of course, and sometimes to the Munich office. If I want to, I can go to a workspace in every bigger city in Germany. 

Nordcloud is perfectly equipped for this kind of work mode. Modern tools like Slack and Google G-Suite help a lot. The company culture is vital here: Everybody is open to inform and communicate.

Advantages and disadvantages really depend from person to person. For me, a home office means creating a perfect work-life balance. But you should be aware that you need to work and therefore motivate yourself. There is nobody else who pushes you out of bed. 🙂

5. Your company is also encouraging the technical employees to develop your expertise further and grow and is providing you the budget to do the certifications. Also, we are very active in the community (sponsoring events, Meet ups,..). Could you please tell us a bit more about that?

Sure, I’m using these possibilities a lot. I was able to achieve several certifications within the last year. Nordcloud helped me here with providing tools for learning and of course, with great colleagues to answer questions. Besides this, I was able to step a bit out of the comfort zone and hold some talks at different Meetups and the AWS Community Day. With this, we can help the Cloud Community and make it easier for new people to jump on the Cloud train.

6. What has been the most challenging/exciting/amazing things so far that has happened to you at Nordcloud?

I think working with a new cloud platform was quite challenging. In the end, the basics are the same, but customers want us also to be aware of the details and possible traps. Exciting is to see how customers transform on their way to be cloud-native. It is challenging for them, but we are here to help. 

7. What do you do when not working/what are your passions? 

In my spare time you can find me on any kind of vehicle with wheels: road bikes, motorbikes and some times cars.