Making sure things flow
Well aware that everything has to be dealt with in a certain flow, Robin Victor sometime ago moved back to the town of Trollhättan, just about an hour north of Gothenburg. He originally went to Chalmers in Gothenburg to be a chemical engineer and holds a degree in Innovative and Sustainable chemical engineering. But he soon discovered that he likes physics more than chemistry.
With his family in Trollhättan, Robin are able to sometimes work from a distance (away from Gothenburg) and by that spend a decent amount of time with his two daughters. Thus; able to sustain his whole life – work, family and spare time – in a nice flow. And from time to time have the extra time to go to the gym.
As an application engineer, mass, momentum and energy often make up Robin’s day. And he enjoys it, especially as he gets to make people understand the use and benefits of getting their flow calculations right.
– I worked eight years as a consultant, before joining Volupe. Back then, counting hours of work was important. Today at Volupe I think I have more of a holistic role, and it suits me well.
“Showing the agility and flexibility of our products is quite important”
What’s in a day’s work for you?
– I support the sales team, and also support in the post-sales, whenever our customers need some help. It can be almost anything that has to do with our software. Sometimes it’s just plain support, when something isn’t working for the customer. Other times it’s ‘best practice’ – finding solutions for new situations, or license issues or the like. One important task is to help our salespersons. Often, it’s about me helping possible customers see what the software is capable of doing, like industry-specific solutions or test simulations. We quite often have do find customer specific ways of using the software. That way, we may showcase the agility and flexibility of our products.
Why do you work with this?
– I really think it’s a great fun and rewarding thing to help people. I also do a bit of coaching, and train people that are new to our software. It’s fun to share knowledge and to support a person to find a way of using the software by their own.
– Working here at Volupe differs from what I used to do. It used to be about sales and delivery. It used to be about getting the hours in. Here it´s more about figuring out what our customers want to accomplish and adapt my knowledge to that.
This give a more general insight into what people work with and how they can use our software. It’s really fun to support people in finding new ways of using our product, in part because it’s so versatile.
– I also like that Volupe is a smaller company, with more of a distinct personality to the business. And that we have a lot larger freedom for the individual employee.
So, what’s your driving force?
Basically, getting to help people. To convey knowledge. And to make people satisfied. It’s just such a nice feel in being able to help solve problems.
“To me, training, education and knowledge is what I require to keep my motivation.”
When are you satisfied then?
– Whenever the person I support is satisfied. I also enjoy a lot to be able to learn more, all the time. To me, training, education and knowledge is what I require to keep my motivation, and for that reason I find special pleasure in being able to offer the same to our customers
And here at Volupe, I like that I’m part of a context, build a bank of knowledge – for us and for the customer.
How do you go about your work?
– First, we receive an e-mail. Then we can ask for more details if needed, or more about what the customer is working with. After that, we review the case and look for errors or answer a specific question that the customer has had in connection with their case. Sometimes the customer just wants help with when it does not work at all. Sometimes it concerns the non-physics, sometimes they need help with ‘best practice’, sometimes they just want an explanation of a setting in the program.
– You can often use your experience in these cases, especially as we most of the times know what can be done. When testing, your experience often tells you earlier on what’s worth testing. Important, as we try to spend our time wisely. Making the world simpler for our customers is important.
When meeting people, what’s important to you?
It is a difference between being in private and at work. At work, I feel it is important to know what the purpose of the meeting is. I’d like to be aware of expectations and in what role participants come to a meeting. Socially, I just think it’s great if people like you. I’m socially adept, liking to be part of, share with, have an opinion of and to listen to other’s opinions.
What makes you proud?
In my profession I’m quite proud of working at Volupe, as it was a bit different compared with what I came from. I’m also proud of the training program I developed. It’s rewarding that others like and have use of something you were responsible for.
“I enjoy being here a lot, having a great work culture”
What do you see in the future?
– We are going to increase the Volupe business for sure. We’ll grow, dealing with more customers and contacts. While at the same time, still having a personal touch concerning our tech. We might have a whole pre-sale department, making it possible to show more ways of working with our software. More software, as I think we will significantly increase the number of software in the future. And perhaps we will expand and develop the roles we have in the company.
– I enjoy being here a lot, having a great work culture and being in a cohesive context. I used to be worried about that before joining the team, as the workplace I came from was really good. But I have never regretted coming to Volupe, as I really like the flow we have here.
