Introducing Mike Vainio, one of our Cloud Architects based in Helsinki. He’s been with Verifa since August 2021.
How did you find your way to your current role at Verifa?#
I was introduced to Jacob (Co-founder) and Mika (the then CEO) about one year before actually joining Verifa. At the time Verifa wasn’t in a position to hire immediately, so I ended up taking another consultancy job. However, it turned out that the company and the project wasn’t really for me. I wasn’t enjoying the project and things weren’t improving, so after a year I made the decision that I’m just going to leave. So it was perfect timing when at that point Mika contacted me again. I still had Verifa in my mind, but was going to leave the job hunt until after summer. Anyway, the next week we talked, and after one call we signed the contract, and I started at Verifa after my summer holidays.
How would you explain your role as Cloud Architect?#
I do cloud stuff! We mostly do implementation, but it depends. I mean, right now I've been doing a lot of high level architecture stuff, but other times it’s a lot more hands on.
In my first year here, I’ve been learning a lot of new things and I've also been working with more customers than ever before, which is great. I think we're really flexible with our projects, in that we share what we’re doing with the rest of the crew. So I feel I know quite well what everyone's doing with their projects besides just mine. And I like being able to help out others as well if needed.
When we approach the customer work itself, we’re very customer centric. We don't have strong opinions on what tools they should use. We're quite neutral and really try to see what works for them, even if the recommendation is, just do it yourself, don't get our help! So I think we're really honest with the work, and I've been very honest with customers, and I really respect that as well.
What stands out to you about the culture at Verifa?#
People like working here! At some other consultancies where you work 100% with your customer project, then you don’t really get to know any of the other consultants in your own company. Even if they are on the same project, you mostly only interact in customer meetings. What’s distinctive about Verifa is the 20%, or Veri-Friday. Our full time customer work is 80%, so we have 20% of working hours, usually Friday, to work together on other interesting projects and technologies, or professional development. It also allows me to do my Masters studies in Business Informatics.
If you really knew me you would know that…#
I really don’t like Jenkins!
Want to join the crew? Check out our careers page for openings.
