We have a diverse range of people working at Leadin – meet three of our newest dudes in the software team. Jaakko, Olli and Ville all joined within the last year.
Your career path is your choice not defined by your degree
Hi, I’m Jaakko and I currently work as a front end developer at Leadin. I am also studying a major in Industrial Engineering and Management and a minor in Software Engineering at Tampere University of Technology (TUT). Whilst working at Leadin I will complete my final course and write my masters thesis within the next year .
I work as a front end developer and I was attracted to the company by the user experience approach to software solutions which focusses on the end users rather than simply coding. I consider myself as a highly visual person and this way of doing things really suits me.
One of the best things about working at Leadin is the size of the company. We are currently just over 50 people distributed in several locations including Finland, Germany and the UK. This means that I get to know everyone in the office and we have a great atmosphere. We have a flat structure with very little hierarchy so we all work as one team.
Where do I see myself in three years time? Wow I’d use the cliché that ‘anything can happen’. If I keep learning new things at the current pace then I really don’t know what could happen! For me this is a big positive.
If I could give advice to students still in university, I would say ‘follow your own interests’. Sometimes you need to change your focus if you want to achieve your desires. This is what happened to me in my first year at TUT when I realised that I wanted to work in the software industry.
Your degree does not define what you can do – your career path is your choice not defined by your university degree. For me a series of conscious decisions turned me into more of a software guy rather than an economic management one. These decisions were some of the best I have ever made!
I get to work on a wide range of projects
Cheers I’m Olli and I also work in Leadin’s software team – I did a few years of majoring in natural sciences at TUT before studying software engineering. I complimented my studies with industrial engineering and management as minor studies. I am still studying and trying to decide on the title for my masters thesis. At Leadin our software team work on everything from back end to front end design and user experience. My technical interests are more on the back end but I also enjoy the opportunity to work across other aspects of software design and development.
During my studies I participated in a project on Virtual Reality and innovative market design that was run by Leadin. This was really interesting and spiked my interest – we were actually nominated as the best project group by our peers. The guys from Leadin were great and I realised that this was a forward looking and innovative company and it looked like a great place to work. I was right! At Leadin I get to work on a wide range of projects and I get support from colleagues with expertise in different areas of software engineering and UX. Recently I have been given responsibility for a major project working as a full stack developer with a really interesting customer and product.
At Leadin I am gaining experience and learning to manage major projects with multiple new technologies. I love this and I hope that I can be part of development far into the future. Looking back, I wish I had picked my minor subjects earlier as I would have liked to have had some cross-professional insights during my software related studies.
My advice to students graduating this year would be to make contact with as many companies as possible and not just the obvious ones that directly relate to your studies. Maintain these contacts even if the company doesn’t currently have open positions as it will benefit you if you have a contact at the company when a position related to your experience opens.
Remember that it is people who do business and not companies
Hi, I’m Ville and I studied software engineering at Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia which is now known as Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences or Metropolia for short. I’m a programmer and my passion is developing high end, high quality software using the latest tools and techniques. This is exactly what the team at Leadin do and in a growth company with a fresh and warm atmosphere and great people. I really feel part of the team and that I can make a difference. I have the support of strong and skilful colleagues who are pushing through and solving challenges.
I’m looking forward to continuing to learn new software techniques and always developing high quality and expert software solutions. My advice to students graduating this year is to remember that it is people who do business and not companies, build your networks and always remember the who alongside the what.
If you are graduating this year and would like to join Jaakko, Olli and Ville then build your network of contacts by getting in touch or contacting any one of our team in Finland, Germany or the UK.
