One year at Cloud1

I feel quite entitled that I have found such a wonderful place to work at. It has been now a year since I started working at Cloud1. When I started I had an idea to do several posts about what it has been like to work here, but I was more or less swept away by learning new technologies and really dive in and deep to the world of Azure cloud data stack. So now I think it's finally time to correct that oversight.

People are what matters

I have had a privilege to always work with some wonderful and skilful people. I am grateful for the seniors passing their knowledge and for the juniors to bring in new ideas and to challenge the way of doing things. Although I have now landed to the most technically capable team so far, I don't see this as the teams biggest advantage.

Even though team spirit has always seemed good where ever I have worked, I haven't ever seen such commitment I have witnessed here during the last year. Not just to get a few minutes of someone's time. But for a colleague to go out of one's way to help you out. Not only as isolated incidents but as a way of working. I think leading by example has had the most impact on this in Cloud1.

Studying the things you want

I believe a large majority of us who work in IT business would like to educate themselves. It is crucial for survival as technology keeps developing at such high speed. Previously I felt that when I was lucky enough to be allowed to participate in some course, it was like a price. At Cloud1 it's the first time when getting training not only feels easy but it is highly encouraged. First time I have seen that managers are more worried about personnel getting enough training than if the time budgeted for training has been used. There is a huge mind shift between those two.

I am also able to choose what I want to learn instead of being told what I should. This definitely hasn't been true for me previously and gives me the ability to steer my career to wherever I want.

What does it mean to be in charge of yourself?

It seems already to be a classic to say in a requirement add that "you will have power and responsibilities to...". And in some sense, this is true for most companies. Unfortunately more often than not this means that you will be quite alone in a project and no one will check what you are actually doing. At least not until something goes horribly wrong. 

Since I started, I haven't been alone in any project, and what's more important I have had other technical people to work with. I have done dozens of projects during my career where I have been the sole technical person accompanied by salesperson or project manager. And believe me, it really is not the same. So I am glad to say that at Cloud1 being in charge of yourself doesn't mean what it usually means, being alone. But what it means here is more a freedom of choice.

• Participating in building the company.
• Choosing what are the most crucial problems affecting your work and to be able to fix them.
• And being able to find your unique technical role. Most of us work under Data Architect-title, but we are a versatile bunch of people with huge variety of skill sets. And I do love the fact that our titles do not define us.

Thrive on being better

I don't want anyone to get me wrong. There is no such thing as a perfect place to work. Just because we live in a constantly changing world, this just is not possible. At this point in my career, I like to evaluate the worthiness of a company by the thrive it has to make it better at what it does rather than what it currently is.

And it shouldn't be just about the money. I am a realist and do understand that companies need to make money. However, I do not see the point of telling the employees to make more money. This has always seemed futile to me. I mean that I have ever tried to make customer happy and willing to pay for my time by doing the very best results I am able to do and constantly trying to be even better. And for someone to tell me I should have a higher rate of billing always felt strange. If the rate of billing should be higher, then investigate why it isn't and fix it. It rarely is anything developers can affect on directly.

Or have you worked for a company where ebit, ebitda etc value is a STRATEGIC kpi? Mind-blowing, isn't it? But for the majority of my career, this has been the case for me. Sure it should be the measurement for any company but should it be such for a developer?

Now I finally have found a place where I think I as an employee am more worried about the money-making than my mangers (I blame all my years in the consulting business). But man is it refreshing to get true strategic and tactical goals to pursue instead of quotas. The feeling that this is something I can affect is unbelievably powering. Added to this that new ideas are welcome and people are actually being heard (and steering is being made after hearing) thigs can change in a relatively short period of time. The pure passion how this company want's to evolve and how it is willing to try out new ideas is something I haven't previously witnessed. 

For the future, I hope that we can keep all these things as a part of our culture at Cloud1 and never let them change. Also, to be able to find those people who share these values and want to be part of creating something spectacular.