Jamie McDonald
Account Executive
Nationality: British, Finnish
Home: Depends on my mood… Helsinki? UK?
Languages: English, French, Swedish, Finnish
Jamie has been working for Euformatics since 2019, now as our Account Executive. We thought it was time to catch up with him, chat about his experiences here and get a bit of a better insight into what makes him tick…
Why did you join Euformatics?
I moved back to Finland after having studied and worked abroad for several years and struggled to find meaningful work for a couple of months. Euformatics gave me the chance to get involved in something that is really breaking ground in a fascinating industry which also has a direct impact on people’s lives. I’m a people person, so any chance to get involved in helping to solve their problems, gives me a direction and energy.
How has Euformatics helped you in your career development?
Being part of a company with a tight-knit start-up feeling has meant that I’ve had the chance to get involved in much more than just what my job title suggests… I’ve developed lots of skills around building sales processes, am responsible for the company’s marketing, and I have also been involved helping to put together a company-wide strategy. It’s certainly been a steep learning curve!
What has been your favorite part of working at Euformatics?
I’ve really enjoyed being able to help steer our marketing focus and bring some new ideas to the table about how we communicate to our current and future customers. It’s often useful to keep complex ideas relatively simple, and it has been a lot of fun distilling the complexity of what we do into something that can be easily read and understood in a LinkedIn post or product flyer.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
Making sure that I’m always as up to speed as possible on the developments in our field. I am not a geneticist, but find the area we work in fascinating, so it’s sometimes a bit difficult for me to get my head around the details of what is happening. Luckily though, I don’t need to know everything for my role, and I have the knowledge of my colleagues to draw on.
What advice would you give to new hires?
Come with an open mind and be ready to learn and be engaged. We don’t really have a hierarchy here so your ideas and opinions are always valid – we want to know what you can contribute and help us take the company forwards!
What do you do outside of work to kick back and relax?
I’m a big music fan, both to listen to and to play. I’ve recently taken up singing lessons which really give me a buzz. Other than that, I follow politics avidly (there’s a reason I studied International Relations) and get out into nature whenever I can. I’ve even been known to go ice swimming in the winter…
Talk to Jamie if you want to know about…
Our products, potential collaboration ideas and marketing – I’m your go-to guy for press releases, case studies and information about what we do and who we are. I also run our social media accounts so if you see a LinkedIn post it’s me who is behind it!