We are new hires at Solita, working as Integration Specialists in the API & Integration community. Our path to Solita wasn’t the most standard one, as we both found our way here through Saranen Integration & API Academy. We’ve been delighted to see that there are many ways to land a job, even though we both come from very different backgrounds.
Heikki Turja is a fresh graduate from Tampere University, the school of industrial engineering and management. He wanted to work in IT, so he minored in IT studies at the university and invested some time in self-learning. The Integration and API Academy was a great way to boost his skills and know-how since he didn’t have any work experience in the field.
Jukka Veijanen, on the other hand, has nearly 20 years of experience in the tech industry. He has worked, for example, with development, DevOps and test automation in the past. His former employment was terminated due to a complete shutdown of the department where he was working. After that, Jukka decided to invest in studying; he finished his thesis about cyber security at the University of Applied Sciences and graduated last summer. He continued studying in the autumn and rolled into data analytics courses at the open university. Then he found out about the Integration & API Academy and was one of the lucky ones to get in.
Deep dive into the world of Integrations and API
The timing for the Integration & API Academy was great for both of us. Heikki wanted to find work in the IT field but wasn’t so familiar with integrations and lacked work experience. Jukka had extensive work experience but limited know-how from integrations. But the motivation was common for both of us; we wanted to learn and understand more.
The Integration and API Academy itself was a comprehensive combination of studying and practical work at the partner companies, in our case with Solita. The academy is for people who are interested and have some knowledge in software development, cloud technologies, architecture, integrations, or API economy. The objective is to provide professional growth to the participants and match them with employers looking for new talent. We were pleased to do the practical part of the education in collaboration with Solita and very happy about the fact that it led to job offers for both of us.
Overall, we are satisfied with the experience we got from the academy. Our teacher was excellent, and she gave us a real deep dive into the field. We were a bit surprised by how much there was to learn about the APIs; the amount of new knowledge was extensive. But the outcomes were great. Heikki got his first job at Solita; a match made in heaven since Solita is a highly appealing employer for him and represents the industry where he wants to work. He also took significant leaps in his professional growth. Jukka turned his setback into a win and found a new position in an industry where he has opportunities to deepen his expertise and leverage the knowledge he already has.
It’s inspiring to work with new technologies
We’ve been very satisfied with our current situation at Solita. It’s inspiring to work with new technologies and learn more about coding and integrations. We’ve been delighted to see that Solita encourages everyone to bring up their interests and desires regarding professional development and preferred technologies. There is a will to match projects with people’s interests. That’s highly motivating and helps in crafting our careers in the desired direction.
The culture here is caring, and the well-being of employees is a high priority. The environment is energetic, and people are generally open-minded. Flat hierarchy and modern leadership style give you space to do good work, and there is this general atmosphere of trust. People of Solita have made us feel very welcome from the beginning, so it’s great to be part of the team.
We are constantly looking for new colleagues in our community! Check out our open positions here!
