My name is Juha Siltanen and I work as a Software Architect at our Turku office. I’ve involved myself in various software projects during my 20-year career and my duties have been mostly in the backend components doing the heavy lifting. I’m still loving what I do. I’ve had more than a few employments during my career and I’ve never felt more welcome than when I started working for Gofore.
Tell us about your career and study background?
When I was a young boy, I never had much interest in computers nor in technology for that matter. I was mostly interested in arts and drawing and considered myself a decent would-be artist. That is until I decided to draw a human face. I just couldn’t draw the eyes good enough, so that pretty much thrashed that path. I got decent grades at school and when it was time to pick a profession, I just browsed the selection of educations you could get, and ”Bachelors degree in computer science, digital information technology” had a tone that spoke to me for some strange reason. I’ve involved myself in various software projects during my 20-year career and my duties have been mostly in the backend components doing the heavy lifting. I’m still loving what I do.
What makes Gofore a great company for you?
The company has great values which you can remember and that the company follows. There is a strong drive to make Gofore a great workplace for everyone and you can actually see it happening in your day-to-day work. Being a somewhat senior grunt makes me appreciate the provided independence and the responsibility that comes with that. I also enjoy being able to allocate my time to other things than pure billable work. I have been helping with our recruitments and also, together with Eero Rostiala, building up a sponsorship relationship with TPS Salibandy, positive impact with Gofore. I feel these internal activities are very important to me and give me a nice energy boost.
What are the things you most likely tell your close circle about Gofore?
Most of my so-called close circle wouldn’t understand what I’m actually doing, so I would probably tell something about the nice people our Turku office has attracted. We have an exceptionally good atmosphere and when we have the opportunity to meet each other, it’s always pure gold.
What’s the best Gofore memory?
I’ve had more than a few employments during my career and I’ve never felt more welcome than when I started working for Gofore. So, I would say the first days at Gofore are the most memorable. I feel very lucky to have found such a nice place to be.
What is your favorite internal Slack channel at Gofore?
I have to say ”turku” of course! ?
What are the technologies and tools you mostly work with?
Currently, I am working on a project of a larger scale than I’ve ever worked on before. We are using SAFe framework for scaling the agile work we do in teams and it has worked very nicely. My technology stack at the moment includes (among others) Java, Git, Spring Boot, Azure, PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ, and very soon Kafka -which is an entirely new thing for me. The main point is to keep evolving and the list of used technologies and the way we use them evolves constantly and we are getting better at them. In the end, the technologies are just tools for solving the given problem.
How does your typical day look like? What excites you most in your daily work?
My daily work usually consists of having a couple of short meetings and the rest of the day is spent sleeves rolled up and building software. I enjoy software development, and everything it encompasses, and hopefully will be able to do so in the future.
What would you like to do in the future at Gofore?
Gofore culture and the way we work enables us to pretty much shape the personal responsibilities ourselves. I enjoy that and hope to continue doing that in the future. Hopefully, I will be building even better software for our customers.
What kind of digital world do you want to build with others?
Hopefully, we will be providing tools that have an actual positive impact on the world we live in. Make someone’s chore easier to complete or a process finish much faster.
It’s often said that digitalisation has changed every part of human life – how we live, how we work and how we interact with the world around us. But when you think about it, digitalisation alone can’t change anything. Without people, it’s all just hardware and code. That is why we want you to get to know our people, Goforeans. Read Our Gofore stories! ?
Are you interested in job opportunities at Gofore, read more about us, and check out the open positions gofore.com/liity-joukkoon/
