Paavo Huhtala. Software developer. Started as a trainee in 2016.
My classic summer job story goes something like this:
I had just started my first year at university, fresh out of high school, when I decided to attend our student group’s excursion to Reaktor HQ. The event aimed primarily at more experienced students, but I went anyway.
The excursion itself was great. At the end of it, I left my contact details on a Post-it note inside a Reaktor cap, and a few days later, I got an email:
"Hey, your GitHub profile looks good. Are you planning on applying for a summer job?"
I never actually submitted a formal application or CV, it was just that Post-it note. Fast forward to early winter, I went through the interview process, signed my contract in February 2016, and now, nine years later, I’m still here.
My key takeaway from that experience?
If you’re skilled and passionate about your craft, don’t hesitate to apply for a summer job – even if you’re new to the field or just starting your studies.
The best parts of the job are undoubtedly the team and my colleagues, as well as the tangible results we achieve.
As a full-stack developer in consulting, curiosity often leads me to all sorts of projects.
Sometimes, it’s fixing a bug that’s been ruining a user’s day, sometimes it’s optimizing a system to run twice as fast, and sometimes it’s saving a client €10K a year.
During my summer job years (2016–2018), I learned an incredible amount about consulting: how to communicate with clients, how long things truly take, how bureaucratic large corporations can be at their worst, and, most importantly, that it’s always better to set realistic expectations and exceed them – rather than overpromise (and underdeliver…).
Some of my best summer job memories include Reaktor’s famous Thursday dinners, team days, and events with fellow summer employees. One particularly memorable experience was my first team dinner at Restaurant Muru with my first team. Until then, I think my finest dining experience had been at Rosso.
My proudest Reaktor moments ever since? There are a few.
Telling a long-winded Susikoira Roi joke on stage to over a hundred Reaktorians.
Winning a cake at the 2023 Christmas party for a blog post I wrote that went viral and got featured in international media.
But my first truly proud moment was in the fall of 2016.
My official summer job had already ended, but I stayed on part-time and got to work on a recruitment campaign where applicants had to write code to steer a rocket.
One day, I hopped on a bus near the university campus and saw an ad for the campaign on the back of every seat.
That was the first time something I had helped code materialized in the real world.
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