Welcome Florin, our member of the month in October!

Introduction round: Who are you and where are you from?
Hello Office Club! My name is Florin, I'm Romanian and I write software (01010101 stuff). I used to live in Karlsruhe for a year. I enjoy watching the sunset, reading sonnets and pizza.

What made you come to Berlin?
I always wanted to live here ever since my first visit, so when the opportunity arose, I just jumped in the car and didn't look back. I guess the interesting development of the IT scene was also an encouraging fact.

What exactly do you do? What's in the pipeline for the near future?
I'm a Ruby on Rails developer with a background in PHP / Symfony. For the past months I've been working on an online couponing app for restaurants and shops, currently running its beta phase in ca. 30 locations around Karlsruhe. I'm responsible for the entire technical side, be it maintaining the server, writing the mobile web-app or developing the Ruby on Rails backend.
I'm also working on some small Ruby side-projects, like this one: nume.ottomotor.ro/en

Since when do you cowork at Office Club?
I joined Office Club around April, mainly because home and work don't mix up very well, but also because of the nice neighbourhood and the chilled atmosphere.

I got to discover Office Club and the world of coworking through a funny experience: last autumn I was doing a round of job interviews. One day I was called for a meeting at Pappelallee 78. I got there in time, but instead of finding the company name on the door, it just said "Office Club" in big yellow letters. I took a peek at the people inside, clicking around on their computers, looking busy, so I said to myself - this must be the fanciest Turkish Internet cafe ever. Nevertheless, the address matched so I went inside and asked the bearded hipster at the counter (hi Ben :) if I had it right. He was really helpful and explained to me what the place was all about, and how any freelancer could get an office in there. Five minutes of "Excuse me, did you have an interview with me today?" later, I realised my interviewer was out of office that morning, having to deal with a broken water pipe. I never got that job, but six months later I was writing my code from a cosy desk at Office Club.

What is the benefit of using a coworking space for you?
In my case, just the sight of other people working gives me extra motivation points. Apart from that, you get to meet cool new people from a lot of different environments.

Which questions / problems / ideas could you help your coworking neighbour with?
I guess anything related to the web or web development. Or Romanian politics, if you dare!

Do you have favourite spots in Berlin? Something to recommend / consider especially for people coming here?
I love Schwarzes Cafe and Kant Cafe, both on Kantstr. If you'd like to get a beautiful view of Berlin, head for the abandoned radar station on Teufelsberg. There are guided tours every Saturday or you could go for the hole in the fence.


Thanks a lot Florin, and all the best!