Leaving the consulting giant for POJI

According to Statistics Sweden, Magnus Gruvholm barely exists.

The latest Labour Market Barometer shows that 80% of the country's employers have a shortage of experienced engineers and that demand for them will increase in the coming years due to retirements, digitalisation and electrification.

Built up the Karlstad office

Yet here sits Magnus with curious eyes explaining why he is leaving the consulting giant Cyient for a role as senior calculator and team leader at little POJI in Karlstad.

"It has been ten exciting years at Cyient, where I got to help build up the Karlstad office from two to 30 people in machine construction, pipe construction and electrical automation. But now I want new challenges and feel ready for a leadership role. So I'm choosing to jump into something new that is a bit different. The toolbox is the same, but in a sector that is new to me."

Sought out learning environments

Magnus has always sought out environments where he has older, more experienced engineers to learn from. After his mechanical engineering degree in Luleå he started at an ABB company in Västerås and calculated on pressure vessels. Then on to ÅF for a year or so, before he started at TAU Beräkning, where he later became a co-owner.

"To develop it's important to end up in a team with people who have professional experience. The person who started Tau was 10 years older than me and a skilled engineer to consult and bounce ideas with. He became a good colleague who also gave me further contacts in the industry."

Developed production robots for ABB

At Tau Magnus worked with several different customers. He calculated on train components for Bombardier and motors for ABB Motors. One of the most enjoyable assignments was getting to develop new production robots for ABB Robotics.

In one of the projects a design firm was brought in to lift the product's design.

"There I learned how important it is to understand the entire chain in a production process, and that the function of the product is ultimately what matters most."

Must question

He believes that his job as a calculation engineer is both to scrutinise and question other engineers' work, but also to discuss problems and how to find solutions to them.

"I SHOULD ask 'why do we do it this way?', or 'how do we go about solving this?'. These are typical engineering questions that can often be answered in a thousand different ways since there are a host of parameters at play when you construct and develop a product. As a junior it takes longer to make the right judgement, but the more experienced you become the more comfortable you are saying that 'yes, this is good enough'."

Everything that can be done by machines should be done by machines

That Magnus would become an engineer was hardly a surprise to anyone in the family. He grew up in Spöland, thirty kilometres west of Umeå. A village with a few thousand inhabitants, split down the middle by the 450-kilometre-long Vindel River. Dad worked his whole life in product development at Komatsu Forest, which makes forestry machines. He thought that "everything that CAN be done by machines SHOULD be done by machines."

When his grandfather's wood-splitting machine was not efficient enough, Magnus and his father built their own automatic sawing machine to split wood more efficiently. And at 15 Magnus built his own moped "to have something to tinker with."

Team sports important

Ball sports have always been important to Magnus.

"When I was growing up I did a lot of sport. There's something special about the competitive element and team sports. Having a sense of belonging and training and competing. And for the past ten years I've been coaching my son's floorball team. It's fun to be involved during the children's upbringing and see them develop in different ways."

Likes to see others grow

In a way Magnus becomes a coach and trainer at POJI too.

"As team leader I want to make sure that employees are inspired and have the right conditions to develop and thrive at work. At the same time it will be fun to get to grips with POJI's more automated methods for load calculations on buildings. I understand they make it possible to carry out certain steps faster."

Welcome to POJI, Magnus!