From ski tracks to code stacks: Meet Martin, our new developer

Tell us a bit about your journey so far: where you’re from, what you studied, what led you into tech, and anything else that’s shaped who you are today:

My name is Martin, born in 2000 in Bålsta. Sports shaped much of my youth, leading me to a skiing gymnasium in Mora. Back home one summer, a friend introduced me to programming mobile games and building a website about cross-country skiing gear, inspiring me to build things digitally. 

The last year of high school, I still focused most of my time on skiing, the outdoors, and social life, until a broken collarbone forced me to slow down. Out of boredom, I took an online Python course and quickly got hooked. That summer I realized how rewarding it is coding something useful. 

Since then, I’ve studied computer science for three years and worked two years at Mainter in Umeå. Recently, my girlfriend and I moved back to Stockholm to be closer to family, newborn nieces, and city life. Looking for a place where I could be most useful and help create something needed, North House stood out. After meeting the team I put it on the first place on my job searching list.

‍What made you excited to join North House?

The product development opportunities. During the interview process, I saw that North House is a place where I can apply my experience from my previous employer Mainter while working with a motivated, knowledgeable team eager to improve the service.

What’s a tool or shortcut you use every day that makes your work smoother?

Cmd+click in VS Code.

What’s something non-techy that inspires how you think about building software?

Building a shed with my father was in many ways similar to building a web app: planning, finding frameworks, reading documentation.

What’s your favorite way to unplug after a long day of coding?
Finding a new place in Stockholm to go swimming at.

What kind of work environment brings out your best problem-solving?

Either wired in with Nicki Minaj in my headphones or bouncing ideas with colleagues.

What’s something unexpected that people are always surprised to learn about you?
That I’m from Bålsta, near Stockholm. I somehow ended up with a strange mix of dalmål and umemål. 

‍What’s a project (past or present) that made you feel especially proud?

I wrote a super simple MCP server that simplified working with translations at my previous employer. Creating something with high usefulness per time to implement feels good as a programmer!

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