What is your background?

I am 28-years old, I have studied Industrial Engineering and Management in Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki. I joined DWF in February 2017. On my spare time I enjoy hiking, reading and  working out.

What made you join the company? 

From studies and internships, it started to become clear to me that automation was going to be an increasingly large part of the society in near future. Then I became interested in being part of the trend as I figured that there would be ample opportunities around the growing industry. The luddite in me does not totally approve the trend, but as they say, “if you can’t beat them, join them”.  Around these times in 2017 I noticed that a start-up company called DWF was recruiting and training developers to work in the fancy-sounding field of “Robotic Process Automation” and decided to give it a go.

What kind of hesitations you had when joining, how was the reality?

I had previously had (positive and negative) experiences in both start-ups and already established larger companies. From this I had a rough idea that the companies in early-stages vary greatly in many aspects of culture e.g. how companies are lead, how much opportunities employees have for personal growth and what is the balance between dreams and reality in the vision of the company. In other words, joining a start-up is riskier, but also can potentially very rewarding.

It turned out that DWF did have many of the topics pretty well in order and the direction was a good one. The company has managed to grow from the initial start-up- phase without too much growing pains, while still keeping some parts alive from the earlier start-up spirit.

What are the best parts of being part of the team?  

During my time in DWF I have been working in roles of RPA Developer, Lead Consultant, IT project manager and now lately as a Service Delivery Manager - having had the possibility to look at what we are doing from different angles has been rewarding. I have also always been enthusiastic and passionate about being able to have roof over my head and be able to acquire food and other commodities, DWF has really empowered me to fulfil my dreams in this aspect. Also, being a part of a team of highly skilled and motivated individuals has offered me lots of chances to learn from others. DWF consists of experts from various fields so there is something new to learn every day. 

How has the switch from office work to the remote-working mode changed the way you work?

It was probably true even before the corona-outbreak, but as face-to-face meetings became a rare treat, the old cliché/wisdom “Communication is key” became even more relevant. Time management also became a key factor, once the work was suddenly happening mostly in home, there was a lot learning to do in drawing a line between work and past time.

At an earlier stage of the remote-mode everyone was still learning the ropes of the ‘new-normal’ and quite often the day was full of Teams-meetings, many of which could have been e-mails. Since that time, a culture change has happened in both DWF and customer organizations alike. While people have lost a lot of social contact with fellow humans, we have at least all learned to write better e-mails and make absolutely sure that the camera and mic are not on by accident.