Learning new things and great co-workers are the most important things to me in my work
I ended up in the software industry a little unplanned. After high school, I knew that I was interested in technology and ended up studying automation technology at Tampere University of Technology. I had hardly been involved in programming before university but had a lot of experience with computers through my gaming hobby. At university, I got really excited about software production and information technology, now more commonly known as data science. After the university, I went straight into working life as a software developer.
I currently work as a Software Architect at Solita. Solita has a wide range of different type of architects. In addition to project work I also do a lot of consultative work and work as a technical expert in sales. My job involves a lot of close collaboration with clients and many times I work as part of a team that consists of the client as well as professionals from Solita and other suppliers. In such an environment, smooth and clear communication and trust are key to success. I really like working in a team with experts from different fields who can learn new things.
The software industry is largely collaborative, and success requires doing things with the customer and other players without any confrontation. Successes in projects as well as failures must be shared by the entire project team.
Donate speech-project was made possible by the public cloud
In Donate speech-project I worked as the architect and implementer of the background services. The background services were built on top of the AWS cloud environment. Because the project was designed to collect large amounts of data, the public cloud environment made it possible to implement this at a moderate cost. The background services were implemented using AWS lambda serverless background services and cloud data warehouses. This made the implementation scalable and cost-effective even for large numbers of visitors and information. The service also utilised AWS’s services for deployment and infrastructure automation (CDK and Code*). This resulted in an effortless and repeatable deployments and infrastructure building.
Solita has largely been responsible for my own AWS expertise. I’ve been encouraged to study and acquire certificates on AWS. I also got to see the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, where I learned a lot from the presentations as well as created customer contacts at various events.
Since the background service alone does not a solution make; I worked closely on the project with mobile developers and designers with the user interface development and design. The collaboration resulted in definitions of what kind of content and what kind of interfaces the background services should provide. Because things are constantly moving in the real world, fluent communication was also an important part of development whenever the need for changes emerged. Communication worked particularly well on the project, and it was nice when people took responsibility for things over their own “sandboxes”.
The balance of leisure and work comes to the fore especially during the covid times
For myself remote work has been challenging. I really miss the atmosphere created by the office as well as the missing hallway / coffee room conversations. Solita has been very supportive of remote work and coping with the isolation, but for myself, there is no substitute for real face-to-face meetings. During this time, my own free time and family have been a very big part of well-being.
Whenever possible I go mountain biking. Pedaling in the forest is very therapeutic and relaxing and the fitness gains are another benefit. This hobby also took on new dimensions through the bike benefit offered by Solita and I got a new fatbike for winter cycling. At Solita we have a lot of mountain biking enthusiasts. It has been nice to get company for my rides from my co-workers. At Solita there has formed groups over people with common interest. From these groups you can get support and advice on various issues, as well as friends to share your interests with.
Time with the family, both during and outside covid pandemic, is the most important thing in life. Solita has always had a good work-life balance and even though sometimes you need to work long days, I have never felt that work forced me to sacrifice time from my family. I have had full paternity leave with both children and project work has always been arranged so that I have not been left wondering how my co-workers are doing.
Henri Nybom is a Software Architect professional working in Solita’s development community, as part of the Special Competences team. The team consists of experts from several different areas of expertise, and its mission is to bring valuable expertise to our projects. We are constantly looking for new talented co-workers. See all open positions!