Charles Kolstad
Current Position
Digital Marketing Manager
Country
United States of America
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
Expertise
Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Dynamics, Digital Marketing
Experience
After getting his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of St. Thomas, Charles worked as a Sales and Applications Engineer focusing on brakes and clutches for automation equipment. He traveled throughout North America, working on a wide variety of applications, from conveyer belts, robotics, garage doors, and anything that needed to be moved and stopped. After a few years, he decided to work remotely and he joined Tameson as a Technical Writer while traveling throughout the world.
Charles liked the technical writing as it kept him involved as an engineer, but he quickly got involved in more digital marketing activities at Tameson and liked the continual professional growth. He went from a Technical Writer, to SEO, to Digital Marketing Manager here at Tameson. It allows him to still utilize his engineer degree working on new articles and involvement with the product development team, but continuing to grow his marketing skills and Tameson's reach. His engineering experience makes him a great contributor to Tameson's articles.
Bio
Charles Kolstad has been working at Tameson since 2017 and is from the United States of America. He has his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, USA. He works remotely while traveling throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. However, he does visit Tameson’s HQ from time to time to meet the new members of the team and to work in the office.
Past Work
After obtaining his Engineering degree in 2014, Charles worked in the USA for 3 years as an Applications & Sales Engineer focused on applications pertaining to brakes, clutches, and electric motors. Charles says: “It really surprised me on the wide array of applications that these products are used on. From medical surgical robots, autonomous robotics, conveyer belts, to just about every manufacturing machine they could all be a viable application for these products. Each one had its unique application as no two applications were identical.” However, his itch for travel had him buy a one-way flight to Croatia and his itch for continual learning had him apply to a remote technical marketing position at Tameson.
Remote Work
Charles works from around the globe and says: “Working while traveling has allowed me to see the world. However, I understand the importance of communication, delivering, and reliability when it comes to my work. As I travel, I work from co-working offices to ensure I have good stable internet, a network of like-minded people around me, and an office-feel to get work done in. Working from home, hotel room, or café, is not very productive for me. I keep my communication lines open and ensure I am delivering and so far remote work has gone smooth. I’m grateful to see these amazing places and know I have to keep working to keep seeing more!”
Role within Tameson
“Tameson is a small company, which I like. No big corporation politics and everyone is easy to communicate with and wants to move fast. Everyone has their specialty, but we work very well as a team and pitch in on different high priority projects. I mainly focus on search engine optimization (SEO) and manage a team of technical writers to push out new high-quality content. However, I’m also very involved in our product development, social media, USA expansion, and enjoy learning new aspects of the company and ways I can help out.”
Work Challenge
“Working remotely is not always sitting on a beach with my computer (I wish). I need to ensure on my travels that I have an office, so that is always priority one as I need good internet. In addition, as Tameson’s HQ is in The Netherlands, there is often a time zone difference we have to effectively manage. Sometimes I have late nights or early mornings to attend meetings, but it is never unbearable. Another aspect is that we are working with some technical products. I sometimes get products shipped to me to physically see how they work and take apart, but most of the time I have to do comprehensive online research to fully understand some of our products.”