The most valuable skill I have acquired during my years in tech has been trust: in myself, my experience, and my competencies. This trust comes after experiencing successes and failures – and it has given me so much strength: I am not scared of giving feedback, nor do I fear making mistakes. We will find a solution, pull through, and come to the other side.
I have worked at Digia for seven years as a Sr. Service Manager. Looking back at my 25-year career, I find myself fortunate to pass on to my team all of what I have learned. My experience has also allowed me to create and develop service management processes that make the work easier and solution-oriented.
Falling in love with technology by luck
I am one of those stories: I became an IT person by accident. Since I was young, I dreamed of living abroad. Back then it wasn’t so easy, so I did it through my studies. I went to the US to study Foreign Affairs and International Relations. I then returned to Finland, went back to the US, went to France, and the UK. After experimenting in the field, trying out volunteer work at NGOs, and also exploring lobbying and debating, I finally concluded that diplomacy was not for me. Back in Finland, I completed another MA Degree at Tampere University at the International School of Social Sciences.
My first job came as an opening from a company that coordinated at the time an EU gathering. Since I had international skills, I landed the role. It was already a considerable leap from what I had studied because the company was a Healthcare technology innovation company. What felt amazing in the job was to be part of creating solutions that helped people. It was a small place, now part of public healthcare, but back then a private company. I stayed in the healthcare technology field, and it was simply wonderful: I moved on to what is now GE, where I got to train the company’s sales force. Although I loved the training side of the job, I wasn’t ready to stay only at that, so I started at Proha, where I worked as a Project Manager and at the same time provided software: financial software, project software, e-learning.
After that, I spent a few years at CGI, and I dare to say that almost all I learned about Service Management I learnt there: everything I worked on was just so big at CGI! I also had good team leaders, who always encouraged me to learn more and go further.
Hannamari Meklin, Sr. Service Manager, Digia
Growing, learning, and giving at Digia
Digia is a great place to work. As a Service Manager, I work with the product after it is ready and in the client’s hands. Service management is time-critical and solutions are business-critical too: in our projects, we design products for the customers, and after being in production, they go into service management. This means we have many protocols and processes for incidents that occur once the product is already working – these are the ones I have had the luck to create and develop. I consider myself a problem solver; hence service management is perfect for me: there is always something to fix! After so many years in the field, I believe it comes easy to me to find solutions that are the perfect balance between time and cost.
At Digia, I am also a team leader, which I consider the best part of my job. I am involved in helping talent grow, shine, and learn. As a Service Manager, but also and especially as a Team Leader, there are skills that I have learned and honed throughout these years. One of them is to see potential talent for what makes them special: nowadays, it is almost a requirement to be sociable and dynamic, yet in my recruitment, I also value candidates who are more silent and calmer. Something else I have learned is that failures are not personal. If the deal fails, that does not change my value as a person or as a professional. For a while, the economic situation has been globally challenging, so of course in business, frustration gets in the way – but I try to pass this on: we always need to set boundaries. We need to give feedback, and we need to leave the fear aside.
Finally, I try to see life as a balance between my job and other valuable ways of spending my time. An example of this is my volunteering – I volunteer for my child’s synchronised skating club, Helsingin Taitoluisteluklubi. We are a big group of volunteers, and I am in awe of these people: we work hard, in our free time, mostly during the evenings after a day of work and everyday life. I am aware that volunteer work is not an activity as trendy as pilates or yoga can be, and this is the key – we need to choose what makes us recover and allows us to rest.
After 25 years of my career, I find myself in a life-changing moment, the last one before retirement, which is a big change in itself. That is why I feel it is important to ponder what my next turn should be, if there is any at all! Do I still want to aim for a bigger position, or would I rather prefer to enjoy the surprises, novelties, and challenges of this one? This is also a good reflection to pass on: landing the perfect job is not only a question of salary, at least not for me anymore, but I believe it is important to consider other benefits: hybrid work, the trust of colleagues, and healthcare.
Breaking the glass ceilings, one at a time and with patience
At Digia, my team has nine members, with only one being male. This is a happy coincidence! Overall in the company, 29% of the talent is female, and many are in Marketing or HR. We need more women in business area leads, and we definitely need more women developers. The goal is to get there, and we are surely getting there: this is a marathon we’re running, not a sprint. It is a long-term commitment with plenty to change.
At the same time, I believe it is fundamental to promote age diversity – my team has quite a varied age range, and I see the benefit of this when everyone learns from others’ knowledge and perspectives.
Thinking about women in tech from a recruiting perspective
I wish we had more female developers in IT-field. So, although I would advise young female professionals to enter the world of IT with an open mind –this is, you don’t have to be a developer!- I also feel inclined to say: don’t be afraid to try it out.
Perhaps my word of encouragement goes to those on the recruiting side: recruit women for leadership positions even if they do not have an engineering degree –the passions and skills that are beneficial for leading a team do not necessarily come (or at least not all!) from an IT background.
A favourite: every book is a favourite book
I am a huge book lover – every book I read becomes my favourite until I read the next one. Right now I recommend Getting Lost, by Annie Ernaux.
