Gustavo Martínez.
Take initiative. No one is going to micro manage your work. No one is looking over your shoulder to see what you are up to. But people expect results.
Engineer and former graduate - We give consumers the ability to control when to pay for their purchases, how much to pay and which settlement method to use for each payment.
My path.
I’ve been developing since I was a kid growing up in Santiago, Chile. I got my degree already in 2013 and then I went on to teach a course about Information and communication technologies at the university. In 2015, I moved to Germany before ending up in Sweden where I got my master’s degree. Then, I discovered the graduate program at Klarna.
Working at Klarna.
In your role at Klarna, you are responsible for your own learning process. Personally, I learn a lot from tutorials, but of course also from the people working within Klarna. They are super helpful and nice. As an example, I got the chance to learn about the coding language React which I was totally unfamiliar with.
Something I’m unreasonably passionate about.
Back in Chile I loved to ride my bike down the hills. In Santiago and the Andes, hills are everywhere. I love the adrenaline rush from it - but I’ve also had some accidents making me a bit hesitant to ride as fast as before. Today, I’m really passionate about philosophy and politics. It’s safer but equally fun.
Advice for new graduates.
Learn from the program
Make the best of the learning opportunities. You get to see different parts of Klarna and meet with really amazing and experienced people. Graduates have this luxury unlike others!
Take initiative
No one is going to micro manage your work. No one is looking over your shoulder to see what you’re up to. But people expect results. Don’t just wait for orders, get things done proactively.
Ask questions
My recommendation is to ask a lot of questions. It’s worse to stay silent and lose valuable time, instead of having a two minute chat with a colleague. Just go to Slack and start asking questions, reach out for help and investigate the problems you are facing.
3 takes on Klarna.
My favorite Leadership Principle is ...
Let the team shine. Every team in Klarna is like a small startup - we really need to support each other to succeed.
The best task of the day is ...
The standup. It’s nice to start with a check in to see what the team is doing. In other companies you have no idea what your colleagues are up to. But here, you understand what’s going on and if support is needed.
I’d describe my team as ...
A really friendly and supportive group. I enjoy sharing things and feel comfortable around them. So - thank you team!