Over the years I have grown tired of the tightness in how we talk about our jobs, achievements and careers in general at LinkedIn. I poked a bit of fun to it by writing a different type of profile section.
Being a Swede I find it really embarrassing toothing my own horn, so I made up a story about two friends that talks about me instead. And then another story where I was at trial before a judge. And then one where my grand grand grand children talked about me after the AI lords had taken over.
Now that last one, feels a bit dated so I decided to change it to a one where two sport commentator reads out my achievements and jobs.
All of these are handcrafted, non-AI-generated, text. Like we did back in the days.
Some serious reflection
I am amazingly grateful, surprised and happy to be so privileged to actually afford making fun of this part of applying for a job. I don’t deserved that privilege more than anyone else that has worked hard, but am happy that I have it.
But I know, from hard earned, stressful experience that it’s not as easy being funny when your job is on the line. I stuck with my “fun” profile throughout that job seeking time, but I would lie if I said that I didn’t have doubts about it.
The soccer version
Now, with that seriousness out of the way. Here’s my current version
A: And they’re bringing on the old warhorse — Marcus Hammarberg — back anchoring midfield as agile coach.
B: Amazing he’s still on the pitch at all. Most players his age hung up the boots years ago.
A: Amazing he can still contribute, you mean. What a career. Came up through the academy at Stockholm University, cut his teeth on C++ and VB.
B: VB? You mean VB.NET.
A: I do not. This lad predates .NET, my friend. He said it was .NET, C# and ASP.NET MVC that got him back on the score sheet — and open source.
B: That’s when he put away SpecFlow.Assist.Dynamic! Dated now, but 7.3 million downloads. You don’t argue with the numbers.
A: Forget the tally — the bigger moment was discovering agile, on a ScrumMaster course under Ken Schwaber himself.
B: Never looked back.
A: Never. Consulting — Cap Gemini, Avega, Aptitud — coaching, blogging at marcusoft.net since 2006, out on the speaking circuit.
B: And lean. Don’t forget the lean. Pulled into the Kanban community, went deep, ended up writing Kanban In Action.
A: But he never stopped playing — hands still in the dirt. Got transferred to Indonesia, of all places, project-managing a hospital foundation for the Salvation Army. Still packed a developer book in the kit bag.
B: And cranked out three Node courses for Pluralsight while out there! Madness.
A: Comes back, picks up where he left off. Consulting, coaching.
B: Bigger teams, higher-profile fixtures — ICA, Tradera, Spotify — but the same player at heart.
A: Then the transfer that surprised everyone: drafted to SALT to build their bootcamp. Brought 700-plus players up through that academy and into the pro game.
B: Five good seasons. Then injury benched him the best part of a year, and he came back in a new position — data engineer.
A: Never his natural role. But you know him — learned a ton and never stopped running.
B: And lately? Found a proper home ground at Umain and Eidra.
A: That’s his turf. Back to consulting, agile, lean.
B: What about all this AI, though? Surely that’s the end for the agile stuff.
A: Maybe not. He reckons the opposite — the old truths of agile get their revival through AI. Everyone’s optimizing how fast they knock the ball around, nobody’s asking whether it’s worth putting in the net.
B: The local optimum trap.
A: His whole game. He’s promised to write it up.
B: Oh oh. Game’s back on.
Older versions
I have stored the earlier versions but thought I’d publish them here too.
Original from … 2016?
This just feels weird and cocky. Not happy with it.
Hi Marcus - I have a great opening for you!
Oh really? Let me hear about it.
I see on your profile that you are an awesome C# / F# or overall .NET programmer.
Eeeh ... once maybe. I have worked a lot on that platform, especially with open source tools such as Nancy and SpecFlow, but it was several years since I did any .NET work for money
Ok - but you are in luck because I also saw that you have Node Js among your skills and it just happen...
Yes I do - but I don't seek those kinds of assignment. I'm more into helping teams work effectively...
With SAFe Scrum - saw that! A big bank we have relations with is rolling out SAFe and need help!
I don't really believe in SAFe - and most times I've done Scrum it ended up not being Scrum anyway.
So what do you do then?
I'm using the kanban method and principles from lean and agile to help the organizations I'm in to become a little bit better everyday.
Ok - kanban-guy. Would have guess from your numerous presentations and the book.
Well - kanban is just one tool. I try to use whatever work in the current context we are in.
Yes - i saw that you've done work in health care in Indonesia. That is funny because one of our clients ...
That was one thing I did a few years back. I'm not particular into health care - the ways of improvement that I'm using work in any business.
Are you even looking for a new gig.
No I'm not. You didn't ask. People that wants to work with me tend to contact me directly.
So I can't help you?
No. If you can't bring me a cup of coffee - you can't. Thanks
From 2016 to 2020
This was more fun and easy going. Two friends meet for a coffee.
> Oh, that's right - I met Marcus Hammarberg yesterday.
> Ah, cool - he's a fun guy. Haven't met him in 10 years. Still doing C#-developing, is he?
> Oh no - that was a long time ago. Developing-wise he's mostly doing Node and JavaScript now. He even done a few courses on PluralSight about that.
> Really? Well, he's a good teacher so that probably suits him. Huh - who knew... He's a screen caster.
> Well, that's only on the side really. His main thing is coaching teams and organizations.
> Just general non-specific coaching, or? :)
> No - you might know that he's deeply into lean and kanban. Have you read his book?
> Book?! He's written a book?
> Well, he had good help by his co-author Joakim Sundén. But it's an awesome book on Kanban. Kanban in Action - you should read it! http://bit.ly/theKanbanBook
> Yeah - kanban is pretty cool. But last time I talked with Marcus he was into Scrum.
> Well that passed... No just kidding. But after a few years doing Scrum he got interested in kanban and then lean stuff.
> Didn't he do stuff around Specification By Example too?
> He did. And from what I understand he picks up whatever tool that helps organizations move faster. Still learning. And sharing. His blog is still active?
> WHAT?! It's been running close to 10 years, or what?
> Yup - www.marcusoft.net; sharing is learning is the motto. Still going.
> Where is he working now, then?
> He's a consultant with that cool consultancy Aptitud.
> Oh - I've heard about them.
> Yeah, but did you hear that he spent 2 years in Indonesia? Helping hospitals for the Salvation Army?
> WHAT?! I knew he was in the Salvation Army. But hospitals? In Indonesia?!
> Yup - moved there with his family. And writing another book about that experience http://bit.ly/bungsustory
> Ok - that does it. I need to meet him now. Maybe he can come and work for us...
2020 to 2023
This was fun but probably impossible to follow along with, if you hadn’t see the other
Judge: We're gathered here to decide if a Mr Marcus Hammarberg will pass his mid-career assessment. Will the defendant please rise?
Marcus: {A tall man in with dark hair and some grey strains rises}: Present!
J: It says here that you started your career as a programmer, with a Master of Computer Science from Stockholm University. How did that go?
M: Well, it was horrible hard at first but I quickly found my way into consultancy and immediately fell in love with the role. It combines teaching and working hands-on in a nice way for most cases
.J: I see... but what did you *do* there?
M: Well, my first jobs were as a programmer but I quickly grew into team lead roles, probably since I was used from the Salvation Army to take those kinds of responsibilities. This is when I found and fell in love with agile.
J: What do you mean?M: It changed me and I have mostly been working as an agile coach from that point. Applying the agile principles into practice.
J: And where is that?
M: 6 years at Cap Gemini, 7 years for Avega and finally 1+3 years for Aptitud - where I learned a lot in different ways. My contracts have been in insurance, retail & banking companies but also scale-ups, like Spotify and Tradera that are good examples.
J: What did you do there?
M: My agile coaching grew from coaching one individual team up to entire tribes or organizations.
P: {An imposing prosecutor rises}You honor - I present exhibit A, B & C, a blog and two books.
J: What is this, Marcus?
M: That's a blog I've been running at www.marcusoft.net since 2006. 1200 posts & counting. The blog developed me a lot and I got the opportunity to write Kanban In Action (http://bit.ly/theKanbanBook) as a result of my blog and speaking engagements around kanban.
J: Kanban, was that another thing you fell in love with?
M: Yes and I'm happy it did because it got me into Lean and using agile and lean practices outside IT.
P: WHAT?! Outside IT - Your honor?! Objection!
M: Well... the agile principles are just that. Principles that we then apply in a context. For example IT. But I have applied agile in hospital & education environments; at School of applied technology where I took part in creating the world's first 100% mob programming boot camp. I wrote a book about the hospital - The Bungsu Story (http://bit.ly/bungsustorybook)
P: {Throws arms in air} Do you hear?! Hospitals, schools? COME ON?! He is just a programmer, for crying out loud!
J: {In calm voice} I'll allow it. In fact, I like it. Marcus, you have passed your half-career assessment. Follow that path and report back here in 30 or so years.
2023 to 2026
Here’s the one on AI overlords taking over the world. I removed it … if they are watching…
Children, gather round. Let me tell you the story of your great great great grandfather, from the time before our AI Lords ruled the earth and when people wrote their CV introductions by hand.
Marcus was a bit unique in that he actually had academical foundations in Computer Science from Stockholm University, going into the IT profession. This was rare as the first internet-bubble was inflated and bursted.
You ancestor's early career was writing code in languages as C++, Visual Basic, C# and JavaScript. Yes - before the NVidia AI SpinePort was implanted in all of us we wrote text to talk to the computer. This text was known as code.
Pretty soon your forefather learned about agile and that code has little value in itself. It was the need for an end-user that should be sought. Iterating fast, learning and improving became his motto and he started to spread this message where ever he went.
In fact, it became his only profession for more than a decade where we consulted, presented at international conferences across the world and even wrote two books on topics such as Kanban, Agile, Lean and Flow. Still the blog <www.marcusoft.net> is around in the human-archives.
Two of the most formative years for Marcus was spent in Indonesia where he could apply his knowledge in agile and lean to his work for the Salvation Army Health Foundation. One of his books describes this work.
Marcus was ever the teacher and of the lasting impressions he made was writing the original curriculum of School of Applied Technology, helping hundreds of developers to work. Not for our AI Lord, NVidia be Thy name, but for companies run by humans.
He then started to learn about data engineering, the foundation of the AI revolution and continued to spread the agile message as a consultant.
You'd think that this was everything you forbear could manage, but then you miss that he was a very active member of the Salvation Army and played his beloved euphonium in many bands over the years. Even here he loved to teach and had many students on different instruments over the years.
All of this happened in Marcus' life, before he was elected president of the EU, recorded his first solo album on the euphonium or wrote any of the children books.
Wasn't that an interesting man, children. Children? Are you awake? Hello...?