Working at Prover – a small, agile company where each individual matters

Founded in 1989, after more than 30 years of development, Prover is now an international company, with branches in Sweden, France, China, and the US. The company has participated in railway projects all over the world and with customers such as ALSTOM, Siemens, CASCO, RATP, NYCT etc.

In Prover, there are employees who have worked for the company for more than 10 years, some have even been with the company for over 20 years. Besides the seniors with a lot of experience, the company also has new employees who have been working for the company for a few years or even a few months. It is the combination of the experience from experienced employees and the enthusiasm of the young employees that have created a driving force to contribute to the development of the company.

To attract talented people for the company, Prover has recruited personnel from all over the world. Prover’s staff is highly qualified with a large portion having a doctorate degree, from many countries including Sweden, France, Germany, China, Algeria, Morocco, and Vietnam. In addition, the company also allows experts to work remotely full-time.

All employees from Prover meet regularly and work together during our One Team Work Weeks. We at Prover see this as a way to promote unity and team spirit at our company, no matter where in the world you are based. Let’s find out what is interesting about working for Prover via the words of some employees.

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MEET OUR COLLEAGUES

Lets’ start off with Gunnar, our VP Sales that has been with us for more than 20 years!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, like where you are from and about your current position?

– I joined Prover directly after completing my computer science studies at Gothenburg University. I started out as a product/software developer, part of the team working on the development of our proof engine product suite. I gradually moved onto the application side, applying our automation solutions in the rail control domain, and I’m currently heading up our sales team.

What made you choose Prover in the beginning?

– The opportunity to be part of a small, agile company with an interesting technology, where the contribution of each individual really matters in reaching the goals. I also enjoyed the prospect of working in an international environment, with both customers and colleagues from around the world.

What made you stick with the company for so long?

– The opportunity to keep on learning new things and take on new challenges.———

Moving forward to our second colleague, originally from Vietnam.

– Hello, I’m Pham The Anh, and I’ve worked for the company for 7 months as a formal verification engineer in the solution team.

What made you come to Sweden, a country far from Vietnam, to work?

– Before coming to Sweden, I studied for a doctorate in France and then did postdoctoral research in Germany. I have a background in formal methods. After doing research-related work for a while, I wanted to apply what I have learned to practice, as well as to know how formal methods have been applied in the industry. Prover is one of the few companies that use formal methods to solve real-world problems. Therefore, I have decided to choose Prover.

After 7 months of working, can you share your feelings about the working environment at Prover.

– I am very happy to work at Prover, I get to work with talented co-workers who have many years of experience in rail, metro, and interlocking systems. They are very friendly and have helped me a lot. I have learned a lot from them. Everyone is happy to get along, respect each other, and always do their best for the work. Besides, I also get involved in real projects. Although I have only been with the company for 7 months, I have been involved in 3 different projects, namely Shift2Rail, NYCT Verification, and Metroselskabet*. In each project we solve different customer problems, they are interesting.

* Editors note: Shift2Rail (EC project), NYCT (New York City Transit) verification, and Metroselskabet (Copenhagen metro)

A small question, how do you feel about Stockholm and Sweden?

– In winter, the weather is a bit cold but not as bad as people say! But in summer the weather is great. I like the city as well as the life here.

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Last but not least, we take the opportunity to speak to Sara, that joined us about a year ago!

– I am still quite new at the company, and was looking for some new challenges and to further my knowledge of formal methods. I actually have a degree in Electronics, integrated circuits and embedded software. I started my career in avionics, working as a software engineer then moved on to formal proof within the same branch. It was a great introduction to the formal world, and in my quest to know more about it, Prover felt like a natural choice. Since I have joined, I have worked with customers such as NYCT and Alstom France. I have been working on the formal verification of interlockings using Prover iLock and PSL. I have even briefly worked on a safety project. It was quite enjoyable so far, and I am looking forward to the rest of the journey.

Can you please tell us a little bit about working for Prover in France – and how it is coordinating the different teams’ work when we are placed at different locations.

– One of the appealing assets of working at Prover is working with an international team. I wanted to improve my English and it is a great opportunity. Working with Prover in France is very enriching; the French railway market has been using formal methods for quite some time. There are different customers and projects to learn from, and the French team is full of experienced people. But, we still make a tight team with our Swedish colleagues. We do meet on a regular basis online, it is nice to hear what everybody is working on. How our different projects and customers use formal methods and to learn from each other. At least once a week, we all meet and discuss our work or the company’s updates. And as often as we can, we try to physically meet. And it has been feeling like one team since I started working at Prover. Even at times that we have been working remotely, there was no feeling of isolation.

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Are you also interested in joining our team? Find out more here