- Name + age + where you come from:
Frank Sparby, 53 years old, born and raised in Kongsvinger.
- How long have you worked at Norske Backer:
12 years old.
- What position do you have and what do you do at work:
I am the head of the mechanical department here, and I am responsible for the welding and brazing part in Backer certifications and related matters.
- What do you like about the job – do you enjoy it?
Varying, very varying. I do a bit of what is my basic subject, which is welding, which I have my trade certificate in. I order goods, draw, design, am out with customers, find solutions, so there is great variation and no day is alike. So it is a very long time between boring days. So you're enjoying it? – Yes, I do.
- How did you find and get a job here?
A position had been advertised, whether it was on Finn or Glåmdalen, I don't remember. But I applied for the position, sent in an application – got called in for an interview, but then it wasn't exactly the position I applied for that I got. A different kind of position was created after they saw my CV, so there's a bit of coincidence to this just like with everything else.
- What education/background do you have:
I started as a welding apprentice, and got my trade certificate and welding certificates. Then I worked for about a year, before I dropped out of working life and started vocational college. Up in Nord-Trøndelag and attended technical welding college, had to go there as it was the closest. It was between there, Grimstad, and Narvik. I was there, then I started working again and thought maybe I would get a more administrative position since I had both my trade certificate and vocational college, but that didn't happen.
So after a year at WicTek in the building I work in now, I enlisted as a soldier in Bosnia for NATO for a year, while I was there I figured out that I needed to go back to school more. Then I applied to the university college and took engineering college after I came back. Then I came back to Kongsvinger in 2001, after having been away for about 10 years.
- What do you do in your spare time? Do you have any hobbies?
Way too many! I hunt, fish, shoot – very actively. In addition, when the weather isn't suitable for being outdoors, I have a small workshop, so I spend time there restoring some old cars and tinkering a bit with some motorcycles and the like.
So I've built one of the ones hanging on the wall here, and I'm in the final stages of another, so soon there'll be one more, a slightly newer one. – So you don't exactly get bored in the evenings – no, I have too few evenings.
- How many countries have you visited?
Oh, there are many – there are very many. Mexico, the States, Canada, Sri Lanka, the Emirates, Tunisia, Morocco, the Netherlands Antilles, Ecuador, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Russia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark – of course. England... Now I have to think, what other places I've been and hunted and shot. That's usually what takes me around. Poland, Lithuania I think it was, was there and shot in a European Championship at some point. Starting to get a good grip on Europe. Greece, Crete and Rhodes. Going to Portugal in a few weeks to shoot the World Championships.
– What kind of shooting are you doing? – Now I'm doing something called FITASC sporting, it's shotgun, clay pigeon shooting. What's special about the discipline that I spend the most time on is the distance to the clay pigeons. You shoot at a much longer range than what is normally recommended for hunting. In Norway, the hunter's exam says that hunting should be a maximum of 30 meters with a shotgun, while we shoot at distances of up to 100 meters. But it works, because you're not shooting at live game.
- What is your favorite fruit?
Drue
- Favorite dish?
Pan-fried pork and floury potatoes
- Do you sing in the shower? In the car?
No
- What do you listen to in the car? Music, podcast, radio, nothing?
Radio, I am listening to P10 Country right now.
