Aktia’s culture of trust has boosted Antti Haapalahti’s journey from a Junior developer to managing his own development unit
“I feel that we in Aktia have always had a trust in the employees. The organisation enables an opportunity to work independently and self-steering trusting that the work is carried out well together and in a sensible manner”, says Antti Haapalahti, who works as a unit manager in Aktia’s IT organisation.
Antti’s journey in Aktia started almost ten years ago in a Junior role within the web bank development. In ten years his competence has developed enormously and the trust between the organisation and the employees has taken Antti all the way to managerial duties.
An interesting career choice after the studies
When Antti had finished his computer science studies at the university of Oulu he had an interesting career choice to make. “I had through summer jobs gathered experience in Java programming in telecommunications, so I knew that I would primarily seek jobs within Java development in Helsinki or Oulu”, says Antti.
He had his sights set on several consulting firms and the previously familiar telecommunications field. However, the vacancy as a Java developer at Aktia got his attention.
“I thought that the job description particularly in the finance sector could be really interesting. The versatile role would guarantee continuous learning in different domains and technologies. In addition, I would have the opportunity to participate in the development of everyday services in a business where the greatest tech revolution is still on its way”, Antti remembers thinking.
After sending his application Antti took the train from Oulu to Helsinki. After two interview rounds it became clear that moving to Helsinki lay ahead.
“As a junior developer I was really nervous for the interviews. The positiveness and openness of both the interviews and the whole Aktia IT made, however, a deep impression on me. I took the job and started working at Aktia in February 2011.”
A quick career advancement and increased responsibilities
After starting his work at Aktia Antti’s career has advanced quickly. For the first three years he worked intensively with the web bank project, but he also wanted experience in even larger entities. After working besides the web bank project with the Aktia Oracle Service Bus development project, Antti transferred to service channel development full time.
“Although the web bank project was extensive, I got more versatile and broader experience from the service channel development especially within system architecture and different interfaces”, he says.
The most important project of his career was, however, still to come. The extensive reform of Aktia's core banking system, the Core project, is according to Antti the most ambitious project of his career.
“I was involved in Aktia's Core project since the beginning. My focus was at first on the core system in lending, but I was also involved for example in the co-operation with suppliers, system selections, as well as the technical testing and implementation”, says Antti.
Through the immense Core project Aktia’s IT organisation grew from a team of 30 people to a development organisation of nearly 100 professionals. “We noticed that we needed employees to share also my workload. During the project I took my first steps as a manager”, says Antti, who is now managing development and maintenance teams of about 20 people.
Motivation through co-workers, a varying job description and a culture of trust
According to Antti, who will soon celebrate his 10th anniversary at Aktia, the best part of the work is the co-workers, the culture of trust in the organisation, and the job description varying largely according to your own interests. “These three things motivate me still every day.”
After the completion of the Core project Antti has enjoyed his work as manager of his own development team and especially helping his team members. From time to time he has had his hands also deep in coding.
“My experience from previous years supports my current role as manager well. I am able to support the team's work on a technical level, but also to work as the organiser of the team and to ensure the smoothness of the work.”
Aktia is providing versatile career opportunities for Junior developers interested in the finance sector. “As a developer you can dig deeper into a certain section, become a generalist with competence in several fields, or work with something completely else within the organisation. Trust, openness and competence come a long way here”, Antti sums up.