Our remote team: Welcoming product designer Bjarte!

Our team continues to grow here at Whereby, and we’re excited to welcome another Norwegian to the team! Bjarte specializes in design, and will be joining us to help make Whereby beautiful and easy to use.

I had a chat with Bjarte (over Whereby of course) to learn more about him and why he wanted to join the Whereby team.

Tell us about yourself!

I was born and raised in the fjords and mountains of Sunnmøre, not too far from the western-most part of Norway. At the moment I live in Oslo, which also happens to be the home of Whereby, with my tiny family of three (me included). My journey from Sunnmøre to Oslo took me via Bodø, Trondheim and Milano, and who knows where we’ll go next. “Bjarte the Designer” showed up sometime around 2008, before that I was almost on my way to becoming a flight mechanic, an engineer or a teacher. However I’ve never looked back after falling in love with design as a profession.

Why did you want to join Whereby?

Why not? I’ve been working as a consultant in a design agency for some time, and before that I was working with the Norwegian National Broadcaster doing digital storytelling. While these shorter projects are fun, I’ve had a growing urge to be a part of a more long term project, something I can help iterate on and continuously improve. I wanted to go somewhere that embraces creativity and innovation, while still serving a greater purpose. For me Whereby ticks all those boxes.

At Whereby I believe we can make remote work even more accessible, and by doing that we can help more people live and work the way they want to. Beyond that, hopefully we can reduce the need for flying to some meetings. Of course I acknowledge that some meetings need to be held with the same people in the same physical room. I don’t want to kill physical human interactions. I just want people to fly less, or just pollute less in general.

Remote work sounds like a passion of yours, why?

Because I love the flexibility it gives me. If I want to fly less I have to find alternative methods of travel and stay for longer periods of time, remote work lets me do that. And I can go on that impromptu mid-day bike ride if I want to.

Recently I’ve also come to the realization that part of me wants to live close to nature and the beautiful scenery I grew up around; and I want my kids to have that same experience. I know that many jobs are becoming more and more centralized around large cities and infrastructure, so I knew this wouldn’t offer me the right lifestyle. Whereby provides me with the opportunity to live the life I want for me and my family, and be a part of an amazing team in my line of work.

Fun fact?

I can fall a sleep anywhere. If I go on road-trip I have to be the driver, if not I’ve zoned out within 10 minutes. Just give me a task and I’ll stay awake, if not: good night!