Meet Anil, one of our 8 tech team members who are living and working in Sri Lanka. During the second Temper Summit last month, Anil and some of our other Sri Lankan colleagues joined us at our office in the Netherlands. This was the perfect moment to have a chat and get to know what it’s like to work for a Dutch company while living in Sri Lanka.
Anil, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
“My name is Anil, which is a typical Sri Lankan name. Originally I'm from a rural area in Sri Lanka, but I moved to Colombo. My career started in the background of Business Analysis. That was not really what I wanted, but it was a good opportunity to start with. A few years later I moved to software development. Because that was my dream actually.”
How did you end up at Temper?
"I worked for several IT companies before this. I wanted to continue to develop and grow, so I started looking for opportunities at a company where I would have good exposure to high-quality engineering work. Then Temper came across my path through a friend of mine who also worked here. And I got in touch with a recruiter from Gapstars, so now I am working for Temper in Sri Lanka through Gapstars."
What is it like to have most of your team in the Netherlands?
"First of all, I’m so excited to finally meet everyone in person this week. Seeing the people that I have been working with is the most exciting thing. Some people I imagined as very tall or this one is short. Now I see them in real life and it’s totally the other way around for some of them.
I also love the fact that I can work with different people with different areas of expertise. I can ask them anything, and vice versa, they can learn from me. Of course we have contact via Slack and video calls and we share a lot of knowledge with each other. But we also get to know each other on a personal level. During the daily stand-up, we talk about what has happened in our private lives, how the weather is, and other things that have happened in our country, such as politics. We also learn a bit about each other's culture and customs, so even before we came to the Netherlands we could experience the culture and see what it's like here."
You started working at Temper last November. What are you most proud of so far?
"That I work for a company that has such a good product. I really enjoy working here and am happy with where I am in my career. That is also because I am exposed to what I was looking for. And by that I mean the high quality and level at which the product features are delivered. This also allows me to take myself to the next level. In addition, I am proud of where Temper is growing to. I was super excited to hear that we will be expanding abroad. It is truly an honour to be able to say that I am part of this super cool company."
Inspired by Anil's story to also work at Temper? Check out our possibilities here: go.temper.works/werken-bij
