Saku and Markus are Information and Communication Technology engineering students at the Centria University of Applied Sciences in Kokkola. Both have two years of studies behind them and two more to go. For the first time, they had summer jobs at ALMA in summer 2023. Both Saku and Markus considered that experience so interesting and fulfilling that they decided to apply for a summer job with ALMA in 2024 as well.
Saku and Markus found their first summer job at ALMA so interesting and educational that they wanted to return to ALMA this summer.
With respect to ALMA, both of them value greatly the possibility to engage in real work right away. Saku’s job description has included user interface programming and development related to its interaction with servers, while Markus has programmed the user interface and its automatic tests.
From the very start, both have been entrusted with tasks involving independent work. According to Saku and Markus, help and support have always been available. Both have felt themselves members of the product development team. Communication with fellow team members has been fluent, and they have enjoyed their co-workers’ trust and the possibility to perform the assigned tasks in peace.
“I hoped for a chance to code the user interface. I had no previous experience with user interfaces of the kind, and learning to code the user interface was really interesting. I also feel to have learned a lot of other things during the summer,” Saku says. Markus continues: “This summer, I learned many new techniques used for automatic testing and user interface development.”
“Such extensive matters cannot be learned at school; you only get to know them when doing actual work.” Both agree with this.
Saku and Markus also agree on that the best thing about their summer job has been the possibility to work on their own and independently, and the work has been truly versatile and reasonably challenging. They have enjoyed their co-workers’ trust and the possibility to perform the assigned tasks in peace, with the team’s support and assistance.
“While the regular product development team was on their scheduled vacation, Saku and Markus handled the tasks assigned to them just fine and the progress of our work has been persistent,” praises Jarkko Isohanni, the person responsible for user interface development.
Saku and Markus are now ready to continue their studies. Saku in Kokkola and Markus in Poland, as an exchange student for the next year. Their experience at ALMA has yielded valuable lessons and confidence for their future working life.