In March of 2021, I had a difficult decision to make. I had job offers from both my previous workplace and Gofore. The previous workplace was fantastic to me and really liked working there but on the other hand, I wanted to see what it would be like to work in one of the biggest software consultancies in Finland.
I considered both options carefully. What really struck me in a good way with Gofore was how Gofore had won the best workplace award in Finland in previous years and its strive to pioneer in the ethical digital world. On the other hand, I really liked my old job and the people there. In the end, decided to take a leap from my old workplace and have been happy with my decision!
During the summer job at Gofore, I not only got to learn new technologies and get involved in interesting projects but also met new nice people.
“It was fun switching things around to TypeScript“
I worked in our internal development team which focuses on our lovely Slack bot Seppo Sorsa. Seppo’s main responsibility is to make sure data in Gofore is visible and make sure it’s up to date. This basically means that people can request different kinds of reports from him, and he can ask you to fill out your hours if you have forgotten them for example. Essentially Seppo is our digital middle manager. When I was offered to work on Seppo, I was excited. Seppo uses DialogFlow to understand natural language so people can send him messages in plain English and Seppo understands them. This was the main selling point for this project for me as it sounded so interesting. The project is mainly done in TypeScript which also got me fascinated. I had previously developed all my professional work with JavaScript, so it was fun switching things around to TypeScript. I also hadn’t had a chance to use Docker in my professional career before joining Gofore.
From fixing database collection problems to creating a monitoring microservice
I worked on various things during the summer. Ranging from fixing database collection problems to creating a monitoring microservice for our external services and filling in our scrum master while he was vacationing. I’d say that my favorite work assignment would be creating external monitoring microservice because I had a chance to investigate a lot of things by myself how to do things related to setting up a new microservice.
Learning new technologies benefited me the most
I’d say all the new technologies I have gotten the chance to know to was very beneficial for my professional development. On my personal to-do -list I had TypeScript and Docker as things to learn by myself. But luckily here I got a chance to learn these new technologies with help of wonderful teammates.
Office ice cream, coworkers, and Slack channels about world news and video games
Best about the summer – I’d probably say the office ice cream! I had problems working from my home office due to limited space, so I worked in an office when the pandemic was still in good order. The office ice cream lifted the spirits nicely when I returned from lunch and knew what treat was waiting for me. Other things that I would have to mention are the Slack channels and my coworkers. It is best to follow discussions on our different Slack channels during the day about world news and video games. Also, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to meet new wonderful people with whom I’ve loved to work and talk with! ?
In the My Summer at Gofore blog series, our summer employees tell about their summer work experience and what they have learned and enjoyed at Gofore.
