Can you begin by telling us a bit about you and what you have done before coming to Login?
My name is Eric Vogel, I am 49 years old and live in a lovely harbor village called Huizen here in the Netherlands. I have been working since 1997 however, my interest in ICT developed long before that when I bought my first computer, the Commodore 64. I cannot tell you how proud I was, those were the days!

When I started my career in ICT in 1997, I did that as a programmer for a multimedia company and have since then been fortunate to gain broad experience. I have worked for different companies in a variety of positions with varied focus areas and have had opportunities to develop and learn many new things within the field over the years.

Currently I am working on a project as a DevOps Engineer for ING which I started on with my former employer where we have arranged for me to continue helping them for a while when switching to Login. In this project we are migrating the Mainframe Banking applications to run on a MS Windows platform. It is an intriguing, high priority project and from what I have been told it is something that has not been achieved by other companies yet and ING hopes to be the first company to succeed.

So, in addition to the project you continue working on with ING, can you tell us what you are going to do in your new position as Senior Consultant at Login?
In my new position here at Login I hope to get the opportunity to work on some prestigious Azure projects. I have started to get my certifications in Azure and want to work towards becoming a Cloud Architect. However, as I am still quite new to the area, I hope that Login will help me develop further and expand my experience working with Azure. In addition to this I also hope to create some infrastructure designs and implement them to be of value for Login as a company as well.

You mentioned before that your interest in ICT arose when you bought your first computer, what is it about the technologies that you work with that interests you the most?
Yes, my interest began when I was a kid and I have always enjoyed playing with the computer, watching SCI-FI series and things like that. I have always been intrigued by the innovation, automation and what can be done to make things more reliable and faster. I would say that the technologies I work with, such as Azure, helps provide most of the things that always fascinated me.

I am mainly focused on Microsoft technologies and tools which probably stems from learning and working with them early on in my career. I have enjoyed and like to work with Microsoft’s different technologies from the very beginning and have since mainly wanted to stick to that. However, I have done some certifications for Citrix etc but always preferred Microsoft and had that as my main focus.

How has your first month been since joining Login?
If I were to describe my first month at Login with one word it would be "perfect"! I have received a very warm welcome even before I had my first official day. I actually got invited to join my colleagues for the BLAST weekend back in September even though I didn’t start until October. It was a great experience, and I had a good time. Having participated in that and thereby already had the opportunity to meet my colleagues made it feel like I already knew them when having my first official day at the office. It feels very good to be able to feel so comfortable at Login in such a short amount of time.

At the same time as I have been getting to know my colleagues and the organisation more, other things have still been very familiar as I have continued to work on the project with ING as I were doing before coming here.

What was it that made your decision to come join us at Login?
It was a combination of things that led to the decision. One factor being that it quickly became clear that Login wanted to help and support me develop further and that I would get opportunities to develop more towards working with Azure. Another factor contributing to the decision was that a former colleague of mine approached me for the position and told me some great stories about Login. His stories were then supported by nice, friendly, and very relaxed conversations which made me feel very comfortable. This combination together with other benefits offered made my decision to join Login easy.

Has your experience of joining us so far lived up to the expectations you had?
Thinking about and looking back at the month I have been here I would definitely say that my experience has lived up to the expectations I had. And I have a feeling that it will continue to do so and am therefore excited to continue my journey!