Meet the first crew in Sectra’s new initiative
Follow the Sun!
This time, we are going to visit four Swedes down under! They are part of a new Support initiative named Follow the Sun. It’s a student program within Sectra where First-Line Support Engineers team up and spend half a year in Sweden and half a year in Sydney, Australia. The responsibilities include receiving and registering customer cases, troubleshooting, and resolving technical issues alongside our experienced second- and third-line engineers. They are our first responders, ensuring continuous operations in our cloud-native products.
The first Follow the Sun crew consists of Ellen, Agnes, Ebba, and Alice. Since mid-August, they live and work in Sydney. I hooked them up for a video call to hear all about it!
How did you initially get in touch with Sectra?
"Toward the end of high school, we all applied to the program 'Tekniksprånget' ('technical leap' program) and found Sectra to be the most interesting employer. It's amazing that it's a successful global company that originated from, and still has its HQ (headquarters) in our small town of Linköping, Sweden!"
How did the four of you become the first ones to go on the Follow the Sun initiative?
"Through Tekniksprånget, we were all employed within the First Line at Sectra Support. It was our manager who pitched the idea of the initiative and told us to let him know if we were interested. So, we did, and eventually found out that we would get the chance to go."
Have you been well received?
"Yes! It has been fantastic! Lee, who’s an Operations Manager, welcomed us. He is the funniest guy!" Ellen says, and the others agree. "Our colleagues here had also prepared and organized everything in the house for us, that we are renting from Sectra. They filled the fridge with food and everything! It made us feel very welcome."
So, how do you live over there?
"It's nice here. We live together in a pretty big house. We have our own separate bedrooms, as well as two bathrooms, a laundry room, and a home office. There's even a small pool! It needs some fixing before we can use it, though. But it will be wonderful later when we can use it when the weather gets even warmer than it is now!
Both living and working together work really well. We are good at communicating our priorities and needs, which we think is key. Despite our differences, like Ellen being the ‘extrovert of extroverts’, while Ebba and Agnes highly appreciate their alone time, we all agree that being surrounded by friends constantly is super cozy."
How is the work situation?
"We mostly work from the office. There are always people there, happy to help, although many also work from home. The office is too small now, so not everyone fits. But we will soon move to a bigger one*, which will be exciting. This office is so nice, though, because we get to see the sunrise in the mornings and the sunset in the evenings!"
What are your working hours? It sounds like you are working around the clock?!
"No, we overlap our working hours so that the four of us cover the Support from 6 AM to 6 PM Australian time."
Any challenges or difficulties faced so far?
"Working in different time zones! We have handover meetings twice daily with the First Line team in Sweden and our managers. That works very well, but the everyday aspect of quickly checking with someone when you have a question disappears completely. Now, we need to be careful and write down even the smallest questions that arise, then address them in the meetings."
On a personal level, the social aspect has probably been the biggest challenge. Ellen compares it to when she was an exchange student for a year in Canada; "That time, you got so much for free through school and the host family. Here, you are much more responsible for figuring out what to do. However, two of us have joined a run club here, and Alice has found a handball team to train with. We’re extremely grateful to have each other! Otherwise, it would probably be much more stressful."
Let’s open the box of the creepy crawlies, how’s that been? Seen any snakes and spiders yet?
"We were quite scared about this before we came actually! I almost decided not to go because I’m really afraid of both snakes and spiders!" Ebba says. "But thankfully, we haven’t seen any of those yet." "I did find a cockroach in the shower the other day", Alice says, and the rest of the group squirms. "We thought it was disgusting! But our colleagues here laughed a bit when we told them, and said "Only 1?!", so we’ll see..."
Will you take the opportunity to travel during your time there?
"Yes absolutely!" All of them say in a choir. Ebba has already booked a trip to the Uluru rock, and Alice to Melbourne. They have gotten so many suggestions of places they 'must' visit before they go back home to Sweden. "One of the Customer Success Managers we work with is from New Zealand, and he has even invited us to come visit him there!"
What cultural differences have you noticed, if any?
"Most of the people at the Sydney office are actually not from Australia, so it’s quite multicultural and therefore not that different from home. The major differences are probably that it’s a slightly different organizational structure compared to Sweden, and that they don’t take coffee breaks here! Fika** time in Sweden is almost sacred." They say laughing. They were also surprised that the town is most buzzing during the mornings! Coffee shops etc. open at 6 AM, and therefore close already at around 2 or 3 PM! Very different from home! "And tricky for some of us who like to sleep in, when possible", Ellen says looking over at Alice, and they all burst out laughing, Alice included.
Customer interaction is a matter of the heart at Sectra, have you been able to meet any customers already over there?
"Yes! We got to attend a dinner with one of Sectra’s new customers, Histopath. We wanted to fit in, so we figured we should go with the fish dish since we were close to the sea – it turned out that EVERYONE else chose the steak! So instead of fitting in, we stood out! But that was funny though!
We also did a site visit at Histopath and got to see the whole pathology chain, from tissue to glass slide. That was interesting and the pathologists were all so nice to us. We got to see how they used this super-long microscope where multiple people could look at the same physical glass slide at once, during their MDT (Multi-Disciplinary Team) meetings! They are really excited to go further in digitalizing their pathology workflow. It brings with it many advantages. The distances in Australia are so vast, for example, that sending the glass slides to experts, even within the same country, is rather difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Being able to analyze the samples together in real-time via the "view sharing" feature in Sectra’s digital pathology solution is a game changer."
As the cold winter is approaching here in Sweden, summertime is on its way down under. Of course, I wouldn’t be a true Swede if I didn’t ask you about the weather!
"Right now, it’s like Swedish summer; very warm out in the sun but not so warm otherwise. We experienced our first bushfire already though!"
Do you miss home?
"We’re too busy to miss home," Agnes says with a smile. The others agree. "But sure, we miss our families a bit, and Swedish food sometimes. Falukorv, for example", they say laughing! "Who’d have thought?!" Ebba also mentions that she misses simple little things like Swedish vanilla sugar. "Now every baking session is an experiment with substitute ingredients."
Any final words you want to share before we say 'hejdå'***?
"We truly can't believe we have the chance to do this. It's incredibly exciting! Fantastic! It is such a great opportunity, and we're so thankful for it."
Interviewer: Malin Barwén, Content Manager for My Sectra
*At the time of publishing this article the Sydney office has moved into its new spacious office space. To everyone's delight!
**Fika is to grab a cup of joe (or tea if that’s more your cup of, well… tea), have a sweet nibble, and let the fika vibes wash over you. It's a moment of pure bliss in a busy world. It's a cherished social ritual where friends, colleagues, or family members come together to chat, relax, and connect.
***Hejdå is Swedish for goodbye!
