For Tuomas Louekari his internship at Codeo marked the leap from a student to a full-time coder. Now that the internship is completed, we wanted to chat with Tuomas as well as Codeo’s Business Director, Liisa Rusanen, about what internship gave both to Tuomas and Codeo as an organization.
To complete Hivers' education as coders, Hive curriculum includes a mandatory internship, which gives the highly motivated students a first real-life experience of what working as a coder truly means. Tuomas Louekari, completed his internship at Codeo working on an open-source project called Hula as a Software Developer. Today, with Tuomas and Codeo’s Business Director, Liisa Rusanen, we will look back and talk about what the internship was like, and what they both learned through it.
Tuomas, this was your first job as a coder. What does your role include and what has the experience been like?
Tuomas: In practice, my internship role at Codeo was one of a full-stack developer. I was building an open-source Enterprise Resource Planning project called Hula, and got to choose the stack myself so it was a really great project overall. Also the leap from a student to a full-time coder was pretty smooth, largely because of the experimental nature of the project. Usually, I had the time to learn the new techniques and tools needed.
Liisa, Tuomas already mentioned he was part of Codeo’s Hula project. What’s the Hula project in a nutshell and what was Tuomas’ role in it?
Liisa: We got a rare opportunity from Business Finland to invest in developing Codeo’s internal tools and processes. We decided to develop a tool for matching the right developers with the right project opportunities. It was clear for us from the very start that we wanted to create an open source solution to share the benefits of our work.
The project was a typical agile project with a lot of cooperation, despite the team working remotely. Tuomas was the project’s key developer guided by a seasoned architect. Tuomas is an excellent team player and many of the great features and technologies were initiated by him.
What did the project teach you, Tuomas?
Tuomas: During the project, I learned Rust, Vue, SQL and maybe most importantly, how to architect a project like this. Software development is so much more than just typing out the code. Even in a relatively small project like Hula, you have to understand the implications of different approaches and communicate efficiently with your team and product owners. I was lucky enough to have a senior developer with me on the project but sometimes you just have to learn things the hard way.
Codeo used to only have senior coders at work, but now you decided to hire a junior coder. What kind of experience has this been for Codeo, Liisa?
Liisa: The experience we had with Tuomas has encouraged us to continue working on the model of on-boarding more junior and mid-level developers. They have very fresh ideas and a can-do attitude that we can learn a lot from.
How have the skills learned at Hive prepared you, Tuomas, for the demands of the project and working life in general?
Tuomas: During Hive I’ve pushed my own limits and strengthened my will to learn new things — it’s very motivating to see how difficult subjects gradually become familiar. For me, that has been the biggest takeaway so far but of course I’ve also learned quite a bit of code, problem-solving, and team skills too.
Last question goes to you Tuomas. If you could give a tip for someone considering a coding career, what would that tip be?
Tuomas: It’s not easy to give any one-size-fits-all kind of tips on starting a coding career. There are so many different roles involving coding that it’s really more of a question of the strengths and weaknesses of the person considering that move.
I hear a lot of comments like “coding is not for everyone”, and it’s often said in a certain tone, as if you’d need to be this or that to succeed in coding. I really think that if you just put in the hours, you can build a career out of it. Sure, it’s really hard sometimes, but I also believe that magic happens outside our comfort zones. For me, coding has been really good. When a project is healthy, coding is a very rewarding and challenging job.
Big thanks to the both of you, and good luck on your next projects!
Tuomas Louekari is now working as Full-Stack Developer at Logmore, and Liisa Rusanen is continuing her work on developing Codeo’s business further as Business Director.
If you are interested in hiring a Hiver, or learning more about the collaboration between Hive and companies across all industries, contact Emilia Puschmann (emilia@hive.fi), Hive’s Head of Career Services.