Eetu and Riku Heikkinen are brothers from Oulu, both of whom are studying at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences in the English-language Information Technology degree program. Both are also completing their Junior Software Developer internships currently at Pinja. After the internship and thesis, both brothers are promising candidates for a permanent job.
The Junior Software Developer internship has brought welcomed reinforcement to Pinja’s Kempele office. Riku Heikkinen, aged 26, began training in the iPES team in mid-March 2021 and Eetu, aged 28, in the Gema team in late March.
Both complete all three business-oriented projects in their studies at Pinja, each consisting of 200 working hours. After the completion of the internship, both will move on to writing their theses, after which they hope to continue at Pinja as permanent employees.
The Heikkinen brothers have helped each other out one after another. Eetu first discovered the English-language IT program of the Oulu University of Applied Sciences and became interested in it soon after, while Riku first found Pinja and told Eetu about the promising-sounding company.
Both think that the best thing about the Junior Software Developer internship has been that Pinja has provided real work, in real projects and for real clients.
– I actually applied to Pinja for a Front End Developer position based on a regular job posting. I explained my current study situation and mentioned that in some way I should also take care of the internships that are part of my studies. Pinja arranged things so that I could take care of all three internships in real customer projects consecutively, Riku says.
Both think that the best thing about the Junior Software Developer internship has been that Pinja has provided real work, in real projects and for real clients.
– This is a real win-win-win situation. We gain work experience from our own field, Pinja gains our work contribution to its projects and our school benefits from our shorter studies, Eetu states.
Junior Software Developer trainees are full-fledged team members
The brothers from Oulu praise that they have received a good initial introduction to the work, even though they do not work physically in the same space as the rest of the team. The Heikkinen brothers have worked flexibly both on site at Pinja’s Kempele office and remotely from home. The goals set for the Junior Software Developer internships have seemed appropriately sized and realistic.
– As soon as we arrived, we received a comprehensive manual for new employees from HR. In addition, I was given enough time to get to know the product, Gema. I have worked on both front end and back end coding and thus developed my skills towards full stack, Eetu says.
Riku’s goal in the iPES team has also been to get to know the product he has been working on, and even deeper during the latter two internship periods.
– I work as part of the project team and handle tickets according to customer requests. I get to work on my own initiative, but I am able to communicate with other team members through Slack. We have also performed pair coding, which is easily accomplished by sharing the screen. I don’t feel that physical distance was in any way a problem, Riku says.
The basics and principles of coding learned in the polytechnic training, as well as SQL database skills, have been a great help to the brothers’ work, and both of them have been able to deepen their knowledge of TypeScript, React and C# languages, among others. In addition, they have benefited from group work at the polytechnic, as real-world customer work is also largely done as a team. A software developer must not only be able to produce their own code, but also read and interpret code written by others.
The near future of the brothers includes the completion of internships with honor and the theses that lie ahead in the fall. After that, the world is open, and as both brothers speak other languages as well, they are hopeful of a permanent job – in the best case at Pinja and its international upthrust.
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