How well do you know the awesome people behind FormAssembly? This series is the place to learn all about our incredible team members. This week we’re profiling Jeff Krueger, one of our Customer Support Specialists.
Name: Jeff Krueger
Title: Customer Support Specialist
With FormAssembly Since: August 2017
1. What interested you about FormAssembly in the first place?
FormAssembly has that energy and creativity common to a young start-up company, and yet it has been steadily growing to the point where it dominates the market. This unique mixture of youthful innovation with mature stability appealed to me. I’m excited to see where the company and its product will be in ten years, and I hope I’ll be here to be a part of it!
2. What’s your favorite thing about your job?
At first, I assumed my favorite part of the job would be the ability to work from home. And, don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing. However, after I started taking on cases and working with people, I quickly realized that the remote aspect of the job is rather incidental. My favorite thing about this job is communicating with and helping other people—and where I happen to be when I do this is trivial.
3. What excites you most about your position and growth opportunity at FormAssembly?
FormAssembly is an amazing tool, with wide-ranging functionality—and that functionality is growing and expanding at a breathtaking pace. I see great things on the horizon for this company, and I hope to be a part of it!
4. What are your proudest moments at FormAssembly?
I have to say that when a customer goes out of his or her way to write me back, saying, “Hey, that worked great! Thank you!” I just can’t stop smiling. I’m not sure if pride even enters into the equation, but gosh it feels good! I fear it might even be addictive!
5. What unique qualities do you bring to the FormAssembly team?
I honestly don’t think I possess any unique qualities whatsoever. In almost every category, excepting height and hair volume, I am about as average as they come. However, my unique background as an American living in Japan—a rice-farmer and father of three half-Japanese children—and my experiences working as a teacher and translator for nearly two decades, have equipped me with invaluable insights into human nature: things like language, culture, and identity. In a word, I get people.
6. What are some of your favorite activities outside of work?
My kids are still young, so I spent the bulk of my time outside of work playing with them. When I get the chance, though, I like to read books and go mountain climbing.
7. What’s something not a lot of people know about you?
Not too many people know that I’m a closet Buddhist.
8. If you were a breakfast cereal, what would you be and why?
This might be bending the rules a bit, but I wouldn’t be a breakfast cereal at all. I’d be a breakfast, proper! Breakfast cereals are often little more than a bowl of sugar and refined carbs. As long as we are bending rules, though, can I opt to be a breakfast cereal character, instead? If so, I think I’d like to be Tony the Tiger. He is bold, courageous, and a family man, through and through, but perhaps children remember Tony most as a mentor, constantly striving to give kids the confidence and encouragement (if not the nourishment) they require to achieve their goals in life. Which, if you ask me, is truly Gr-r-reat!
9. Who was your role model/hero as a child? Why?
I’m nearly half a century old. I can hardly remember my fourth grade teacher’s name—much less who my hero was at the time. But my hero now is my wife, Miho. Her love for me, and the myriad ways in which she supports our family, has truly been a blessing and an inspiration for me. In close second to her would be the Vietnamese monk and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh. His book, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, is the bee’s knees.
10. What’s your spirit animal? Why?
This was the hardest question of all by far. You might as well be asking about the shape of my soul. Perhaps this is a bit of a dodge, but I opted to take a Spirit Animal Quiz online to shed some light on the subject, and my result was a butterfly.
In light of my recent transition from teaching in the public sector to working in the IT industry, this result kind of makes sense. It’s a bit lame, tho, isn’t it? I mean, really, me? A butterfly? I’m much more of a bear. A teddy bear!
Like this post? Check out this previous Teammate Highlight featuring our Product Manager, Asuka Goya.
