A different kind of springboard
When Simon was seeking to join Lime, he had relatively recently concluded his Masters in Educational Science and Communication, where he had focused on IT as an educational aid. He had a fixed term employment at a government owned education company when he happened to come across Lime’s ad on a recruitment site.
“The role seemed interesting and I decided to send in an application. Taking part in speed dating in Lund seemed odd and I thought, ‘This is a strange place! Why am I in Sweden?’ Both the process, and getting to know Lime, made me want to work at Lime.”
Simon stepped through the doors of the Copenhagen office in June 2015. As the office had opened only eight months prior and had only three staff members, this catered for a somewhat of a different start.
”Initially I was actually selling Lime Go rather than working as a project manager. The simple fact was that we had no ongoing projects in Denmark when I first started – we were still very new there. About six months later the projects started to roll in and I got a few international customers.”
Internal responsibilities provide new insights to the work in Europe
Simon’s role is different today and a lot has changed over the years. After a year as project manager and a number of smaller international projects, he was assigned the responsibility for a major customer with operations all over Europe.
“I have worked with this customer for three years now, which has involved a lot of travelling. I have listened to the needs of 15 different sales organisations within the one and same company and I have implemented, configured and developed their CRM solution. They all speak different languages. My role has been quite different from what a project manager role normally involves at Lime.”
Since 2018, Simon’s role also involves internal project management and responsibility for the ongoing development of the consultants’ “start system”, which is used as a foundation for all customer deliveries.
“It’s been extremely educational and the assignment has made me a better project manager. Delving deep into our own organisation has helped me understand the customers’ business strategies and I gain insights into parts of organisations that I normally don’t get involved with as a project manager.”
“An IT background is not a must”
Although Simon enjoys the international flavour of his customer projects and being involved in internal projects, his workmates are still the most important element.
“It’s simply amazing to be working with everyone at Lime. The best thing is actually not my role in itself, but the thrill of being a piece of this company; to see us growing, how we approach challenges and are able to find new solutions as a team.”
Simon is particularly fond of the mix of people and points out that it’s not a must to have an IT background to work at an IT company.
“I don’t have an IT education, which gives me a totally different perspective. You view things differently when your background is dissimilar from everyone else’s. I believe Lime is able to realise the benefits thereof, but we can improve and become better at communicating that one doesn’t have to be an IT expert to work here. You learn as you go.”