Meet the Debricked crew: Phatchana Srinin

A daring leap 

Phatchana joined us when we were but a baby startup of 15 people. She came in, used her web developer magic and helped us rebrand our website to the beautiful thing you see today. She took a leap of faith and joined us without hesitation. How did she end up taking that leap of faith you might ask? Well, keep reading and you’ll find out! 

First of all, Tell us a bit about yourself and your background 

Phatchana here! I moved from Thailand to Sweden about 18 years ago. After graduating high school, I did not know what to do with my life or what I wanted to be. I didn‘t even know what different career paths there were.  

I stumbled into a program called Information Architect and from what I understood it was a very broad IT education. There, I got to try different things ranging from programming to project management. I thought, why not try it out, but a part of me was kind of scared. Because I’ve always known that the IT world is a male-dominated one. I had no prior knowledge of web development, UX design, or anything this program entails.  

But right off the bat, I fell in love with it. In the last semester of my program, I did two internships at different companies. At these companies, I really got to put my knowledge and skills to the test with real projects from real clients. This was all extremely exciting! 

What is it that you love so much about web development and UX design? 

Ever since learning UX design, I will never be able to look at a website the same way again. When I first got introduced to web development it was a whole new world to me. It was a world that quickly intrigued me. I love having an idea and making it come to life. I love the entire process from idea, sketching, prototyping, and all the way to implementation. It’s really rewarding to create interesting things, and then be able to share those with other people. It’s pretty damn cool if I say so myself.   

It sounds pretty damn cool! After your internships ended, what did you do? 

Before graduating I had a job lined up. But I wanted to practice my interviewing skills since I’d never had a job interview before. I am a shy person, so I wanted to challenge myself and really put myself out there. I applied for an internship at Debricked maybe 4 months earlier. Truth be told I had forgotten about it by the time I was asked to come in for an interview. This felt like a good opportunity to practice my skills since I already had another job lined up! 

There I was at the interview, cool as a cucumber. I met with the CEO and the design lead of Debricked. This was when it was still a startup with no more than maybe 15 people working here. I got the company pitch. The more they talked about Debricked and their role in it, the more I got sucked into It. I started feeling excited for them and their progress. 

I noticed the design lead and the CEO had some really good banter. They seemed to be having lots of fun and they were very high spirited! I remember thinking in the middle of the interview “I want this job, I want to work with these people, I want to work at a startup!” 

Lo and behold, I started working a week after the interview, and I’ve been here ever since! 

What was your experience with open source and cybersecurity before coming to Debricked? 

The first time I remember open source being mentioned before Debricked was the different open source frameworks such as bootstrap, materialize etc. I took a course in Information Security where we got a better understanding of how vulnerabilities and threats affect the digital world. Ever since I started working at Debricked, these topics have become more and more relevant.  

What I’ve learnt after coming here that surprised me was that many use open source without realising it. I have gotten more aware of security risks, especially now that we rely on technology more than ever! 

You are very colourful, tell us a bit about your style! 

I used to only wear basic colours such as black and white (nothing wrong with that), and sometimes yellow but that was rare! 

I was never that expressive with my clothing. But ever since I started at Debricked, I noticed some of my colleagues had unique funky styles and I liked it. Seeing that made me comfortable to experiment a lot more with my own style. I remember in my early stages of experimenting, I got many compliments about my outfits and it really boosted my confidence. Ever since then, I’ve gotten bolder with my clothing and more confident overall. I like that we don’t have any specific dress code. At Debricked, I feel really free to express myself through my style! 

You are someone who truly enjoys our hybrid work culture. Tell us more about that. 

It’s one of the things I love about working at Debricked. The freedom to choose when I want to come into the office and when I want to work from home is great. I’m definitely not a morning person. I prefer to spend my mornings alone, with a cup of coffee in one hand, leg up on the chair and responding to messages. All while still in my pajamas.  

I usually go into the office before lunch or after lunch. It all depends on if I have bomb food leftovers from the night before in my fridge. Besides working at the office, I love hanging out with my coworkers (especially the marketing team, shout out to them, y’all the best). Oh, and I can’t forget to mention all the fun afterworks we have!  

Summer is in full swing, any fun plans? 

This year is the first year I will be taking a long vacation. Since the start of covid-19, just like everybody else, I haven’t been able to go anywhere or visit home (Thailand). This July, I will be taking a week’s vacation in Rhodos Greece. I am super excited about it since it will be my first girls trip. 

I have decided not to take out more vacation days since I actually like working during summer. The office has its own rooftop where we grill, tan and hang out. I also worked during the summer last year. It was nice, everyone was in their summer relaxing mood. 

So, for the last question, how’s it like working at Debricked? 

As someone that loves freedom, I want to choose where and when I work. The main point is that I get that work done. Web development is kind of cool in that way since you can work from literally anywhere. At Debricked that is something that is truly embraced, and it envelops everything we do. 

My main focus is the website. It is a lot of responsibility but even here I get to choose how I go about improving things on the site. It can be anything from A/B testing to creating heat maps. As a company, I feel like we do a lot of trial and error and because of that, we are constantly learning. I took a leap of faith and I have not regretted it. I would recommend anyone that enjoys a hybrid work culture with lots of freedom (and responsibilities) to work here!