CV for Björn G. D. Persson

Professional driver

Currently, I’m driving tractor and trailer units, or articulated lorries (16.5 meters), but also rigid lorries with and without four-axled trailers (24 meters).

During the autumn/winter 2025/26 I partook in labour market educations that resulted in HGV driving license (category C and C+E), certificate of professional competence (CPC), ADR certificate (dangerous goods), fork lift certificate and tail lift certificate. All tests have been passed on first tries and 25 days of work experience was had at a refuse collection company in their rear loaders.

Computer interests

In 1991 I bought my first computer with MS DOS - a computer I've extended and replaced quite a few times - and I’ve installed all versions of MS Windows since versions 3.1 and NT 3.51. When I had enough hardware I built my own network at home to help me learn more about computers and networking. Two decades later (2011) I bought my first Mac computer, which turned out to have a well-established community for web development tools (now also for PC’s).

Service and technology interests

I like computers (and other electronic things) and solving computer-related problems as it requires me to learn new things all the time. And helping others, seeing them smile when the understand or things work, is gratifying for me.

Hometowns

I now live in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, but I have also lived in the towns of Båstad, Helsingborg, Halmstad, Växjö, Eskilstuna, and Västerås. I bought a house in Eskilstuna in 1998, which I sold in 2006. But for my flat and work, there is nothing tying me to my current location and I'd relish a new location to explore (but I would miss my local friends and colleagues).

Shorter employments, summer jobs and military service

1995	Application developer, Medicinsk Teknik, Eskilstuna (hospital)
1994	Sales, distribution, and support of CD-ROM and multimedia products, Buller Data AB, Båstad
1991-92	Military service at weather service, Ängelholm
1990-93	Grounds keeper, receptionist, and more at KronoCamping Båstad/Torekov (seasonal)
1989-91	Administrator for Fältbiologerna (a youth organisation for field biology), Halmstad

Outplaced worker

In 2026, I started an assignment as lorry and test driver at Scania Transport Laboratory (Scania Transportlaboratorium AB) in Södertälje to drive local deliveries, ad hoc driving witin Sweden (and possibly abroad), and to take part in interviews and tests with engineers and other developers. The assignment has mostly meant driving different variants of tractor and trailers (articulated lorries), but also rigid lorries with and without four-axel trailers.

System developer

While working at Ecolabelling Sweden, I maintained and developed web sites using ASP.NET and SQL Server. The web sites where custom developed systems. I also maintained informational web sites using a custom version of ISpyBuy Portal, DotNetNuke, and EPiServer as CMS, which required some development, both frontend and backend. I also installed and maintained the company's computers as well as acted as local support.

System administrator

As a systems administrator I have installed and maintained computer rooms with operating systems varying between DOS/Windows 3.x to XP using servers running Novell NetWare (3.12 to 6) and Windows NT/2000/2003. Server software I have installed and maintained are Oracle, SQL Server, web servers (IIS and Apache), and application servers (among others Resin for J2EE). As a systems administrator my job was also to maintain and develop the department's web site using HTML, CSS, SSI, PHP, and some older systems in ASP. Data was stored in MySQL and Oracle servers.

Teaching

During my lecturing at university I have taught in programming languages like Visual Basic (6), Visual C++, Smalltalk, Java, and C# using DMBS like Access (Jet), Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL. I have also taught subjects like database theory and design, and object oriented programming (i.e. the theory of OOP and how to implement it in Java). On a course about component-based development I have taught both COM/COM+/.NET and J2EE using both desktop (local) and web-based clients. I have also taught web-based development with ASP and ASP.NET. Most of the education has been done in a Microsoft environment (DOS/Windows).

One of my strengths (and according to students who have told me) is my ability to explain computer-related problems/technologies to less computer literary people. I can 'lower' myself to their level of knowledge or even try to use terms in their area of expertise/knowlegde as metaphors.

Before University

As administrator for the Fieldbiologists (Fältbiologerna) I ran the district office where I answered the phone, arranged courses (booking halls and the like), spoke at schools about the organisation, and more. This was partly voluntary work (i.e. badly paid) and only during school year. The rest of the year I worked for the camping site KronoCamping Båstad/Torekov as a 'handy man', i.e. doing what needed to be done. (DomänTurist has since sold most of it's camping sites and other vacation resorts.)

Military service is (was?) compulsory and I spent 341 days looking at the weather, i.e. reporting it to the air traffic controllers and Swedish weather service (SMHI). During my service I managed to keep on working hours at the camp site.

In a break in University studies I worked for a small company, Buller Data AB, selling CD-ROM and multimedia products (which were news in 1994). Being a small company (at most 4 employees) one took part in most of the running of the business. This included sales as well as distribution (packaging) and customer support for sold products. (The company, and the domain Sverige.net, has since been sold.)

Privately

Privately I have helped a lot of my (non-computer) friends and family install/service computers, connect to Internet, and setup networks. In 2007 I helped to create an administrative interface for an non-profit organisation. I have also helped evaluate, and install, different CMS (Concrete5, Drupal, Joomla, Tikiwiki, Umbraco, Website Baker, and WordPress) for other organisations and persons.

Individual courses

2008-09	Commercial law, computer science, and Information Systems at Mälardalen University, Mid Sweden University, and Umeå University
2000/02	Information Systems at Örebro University

Labour market training

In 2025, I was offered a labour market training to become a lorry driver, which included a category C driving license, CPC certificate, ADR certificate (dangerous goods), forklifts, taillift and roadside work, and in 2026 for category C+E license.

Upper secondary school and bachelor degree

Compulsory school in Sweden is (or was when I went to school) nine years, preparing you for 'optional' (upper) secondary school (three to five years), to be followed by studies at University.

At secondary school I studied engineering, but also included English, German, and other non-engineering subjects. The last year I specialised in structural engineering (house building).

After working a couple of years (see above) I went on to University studying computer science, computer engineering, mathematics, and information systems. After finishing my bachelor thesis in information systems, and started working, I kept on studying to expand my knowledge, mainly in information systems.

Programming languages, database management systems and platforms

During my studies I have come in contact with programming languages like Ada, Pascal, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Prolog, C/C++, Visual Basic (5/6), Java, and assembler (Motorola 68000). Databases (or rather DBMS:s) I have used are Paradox, Access (Jet), Oracle (including PL/SQL) and MySQL. The programming has been done on different platforms (PC, Mac, and UNIX computers) using different operating systems (DOS, Windows, OS/2, MacOS, Linux, and UNIX).

Job and subject specific courses, and MOOCs

My employers have been nice enough to spend money on courses in handling customers and computer technologies, like Novell NetWare. I've also taken part in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) from Coursera, edX and LinkedIn Learning.

Below are programming languages, database systems, content management systems (CMS), and other programming related technologies I master or have a working knowledge of.

Languages/technologies in (round) brackets are ones I have come across during my studies, i.e. mainly have a 'knowledge' about (or feel less inclined to program in or use :-).

Swedish

Swedish is the language I've been brought up with in Sweden and in which all my studyies have been, which includes the subject Swedish all through primary and secondary schooling.

English

My English is not far behind, having been brought up bilingual by British mother and Swedish father, spent most of my childhood summers in Scotland with grandmother, aunt and cousins, and having studied English as a second language up to level B2 at school, as well as receiving highest grade in the subject, so is equal to level C1.

German

Having spent 5 years studying German, but not really having practiced it, my level is A2.

Scandinavian

During almost 17 years I worked within a Nordic organisation, so I've got used to listening to Danish and Norwegian while replying in Swedish or English.

I find problem solving the most interesting. It's a way of learning more and it's gratifying to solve a problem. Helping others is also rewarding for me and I like sharing my knowledge with others. While helping others I will do what needs to be done, regardless if it is part of my work description or not, if there is no one else to do the job better.

During the years I have looked into .NET Framework, J2EE and PHP/MySQL while becoming fascinated by the idea behind frameworks.

During my years I have tried to avoid designing user interfaces (UI) and Perl - two thing I feel other people are more competent at handling (as I believe my website proves :-)).

Having been brought up next to a railway, this has influenced my interest in railways, together with my grandfather working for the railway and growing up around persons with an interest for railways. Trains have also been my preferred mode of transport, both in my daily life and while holidaying. Learning that the train is the more energy efficient way of transport has strengthened my belief in railways.

Projects

I have some private computer-related projects, which I started to develop as part of a course at Örebro University (2000), and to summarize for myself and to help students on courses I taught. These projects are only in Swedish (as it was the preferred language of students I taught).

• My study web - web-based knowledgebase for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP, PHP, and Java.
• My summaries - PDF files with summaries about COM/COM+/.NET, J2EE, web-based development, and installing development and server software (like Apache, MySQL, PHP, Resin, and Oracle).
• YouTube channel - recordings from my outings. Created to learn more on handling video cameras, editing software and YouTube, but also to share videos with others.

I also maintain this site, kiltedviking.net, to keep up my knowledge about web development and to share things with my friends. (It also gave me a reason to register the domain and an e-mail address I enjoy and can keep, regardless of any employer. :-))

Accomplishments

In 2019, I climbed Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest point at 1.345 m (which took me about 4 hours to walk the 8 km up and about 2 hours back down), and Ben Vrackie at 841 m, but since also Shetland's highest point, Ronas Hill at 450 m. ;-)