We continue our Employee Story series about all the amazing people we have here. This week, let’s meet our Software Superhero Juho!
Juho joined us at the very beginning of our journey and has been at the forefront of many big changes and events.
Hi! Tell us more about how you became a workfellow.
Hi! The recruitment process took place last summer. After a round of interviews, I remember how Henri showed me the office, where Janne (the first employee) was already busy working on the product. Since then things escalated pretty quickly, and I joined Workfellow in October last year as a Software Engineer.
What motivated you to change your job in a big corporation to a small startup at the very beginning of its growth.
To me, the idea and the product looked really interesting and I could see the strong potential. I thought that it would be a shame not to see where it goes :D
Challenges sounded quite interesting and so I expected the work to be exciting. People always say that it’s risky to switch from an established corporation to a small startup, but the experience you get here is so valuable that it was definitely worth trying it. I had already been studying a bit about Azure (Cloud Computing Service), so it was great to actually put it into practice, along with the other cool technologies there are.
How do you find a hybrid mode of work?
I’m quite used to it now; it wasn’t big of a change for me to be honest. I worked as a consultant before, and many of my colleagues were from other countries anyway. Even though I used to go to the office from time to time, most of my work was already remote. Besides, I’ve been doing quite many online classes too, so that kind of prepared me for this “hybrid” mode of work already before the pandemic.
I think that with the development work, you don’t have to meet that many people, so as long as you have a nice large screen and a good coffee, you’re good to go :D
How did Workfellow contribute to your professional growth?
I like the “solving puzzles” aspect of development work, so I would say I learned some and advanced some of my technical skills, such as working with Azure, Python, DevOps to name a few.
How do you usually spend your summers and how was your holiday?
I usually do normal stuff, like hanging out with friends, biking, climbing, jogging, and other activities.
This summer I’ve had a road trip to the highest peak of Finland - Halti, which is located in Lapland.
- Did you have to carry all the stuff with you when it was time for hiking?
Yes, the hike took five days in total, so I had a sleeping bag, tent, food, some clothes, a gas cooker, camera, and tripod with me. I used the tripod for a total of 1 time and had to carry it all 120 km :D
-Was it hard to orient and find the directions?
On the way to Halti, there were not so many trees, so I could see where I’m going looking at the lonely fells that were located here and there. Another interesting thing that added a challenge to the trip was that there was a river on the way to Halti that you needed to cross. However, because the spring floods had washed the bridge away, I had to cross it myself. The water was pretty shallow in most parts, but still freezing cold :D
How would you describe our company culture?
Probably free-spirited would describe it well. As we’re growing, things are changing fast, so there’s quite a lot of freedom to make our own decisions and get the tools that we need. Overall, not much red tape, lots of freedom, including the freedom to make mistakes as they’re inevitable in a startup.
What would you advise future workfellows?
I guess a relaxed attitude, open-mindedness, and flexibility would be needed the most. In software development, everyone is confused pretty much all the time anyway, so you shouldn’t worry too much about possible mistakes. In startups, one of the main things is the ability to learn as you go and figure out things on your own.
