At the time I was working in customer support for the same Icelandic employer. I knew I wanted to get into engineering and volunteered to do some free "spec" work to demonstrate that I could perform at a professional level. That proposal got hung up in labor law stuff in the states (they told me legally they were required to pay me for work I did as an employee and they didn't have a budget for what I was proposing) but they said it wouldn't be an issue in Iceland so I requested a transfer to the home office and made the job change official a few months later.