Anni's story: Mentoring gave me a model for my career in IT

My first job in the field was at a consulting firm, where I started as a junior consultant working on customer projects. In my tasks, I was supported by an amazing team and received valuable mentoring from experienced consultants. The experience gave me a good head start to my career and stirred a desire to help newcomers adapt and shine in their own work.

In 2018, I received a job offer from my current employer and decided to change jobs to a larger company. In my new job, I got to participate in larger projects. I started working with international client companies, so English became my working language. With my current employer, I have worked in several different roles: senior developer, project manager and team leader. I am currently the Lifecycle Services Business Lead at the Data & AI Unit.

My current employer trusts and values my competence

The progress I’ve made in my career reflects the trust and recognition of my expertise. This has made my work meaningful and motivating. I like our entrepreneurial and self-directed work culture, where employees have the freedom to work in their own ways as long as they produce the best outcome for the customer.

I find that my greatest successes include situations that have allowed me to mentor my younger colleagues and team members. It is great to see how others grow and achieve their goals.

In working life, I have found it challenging to find my own direction. There are plenty of opportunities and diverse tasks. My strengths in working life lie in my cooperation skills and the ability to see the big picture and divide it into manageable parts. I’ve also made it a priority to maintain my technical skills, which sometimes leaves me juggling more than I have time for. Managing such situations requires you to prioritise your own and your project team’s work to ensure that you’re making progress while avoiding unreasonable workloads.

Volunteering helped me get my first job

Anyone looking to start their career in the IT sector should explore different companies and work tasks with an open mind. During my studies, I found various company visits useful because they provided tangible information on what kind of employers are out there. Networking events, such as fairs and charity projects, were also useful. Among other tasks, I volunteered at a code school for children of primary school age and the Rails Girls coding event for women and worked as a tutor at the university in the final stage of my studies. The networks I built through these events have been useful later, and when I applied for my first job, my employer appreciated how active I had been during my studies. These days, I’m active in building networks in Mothers In Business, and during my family leaves, I also volunteered as an events organiser in the organisation.

I think IT needs women

My mother was a housewife for my entire childhood and youth, so no one served as a model for me on how to build a career as a woman. As a child, I didn’t really dream about any profession but was already interested in teaching back then. I’m still interested in teaching, and I make use of it whenever carrying out job orientation for new employees. I also occasionally provide training for our customers and the users of their information systems and prepare training materials.

I enjoy the dynamic nature of the IT sector, where self-direction is valued and unnecessary bureaucracy is minimised. I also feel that working in the IT sector is important for equality. According to various sources, approximately 20–25% of employees in the IT sector are women, but the systems, applications and platforms of digital environments are used daily by virtually every one of us. Diverse people must be involved in the development of services to ensure that they are suitable for all users and take various needs into consideration as well as possible.

One thing I have learned in working life is that when you are proactive and authentic, you will attract tasks that motivate and inspire you. During my career, I have often taken on more demanding tasks first, with my title only being updated later to reflect my role. In other words, you should not wait for someone else to come and take control of your career. Instead, you should clarify your goals and actively work towards them. The IT sector is constantly changing and new titles and tasks are being created all the time. The title you will be working under in a few years’ time may not even exist yet.

Keeping your work and leisure time separate is important

Making a conscious effort to stay focused is important. You cannot send instant messages and multitask during meetings as it benefits no one. Taking care of your work performance requires you to take active measures, which is why I make sure to take enough breaks and set aside deep focus time during my working days. That allows me to get things done. Constantly rushing from one meeting to another burdens the brain and reduces creativity, so you must actively manage your own calendar. Taking little breaks outdoors, for example during your lunch break, makes your mind sharper for the rest of the day.

I try to complete my tasks during my work day and keep my work computer and any work-related apps on my phone turned off after I finish work for the day. This is not always possible in my busy life with young child, but it is nevertheless my aim.

It is important to be able to keep your leisure time and work clearly separate, as our brains crave routines. For this reason, I often start or end my work day with a walk that allows me to mentally transition to the workplace, even though I mainly work at home. On office days, driving to work serves the same purpose.

In my free time, I spend a lot of time with my family and do all kinds of things that make me forget about work.  I have a young child, whose strong presence takes my mind off work-related things. I also exercise, meditate and take long walks. I enjoy swimming in natural waters in the summer and go ice swimming in the winter. Bathing in a sauna after ice swimming, I love to listen to the stories of older women with lots of life experience, as they often put things into perspective and help you get back to basics.

Anni Moilanen