The alarm clock goes off at 6am and after at least two cups of coffee, Santeri Tuominen opens his computer at 7am. This is how our Technical Architect, Santeri, starts his days. He enjoys the early starts as they are a good way to get some work done before the first meetings of the day. A few months ago, Santeri’s everyday life went through a shift when a new family member arrived. “At the moment, my life revolves around our baby pretty much”, he smiles, but mentions that his free time also consists of seeing friends or playing and watching different sports. Some of Santeri’s favorite sports to follow are ice hockey and Formula 1 racing, which he watches whenever he has the chance. Being a F1 race driver was one of his childhood dream jobs, but how did Santeri become a professional RPA specialist, who is motivated by the development possibilities of both one’s career and RPA?
Santeri’s interest towards RPA (Robotic Process Automation) first sparked when he was studying knowledge management at Tampere University of Technology and chose software engineering as his minor. In 2017 he had the opportunity to write his master’s thesis about utilizing RPA in company’s business activities and after that, the RPA world hooked Santeri. His journey at Efima started as an RPA Developer and he has since then continued to be a Senior RPA Developer. “One of the greatest things at Efima are the career development opportunities and that is personally an important aspect for me”, Santeri reflects his thoughts. “Efima enables multiple possibilities for professional growth, and you can create your own career path, traditional or unconventional, according to your interests.”
New year has also brought new opportunities – Santeri has started in a new position as an RPA Technical Architect. The role includes new responsibilities and Santeri will take care of planning bigger customer implementations, RaaS environment, as well as developing Efima’s RPA offering. “My new role will have even more variability in tasks and responsibilities, but also many new things to learn. Luckily, I’m pretty good at searching for answers, thanks to my time in university, so I’m sure everything will go just fine”, he laughs.
It is possible that you have several different customer accounts at the same time and in these moments, you get the chance to see different environments and to learn new things every day.
Before Efima, Santeri was in an in-house RPA position, and he says that work is more dynamic on the service provider’s side as there is more variability on tasks and customer cases. “It is possible that you have several different customer accounts at the same time and in these moments, you get the chance to see different environments and to learn new things every day. This naturally offers whole different kinds of opportunities to develop both your own skills and knowledge on software engineering, as well as on customer applications”, Santeri says and continues: “As a company, Efima does its best to keep up with RPA development and aims to be the pioneer in its field.” Santeri mentions that one interesting project recently has been a multidimensional, Attended RPA solution which required creating new customer solutions: “It is always interesting when you get the chance to carry out a new customer implementation. Those kinds of implementations allow you to design and create new solutions, at times in ways that are new to me as well.”
Santeri describes himself as an easy-going and calm person, who enjoys heavy music. Especially live music is close to his heart, and this is supported by the fact, that he has gone to his favorite band’s, Iron Maiden, concerts regularly – next summer he will attend to 11th concert at Nokia Arena. As a calm person he enjoys independent work but feels that teamwork is an important part of both work life and Efima as a company. “It is always nice to have the support of our team, and to have somebody to turn to in problematic situations. Often you get so much more done when working as a team versus individually, and our team spirit is great – new team members are included to everyday tasks, and they are also given responsibility as soon as they feel ready.”
When Santeri started at Efima, he was involved in his first customer implementation within two weeks. “We work as a team, and nobody isn’t left to deal with their first customer cases alone. Everyone is introduced to the company and work assignments individually instead of a general introduction.” This also reflects one of Efima’s company values, “come as you are” – each person is met and respected as an individual. Company values and culture are something that Santeri also mentions as an advantage because they truly are present in everyday work. These values and culture are embodied in the yearly Efima Awards and last November Santeri received an award himself: “At first I was surprised that I was awarded, but later on it was nice to realize that your effort at work has been noticed by your colleagues.” Among Efima’s values Santeri mentions flexibility as a big positive factor in working at Efima. “It gives you the opportunity to focus on what is really important and to do your work in ways that are best for you”, he sums up. Flexibility also creates important balance between work and free time, which is fundamental to a parent of a small child.