Who doesn’t dream of living in sunny California, close to white sandy beaches and azure seas? For Danish Andreas Lang, the dream has come true. He also works with automation at some of Denmark’s leading pharma and biotech companies.

In September 2019, Andreas Lang moved to the US to settle down with his American wife. He has been with Cirkom for over five years, and for the past six months, he has been working from his home office in Southern California.

“It means a lot to me that I can still be a part of Cirkom because it’s a company I want to continue working for. I believe that my hard work and dedication is the reason why management allows me to work with a nine-hour time difference from the office in Roskilde. I am grateful that this is possible, even though I miss the social community,” says Andreas Lang, Project Engineer at Cirkom.

From student position to SCADA specialist

Andreas Lang is an electronics engineer and wrote his bachelor project at Cirkom. He started in a student job before becoming a full-time employee and then progressing to Lead Engineer in SCADA systems.

“When you work in a niche industry, it requires processes to be handled with precision. Cirkom delivers high quality precisely because of the thorough testing and documentation we perform. It’s not possible to get an education to become good at what we do. It requires knowledge and experience with different industrial processes where you have been used to working with documentation,” says Andreas Lang.

Since moving to the US, Andreas Lang has become a project employee at Cirkom, where he is hired for tasks when the office in Denmark is extra busy.

“I relieve my colleagues in Denmark in their work with e.g. solutions for PLC controls when they need it. I help with data collection, testing and documenting the processes. Successful programming to control certain processes in industry is based on proven and documented work. And we are very good at that at Cirkom,” says Andreas Lang.

Effective communication has equipped Cirkom for the corona crisis

It’s more than the nine-hour time difference Andreas has had to get used to since moving from Denmark. Communication with management and colleagues has required a more consistent and clear handover.

“When I get up, my colleagues in Denmark go home for the day, so the handover has to be very precise and detailed. Usually, you can always spar with a colleague on the other side of the desk. But since I’m on my own, we’ve worked hard to make communication as efficient and understandable as possible, so that the agreed tasks are ready when they wake up in Denmark again,” says Andreas Lang.

The communication between Andreas Lang in the US and the employees in Denmark has equipped Cirkom to be at the forefront of working from home during the corona crisis:

“The work situation has better equipped management to deal with the changing everyday life in Denmark, where employees started working from home overnight. Cirkom was already well prepared, as we had spent six months getting used to communicating with each other online or via Facetime,” says Andreas Lang.

Process knowledge of documentation and testing is essential

Andreas Lang is convinced that today he is working at the company he intends to stay with. He’s excited to work in a niche industry and says that you need a certain amount of process knowledge to work at Cirkom:

“When you work in a niche industry, it requires processes to be handled with precision. Cirkom delivers high quality precisely because of the thorough testing and documentation we perform. It’s not possible to get an education to become good at what we do. It requires knowledge and experience with different industrial processes where you have been used to working with documentation,” says Andreas Lang.

If you would like to hear more about what it’s like to work with automation solutions at Cirkom, please contact CEO Kurt Christensen or Managing Director Martin Madsen.