11 Themes in Codento’s Culture

The employees of Codento have many things in common, such as a human approach to work and an interest in cloud technology. For each employee, however, Codento naturally means different things with slight nuances.

At Codento, three times a year, led by our HR, comprehensive discussions are held with each employee individually. The agenda in these meetings is to gather employee understanding and survey work well-being: How is the customer project going, how is Codento treating you, are you feeling heard in the work community and how are you able to recover after working days.

In this article, I bring up topics that have come up several times in these discussions, my aspiration is to form my own interpretation of Codento’s day-to-day operations as realistically as possible, dealing with both sides of the coin. So, underneath you will see some topics accompanied by more or less organized thoughts.

 

Interest in Cloud Technology

The people of Codento see very meaningful e.g. that we can use our working time to study and that we can earn bonuses from Google Cloud certificates. Therefore, we naturally have a lot of expertise and interest in the area.

On the other hand, sometimes it also feels like urgency in customer cases doesn’t leave you the time so you could study the shiny new things of cloud technology. Fortunately, we usually also find time to study in a suitable gap!

 

Caring about Employees

On several occasions, how Codento takes care of employees comes up in the HR discussions. Both HR, supervisors, and other Codentians are easily approachable and take your individual perspective into account.

On the other hand, sometimes supervisors also are a bit short on time, since customer work can take up time from the calendar. Of course, this is usually seen as understandable from the employee’s point of view, but the 121 discussions have always been held with us every month. If one forgets these, my colleague Marika and I will let them know!

 

Development Path to Google’s Cloud Technology

Development regarding cloud technology takes place in projects, studying for certificates, jointly organized workshops or bulletins, and informal sparring. Common enthusiasm for the matter is clearly visible.

On the other hand, it has also been seen as necessary to create clearer and more strictly limited development paths. This has been taken into account and e.g. through the new Agileday system, we can build a more personal plan for everyone and easier-to-follow steps in skill development.

 

Remote-focused hybrid work

At Codento, the employee is strongly trusted, as a result of which the time of work, way of working, and place of work can often be arranged by yourself. Of course, the requirements of client work set some boundaries here, but otherwise, we are open to all kinds of arrangements, as long as the work gets done. So there is a lot of flexibility for different situations and ways of working.

On the other hand, the people of Codento have also wished for more frequent visits to the office. In this way, getting to know both new and old colleagues goes more naturally and the group spirit is maintained a little better. Joint kick-offs and other larger gatherings have always left a really warm feeling.

 

Balance Between Work and Free Time

The people of Codento do not lose sleep at night because of work. The overall message in this area is clear when we ask our employees about recovery and workload. It is also very important for us to stick to this in the future.

Naturally, sometimes in a consultant’s work, there are situations where you have to do many things at the same time and the stress levels are higher. It is our responsibility as company representatives to ensure that no one has a situation like this for a longer time.

 

Openness and Transparency

Every week we have two all-hands meetings for everyone (called worksite meetings), where we review the sales pipeline and current customers.

On Tuesdays, the sales team presents the latest opportunities about the possible assignments, goes through the offers sent to possible customers, and tells what cases have been won or lost. This way, everyone in Codento knows what to expect in the near future.

On Thursdays, we review all current customers and give the floor to the consultants. In these meetings, a list of clients is discussed and comments are asked about how things are going and whether there have been any difficulties. This way, everyone in Codento is better informed about the present.

Of course, we don’t always have time or are able to share everything, but we try to give everyone as clear a picture as possible of the state of the company.

 

A Capable Team

Often in discussions, appreciation for the skills of colleagues comes up. The people of Codento appreciate each other’s expertise and are happy to share theirs. Our advantage is also that there is expertise in so many areas.

On the other hand, sometimes looking for direction for learning can also be a little tricky with a technically diverse group, no matter how skilled you are. Fortunately, this is constantly on our minds and guidelines are starting to have a clear figure.

 

Good lessons and interesting discussions

Bulletins, workshops, and training held by Codento’s own employees have often been praised. Who else would be better to guide you in a new and interesting topic or technology than an expert who is enthusiastic about the topic?

On the other hand, at every moment we don’t have time to organize as many such joint learning gatherings as we would like. This is naturally recognized in everyday consulting work, but sometimes we miss common learning experiences alongside work. However, the matter is always in the back of our minds and these gatherings are arranged at suitable intervals whenever we can.

 

Ownership Opportunity

More than half of Codento’s employees are also shareholders in the company. It naturally gives meaning to the days when work is done for the common good of us all. We also try to hold emissions of shares for as long as possible, so that everyone who wants can join the journey.

Of course, this is not endless, and not necessarily always predictable. Hopefully, we can take the people of Codento along on the growth journey for as long as possible!

 

Cooperation with Google Cloud – Cutting-Edge Technology

It’s pretty cool from a developer’s point of view to be able to do things in cooperation with such a giant of information technology. As a partner, we get access to the latest information and interesting technologies a bit faster.

Sometimes you have to wait a bit for them to be used in practice, even though your fingers are already itching to make customer solutions with the latest tools. But, they always come into use at some point and we’re among the first!

 

Company Full of Great People

This is a very common comment in HR discussions. In general, the atmosphere and the people of Codento are pretty laid-back. However, we can all recognize that this does not mean that you cannot work seriously and fully. The work will certainly be done, as you can expect from a competent team.

Still, even though we have a wonderful group of people, we must strive to increase diversity more in the future. As you know, different backgrounds and perspectives affect the software or artificial intelligence models being built.

 

Here’s my point of view on Codento’s culture and Codentians. Someone else might describe us a bit differently but I’m sure there would be similar themes.

 

About the author :

Perttu Pakkanen is responsible for talent acquisition at Codento. Perttu wants to make sure that the employees enjoy themselves at Codento because it makes his job much easier.

Codento Levels Up Serverless Expertise at Google Cloud Nordics Serverless Summit 2023

Codento Levels Up Serverless Expertise at Google Cloud Nordics Serverless Summit 2023

 

Authors: Olli-Pekka Lamminen, Google Bard

In November, Codento was thrilled to be invited to attend the Google Cloud Nordics Serverless Summit 2023 in Sunnyvale, California. This two-day event, held at the Google Cloud campus, was packed with exciting updates, in-depth discussions, and valuable networking opportunities.

 

Cloud-Powered Efficiency: Cost, Performance, and Creativity

The ability to drive down operational costs featured heavily at the Serverless Summit. With a pay-as-you-go pricing model and reduced price for idle instances Cloud Run is one of the most cost effective ways for businesses to run their workloads in a serverless environment. Flexible scaling from zero aligns perfectly with the dynamic nature of serverless applications, ensuring that organisations only pay for the resources they consume. This together with low management overhead and ease of development makes serverless technology accessible and affordable for businesses of all sizes.

Synthetic monitoring with Cloud Ops provides proactive insights into application performance and health, enabling businesses to identify and address potential issues before they impact real users. By simulating user interactions, this monitoring tool proactively identifies and alerts about potential problems, allowing businesses to maintain scalable and responsiveoperations. Together with capabilities like Log Analytics and AIOps, the Cloud Operations suite empowers businesses to prevent and address performance issues proactively, ensuring a consistently positive user experience.

Cloud based development environments, enhanced with Duet AI, bring the power of artificial intelligence to the creative workspace. Duet AI acts as an intelligent assistant, providing real-time feedback and suggestions, enabling creative professionals to enhance their productivity and achieve their visions. Google’s commitment to protecting its customers using generative AI products, like Duet AI and Vertex AI, in the event of copyright infringement lawsuits further reinforces the company’s dedication to innovation and responsible AI development.

 

Google’s Focus on Developer Experience with Cloud Run

It was evident that Google is placing a strong emphasis enhancing developer experience, focusing on making Cloud Run even more developer-friendly and efficient. The company discussed several new features and enhancements designed to streamline the process of building and deploying serverless applications, all of which are already available at least in preview today. These include:

  • Accelerated Build and Deployment: Google is streamlining the build and deployment process for Cloud Run applications with optimised buildpacks, making it easier and faster for developers to get their applications up and running quickly, efficiently and securely.
  • Improved Performance and Scalability: Google is continuously improving the performance and scalability of Cloud Run, ensuring that applications can handle even the most demanding workloads. Cloud Run has demonstrated the ability to scale from zero to thousands within mere seconds.
  • Ease of Integration with Other Google Cloud Offerings: With Cloud Run integrations, developers can easily take other Google Cloud services, such as Cloud Load Balancing, Firebase Hosting and Cloud Memorystore, in use with their serverless applications. Products like Eventarc allow developers to establish seamless communication between serverless applications and other cloud services, facilitating event-driven workflows and real-time data processing.
  • Simplified Networking and Security: While Cloud Run integrations make using load balancers a breeze, Direct VPC egress enables serverless applications to directly access resources within a VPC, eliminating the need for a proxy. This direct communication enhances performance and minimises latency. IAP provides a secure gateway for external users to access serverless applications, leveraging Google’s authentication infrastructure to verify user identities before granting access.
  • Effortless Workload Migration: Cloud Run and GKE Autopilot can run the same container images without any modifications, and their resource descriptions are nearly identical. This makes it incredibly easy to move your workloads between the two platforms, depending on your specific needs or as those needs evolve.

 

Project Starline and the Future of Internet in Space

Beyond the technical discussions, we also had the opportunity to explore Project Starline, Google’s experimental 3D video communication technology. Project Starline uses a combination of hardware and software to create a more natural and immersive video conferencing experience.

We also had the pleasure of discussing the future of the internet in space with Vint Cerf, a pioneer in the field of computer networking and often referred to as the “father of the Internet.” Cerf shared his insights on the challenges and opportunities of building a reliable and accessible internet infrastructure in space.

 

An Invaluable Experience that Spurs Innovation

Overall, the Google Cloud Nordics Serverless Summit 2023 proved to be an invaluable experience for us. We gained insights into the latest advancements in serverless technology, learned from Google experts, and connected with other industry leaders. We are excited to apply our newfound knowledge to help our customers build and deploy even more innovative serverless applications.

About the Authors

Olli-Pekka Lamminen is an experienced software and cloud architect at Codento, with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. Olli-Pekka is utilising his extensive background and knowledge to design and implement robust, scalable software solutions for our customers. His deep understanding of cloud technologies and telecommunications empowers him to deliver exceptional solutions that meet the evolving needs of businesses.

Google Bard is a powerful language model that can generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way. It is still under development, but we are excited about its potential to help people in a variety of ways.

 

Learn more about Codento’s software intelligence services:

100 Customer Conversations Shaped Our New AI and Apps Service Offering 

100 Customer Conversations Shaped Our New AI and Apps Service Offering 

 

Author: Anthony Gyursanszky, CEO, Codento

 

Foreword

A few months back, in a manufacturing industry event: Codento  just finished our keynote together with Google and our people started mingling among the audience. Our target was to agree on a follow-up discussions about how to utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) and modern applications for their business.

The outcome of that mingling session was staggering. 50% of the people we talked with wanted to continue the dialogue with us after the event. The hit rate was not 10%, not 15%, but 50%. 

We knew before already that AI will change everything, but with this, our  confidence climbed to another level . Not because we believed in this, but because we realized that so many others did, too.

AI will change the way we serve customers and manufacture things, the way we diagnose and treat illnesses, the way we travel and commute, and the way we learn. AI is everywhere, and not surprisingly, it is also the most common topic that gets executives excited and interested in talking. 

AI does not solve the use cases without application innovations. Applications  integrate the algorithms to an existing operating environment, they provide required user interfaces, and  they handle the orchestration in a more complex setup.

 

We address your industry- and role-specific needs with AI and application innovations 

We at Codento have been working with AI and Apps for several years now. Some years back, we also sharpened our strategy to be the partner of choice in Finland for Google Cloud Platform-based solutions in the AI and applications innovation space. 

During the past six months, we have been on a mission to workshop with as many organizations as possible about their needs and aspirations for AI and Apps. This mission has led us to more than a hundred discussions with dozens and dozens of people from the manufacturing industry to retail and healthcare to public services.

Based on these dialogues, we concluded that it is time for Codento to move from generic technology talks to more specific messages that speak the language of our customers. 

Thus, we are thrilled to introduce our new service portfolio, shaped by those extensive conversations with various organizations’ business, operations, development, and technology experts.

Tailored precisely to address your industry and role-specific requirements, we now promise you more transparent customer foresight, smarter operations, and increased software intelligence – all built on a future-proof, next-generation foundation on Google Cloud. 

These four solution areas will form the pillars of Codento’s future business. Here we go.

 

AI and Apps for Customer Foresight

As we engaged with sales, marketing and customer services officers we learned that the majority is stuck with limited visibility of customer understanding and of the impact their decisions and actions have on their bottom line. AI and Apps can change all this.

For example, with almost three out of four online shoppers expecting brands to understand their unique needs, the time of flying blind on marketing, sales, and customer service is over.

Codento’s Customer Foresight offering is your key to thriving in tomorrow’s markets.  

  • Use data and Google’s innovative tech, trained on the world’s most enormous public datasets, to find the right opportunities, spot customers’ needs, discover new markets, and boost sales with more intelligent marketing. 
  • Exceed your customers’ expectations by elevating your retention game with great experiences based on new technology. Keep customers returning by foreseeing their desires and giving them what they want when and how they want it – even before they realize their needs themselves. 
  • Optimize Your Profits with precise data-driven decisions based on discovering your customers’ value with Google’s ready templates for calculating Customer Lifetime Value. With that, you can focus on the best customers, make products that sell, and set prices that work. 

 

AI and Apps for Smart Operations 

BCG has stated that 89% of industrial companies plan to implement AI in their production networks. As we have been discussing with the operations, logistics and supply chain directors, we have seen this to be true – the appetite is there.

Our renewed Smart Operations offering is your path to operational excellence and increased resilience. You should not leave this potential untapped in your organization. 

  • By smart scheduling your operations, we will help streamline your factory, logistics, projects, and supply chain operations. With the help of Google’s extensive AI tools for manufacturing and logistics operations, you can deliver on time, within budget, and with superior efficiency. 
  • Minimize risks related to disruptions, protect your reputation, and save resources, thereby boosting employee and customer satisfaction while cutting costs.  
  • Stay one step ahead with the power of AI, transparent data, and analytics. Smart Operations keeps you in the know, enabling you to foresee and tackle disruptions before they even happen. 

 

AI and Apps for Software Intelligence 

For the product development executives of software companies, Codento offers tools and resources for unleashing innovation. The time to start benefiting from AI in software development is now. 

Gartner predicts that 15% of new applications will be automatically generated by AI in the year 2027 – that is, without any interaction with a human. As a whopping 70% of the world’s generative AI startups already rely on Google Cloud’s AI capabilities, we want to help your development organization do the same. 

  • Codento’s support for building an AI-driven software strategy will help you confidently chart your journey. You can rely on Google’s strong product vision and our expertise in harnessing the platform’s AI potential. 
  • Supercharge your software development and accelerate your market entry with cutting-edge AI-powered development tools. With Codento’s experts, your teams can embrace state-of-the-art DevOps capabilities and Google’s cloud-native application architecture. 
  • When your resources fall short, you can scale efficiently by complementing your development capacity with our AI and app experts. Whether it’s Minimum Viable Products, rapid scaling, or continuous operations, we’ve got your back. 

 

Nextgen Foundation to enable AI and Apps

While the business teams are moving ahead with AI and App  initiatives related to Customer Foresight, Smart Operations, and Software Intelligence   IT functions are often bound to legacy IT and data  architectures and application portfolios. This creates pressure for the IT departments to keep up with the pace.

All the above-mentioned comes down to having the proper foundation to build on, i.e., preparing your business for the innovations that AI and application technologies can bring. Moving to a modern cloud platform will allow you to harness the potential of AI and modern applications, but it is also a cost-cutting endeavor.BCG has studied companies that are forerunners in digital and concluded that they can save up to 30% on their IT costs when moving applications and infrastructure to the cloud. 

  • Future-proof your architecture and operations with Google’s secure, compliant, and cost-efficient cloud platform that will scale to whatever comes next. Whether you choose a single cloud strategy or embrace multi-cloud environments, Codento has got you covered. 
  • You can unleash the power and amplify the value of your data through real-time availability, sustainable management, and AI readiness. With Machine Learning Ops (MLOps), we streamline your organization’s scaling of AI usage. 
  • We can also help modernize your dated application portfolio with cloud-native applications designed for scale, elasticity, resiliency, and flexibility. 

 

Sharpened messages wing Codento’s entry to the Nordic market 

With these four solution areas, we aim to discover the solutions to your business challenges quickly and efficiently. We break the barriers between business and technology with our offerings that speak the language of the target person. We are dedicated to consistently delivering solutions that meet your needs and learn and become even more efficient over time.  

Simultaneously, we eagerly plan to launch Codento’s services and solutions to the Nordic market. Our goal is to guarantee that our customers across the Nordics can seize the endless benefits of Google’s cutting-edge AI and application technologies without missing a beat.

About the author:

Anthony Gyursanszky, CEO, joined Codento in late 2019 with more than 30 years of experience in the IT and software industry. Anthony has previously held management positions at F-Secure, SSH, Knowit / Endero, Microsoft Finland, Tellabs, Innofactor and Elisa. Hehas also served on the boards of software companies, including Arc Technology and Creanord. Anthony also works as a senior consultant for Value Mapping Services. His experience covers business management, product management, product development, software business, SaaS business, process management, and software development outsourcing. Anthony is also a certified Cloud Digital Leader.

 

Contact us for more information on our services:

 

Codento’s Values: Empathy

Empathy at Codento

 

Empathy is one of Codento’s three values. What does it mean?

Empathy is (roughly put) the ability to understand another person’s thoughts. It’s the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and see the world through their eyes. Empathy, therefore, requires the understanding that you have a separate mind from another person and that this other person can see things in a different way. This is again an essential part of interaction in working life as well.

Empathy is not only a friendly and caring attitude toward other people. That is just a common derivative of empathy.

 

Can you separate feelings and rationality?

In everyday speech, one might say that someone is a “rational person” and another is a “feeling person” or that different brain areas produce feelings, and one is more the engine of analytical reasoning. In reality, a person cannot tell these apart. All thinking involves reason and feeling.

Because of this, it is essential that in any job, you know how to recognize not only the logic but also where the thinking comes from in the mind of another individual. The interaction is, therefore, not a neutral exchange of logical arguments.

 

What does this have to do with technical consulting?

A lot, actually. The customer doesn’t just have us as a pair of hands mechanically producing lines of code. We are also there to make changes, offer perspectives and share know-how, among other things. All of this happens in interaction with people, and it goes without saying that the understanding I opened above from another person’s point of view makes the delivery considerably easier.

In addition to customer work, Codento also conducts internal development, e.g., regarding service products and various tools. The same principles as in customer work can be applied in this area. Actions are strongly linked to understanding another person’s point of view. Not to mention other socializing, culture, and coffee table discussions.

 

What role does empathy play in the everyday life of Codento?

We hold HR discussions with each consultant three times a year. They comprehensively review the feelings of a person from Codento regarding the client or the project they’re working on and Codento in general, themes related to coping and recovery in general, as well as, for example, getting help within the company if necessary. It’s not unusual that in these conversations it comes up how easy it is to be at Codento and a lovely group of people. This is not a direct effect of empathy but can undoubtedly be directly derived.

Working life is not automatic and robotic execution, let’s leave it to artificial intelligence and algorithms. Empathy is a critical ability in today’s working life.

 

 

About the author :

Perttu Pakkanen is responsible for talent acquisition at Codento. Perttu wants to make sure that the employees enjoy themselves at Codento because it makes his job much easier.

Codento Goes FooConf 2023 – Highlights and Learnings

Codento Goes FooConf 2023 – Highlights and Learnings

 

Author: Andy Valjakka, Full Stack Developer and an Aspiring Architect, Codento

Introduction

While spending most of our time consulting for our clients every now and then a perfect opportunity arises to get inspiration from high quality conferences. This time a group of codentians decide to spend an exciting day at fooConf 2023 with a bunch of fellow colleagues from other organizations.

 

FooConf 2023: Adventures in the Conference for Developers, by Developers

The first-ever fooConf has wrapped up, and it has given its attendees a wealth of information about tools, technologies, and methods, as well as inspiring keynote speeches. We got to experience a range of presentations that approached the listeners in differing ways, ranging from thought-provoking presentations where the attendees were offered novel perspectives all the way down to very practical case studies that illustrated how the learning is done by actually doing.

So what exactly is fooConf? As their website states, it is a conference that is “by Developers for Developers”. In other words, all the presentations have been tailored to those working in the software industry: functional, practical information that can be applied right now.

Very broadly speaking, the presentations fell into two categories: 

  1. Demonstrating the uses and benefits of different tools, and
  2. Exploratory studies on actual cases or on how to think about problems.

Additionally, the keynote speeches formed their own third category about personal growth and self-reflection in the ever-changing turbulence of the industry. 

Let’s dive deeper into each of the categories and see what we can find!

 

Tools of the Trade

In our profession, there is definitely no shortage of tools that range from relatively simple IDE plugins to intelligent assistants such as GitHub Copilot. In my experience, you tend to pick some and grow familiar with them, which can make it difficult to expand your horizons on the matter. Perhaps some of the tools presented are just the thing you need for your current project.

For example, given that containers and going serverless are current trends, there is a lot to learn on how to operate those kinds of environments properly. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to container security on Kubernetes, a presentation by Abdellfetah Sghiouar, had plenty to offer on how to ensure your clusters are not compromised by threats such as non-secure images and users with too many privileges. In particular, using gVisor to create small, isolated kernels for containers was an idea we could immediately see real-life use for.

Other notable highlights are as follows:

  • For Java developers, in particular, there is OpenLiberty – a cloud-native microservice framework that is a runtime for MicroProfile. (Cloud-Native Dev Tools: Bringing the cloud back to earth by Grace Jansen.)
  • GitHub Actions – a way to do DevOps correctly right away with an exciting matrix strategy feature to easily configure similar jobs with small variations. (A Call to (GitHub) Actions! by Justin Lee.)
  • Retrofitting serverless architecture to a legacy system can be done by cleverly converting the system data into events using Debezium. (A Legacy App enters a Serverless Bar by Sébastien Blanc.)

 

Problems Aplenty

At its core, working with software requires problem-solving skills which in turn require ideas, new perspectives, and occasionally a pinch of madness as well. Learning from the experiences of others is invaluable as it is the best way to approach subjects without having to dive deep into them, with the added bonus of getting to hear what people like you really think about them. Luckily, fooConf had more than enough to offer in this regard.

For instance, the Security by design presentation by Daniel Deogun gave everyone a friendly reminder that security issues are always present and you should build “Defense in Depth” by implementing secure patterns to every facet of your software – especially if you are building public APIs. A notable insight from this presentation relates to the relatively recent Log4Shell vulnerability: logging frameworks should be seen as a separate system and treated as such. Among other things, the presentation invited everyone to think about what parts of your software are – in actuality – separate and potentially vulnerable systems.

Other highlights:

  • In the future of JavaScript, there will be an aim to close the gap between server and client-side rendering by leaving the minimum possible amount of JavaScript to be executed by the end-user. (JavaScript frameworks of tomorrow by Juho Vepsäläinen.)
  • Everyone has the responsibility to test software, even if there are designated testers; testers can uncover unique perspectives via research, but 77% of production failures could be caught by unit testing. (Let’s do a Thing and Call it Foo by Maaret Pyhäjärvi.)
  • Having a shot at solutions used in other domains might just have a chance to work out, as was learned by Supermetrics, who borrowed the notion of a central authentication server from MMORPG video games. (Journeying towards hybridization across clouds and regions by Duleepa Wijayawardhana.)

Just like learning from the experiences of others is important for you, it is just as valuable for others to hear your experiences as well. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge, and make an effort to free up some time from your team’s calendar to simply share thoughts on any subject. Setting the bar low is vital; an idea that seems like a random thought to you might just be a revelation for someone else.

 

Timeless Inspiration

The opening keynote speech, Learning Through Tinkering by Tom Cools, was a journey through the process of learning by doing, and it invited everyone to be mindful of what they learn and how. In many circumstances, it is valuable to be aware of the “zone of proximal development”: the area of knowledge that is reachable by the learner with guidance. This is a valuable notion to keep in mind not only for yourself but also for your team, especially if you happen to be leading one: understanding the limits in your team can help you aid each other forward better. Additionally, it is too easy to trip over every possibility that crosses your path. That’s why it is important to pick one achievable target at a time and be mindful of the goals of your learning.

Undoubtedly, each of us in the profession has had the experience of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things to learn. Even the conference itself offered too much for any one person to grasp fully. The closing keynote speech – Thinking Architecturally by Nate Schutta – served as a gentle reminder that it is okay not to be on the bleeding edge of technology. Technologies come and go in waves that tend to have patterns in the long run, so no knowledge is ever truly obsolete. Rather, you should be strategic in where you place your attention since none of us can study every bit of even a limited scope. The most important thing is to be open-minded and achieve a wide range of knowledge by being familiar with a lot of things and deeper knowledge on a more narrowly defined area – also known as “being a T-shaped generalist”.

(Additionally, the opening keynote introduced my personal favorite highlight of the entire conference, the Teachable Machine. It makes the use of machine learning so easy that it is almost silly not to jump right in and build something. Really inspiring stuff!)

 

Challenge Yourself Today

Overall, the conference was definitely a success, and it delivered upon its promise of being for developers. Every presentation had a lot to offer, and it can be quite daunting to try to choose what to bring along with you from the wealth of ideas on display. On that note, you can definitely take the advice presented in the first keynote speech to heart: don’t overdo it, it is completely valid to pick just one subject you want to learn more about and start there. Keep the zone of proximal development in mind as well: you don’t know what you don’t know, so taking one step back might help you to take two steps forward.

For me personally, machine learning tends to be a difficult subject to grasp. As a musician, I had a project idea where I could program a drum machine to understand hand gestures, such as showing an open hand to stop playing. I gave up on the project after realizing that my machine learning knowledge was not up to par. Now that I know of Teachable Machine, the project idea has resurfaced since I am now able to tinker with the idea since the difficult part has been sorted out.

If you attended, we are interested to hear your topics of choice. Even if you didn’t attend or didn’t find any of the presented subjects to be the right fit for you, I’m sure you have stumbled upon something interesting you want to learn more about but have been putting off. We implore you to make the conscious choice to start now!

The half-life of knowledge might be short, but the wisdom and experience learning fosters will stay with you for a lifetime.

Happy learning, and see you at fooConf 2024!

About the author: Andy Valjakka is a full stack developer and an aspiring architect who joined Codento in 2022. Andy began his career in 2018 by tackling complicated challenges in a systematic way which led to his Master’s Thesis on re-engineering front-end frameworks in 2019. Nowadays, he is a Certified Professional Google Cloud Architect whose specialty is discovering the puzzle pieces that make anything fit together.

Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers Part 7 – Community and empathy

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY: Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers

Part 7 – Community and empathy

NOTE: If you wandered into this blog series for the first time, I recommend first reading my first post that elaborates on the whole series here

 

The themes of community and empathy come up the most in my analysis material. This came as a slight surprise to me, but it’s not a miracle after all. We are social animals, and working life is not separate from “real” life itself, so why would working together at the workplace and bonding with other people not be important?

 

Corona time

The last couple of years we have been more or less isolated from friends, strangers, coworkers, and even family members. Thus, the longing to be together with others can rise to the top of the motivation list even for a slightly more introverted person.

Can we assume that the triumph of communalism in my analysis is due to this very unusual global situation of recent years? Perhaps. At the very least, it sounds likely that it played a role. However, I wouldn’t count on the fact that the importance of human-to-human communication would decrease without the impact of the pandemic.

 

Meaningfulness

Although work can be seen completely as a means of making money, in general, we still need some kind of connection with other people. The workplace, on the other hand, tends to be the environment where we spend a large part of our day, so it is understandable to want it to be pleasant.

Pleasantness probably consists of a safe atmosphere, a sense of belonging, shared interests, and similar things. Belonging and common goals also create meaning, which is very important to a person. The sense of meaning is also useful for the company in the longer term when more effort is likely to be put towards the common goal and this effort causes less mental load.

 

Empathy and business

Our recently held Nextgencloud Webinar covered the topic of competitive advantage of a business in this digital world. A culture of psychological safety emerged in the discussion as an important factor for achieving a competitive advantage, which leads to the fact that problems can be raised and thus also solved with the right tools.

If people are supposed to act coldly and rationally, you probably won’t get to this kind of culture. The right means for a culture that benefits the bottom line of such a company and the employee can be found, among other things, in the skills of listening and being present.

 

Summary

As I wrote above, the category of empathy and community, which emerged as the most important factor as a slight surprise, is actually not that surprising. In my own bubble, I have begun to perceive the world of thought of genuine humanization of working life to an ever-increasing degree, which warms my heart. Maybe there is hope in working life!

 

About the author:

Perttu Pakkanen is the Talent Acquisition Lead at Codento. Perttu is eager in making sure that people joining Codento will fit with the values of Codento and enjoy the ride with us. Perttu’s passion is to understand what drives people in their career decisions.

 

Contact us regarding our open positions:

Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers Part 6 – Professional skills in the organization

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY: Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers

Part 6 – Professional skills in the organization

NOTE: If you wandered into this blog series for the first time, I recommend first reading my first post that elaborates on the whole series here

 

In addition to maintaining and growing your own professional skills, which I wrote in the previous post, it is great to be surrounded by competent people. In this way, competence and professionalism develop together which benefits all parties involved. It is said that a group is more than the sum of its members. This saying can also be applied in the IT sector.

In my analysis of the characteristics important of an employer, professionalism in the organization turned out to be a separate category which was the fourth most important of the six categories. It includes the skills of the team, the skills of the supervisor, and the skill of listening to the personnel.

 

Teamwork and social skills

Team competence can be understood in at least two different ways. Someone might make a difference between soft and hard skills, I make a difference between different skills because “soft” skills are skills just like any other. Taking others into consideration and interaction skills is sometimes hard work, and when successful, the team members create the psychological safety I mentioned earlier, which again plays a key role in the success of an expert organization. Mindfulness of others is thus an important success factor in an organization.

 

Technical know-how all around

Technical professionals are also interested in the know-how of others. The environment for working is enjoyable when those around you know something that you don’t know yourself. This does not require a machine from which gurus of the same topic one after another rush into the yard, but people from different backgrounds. A junior coder can just as well have new and interesting tricks to teach a senior since they look at the field with completely fresh eyes. Here too, to the point of the reader getting bored, I bring up the importance of a safe atmosphere and a sense of security, so that thoughts and things can really be shared.

 

Foreperson and the skill of listening

Listening – or at least pretending to – is easy. Listening and truly internalizing the thought turns out to be difficult time after time. It is thus in itself a demonstration of skill to know how to listen to people and take actions based on that. An important skill, especially for a supervisor. One theme in the organization’s professional skills category is the competence of the supervisor, while another was the consultation of the personnel.

Even at a more abstract organizational level, consulting the personnel for important topics is a skill. This is the point when I stumble into my own words because my categories listed in the opening post regarding competence, empathy and community, and processes get mixed up when thinking about the topic. As a criticism of my own “research” work, I could already say at this stage that the categorization I have formed should not be taken as the final truth. Fortunately, finding the final truth is secondary in these writings after awakening thoughts!

 

Summary

There are many kinds of professional skills, and a unique cluster of them creates the skills for success. Others type out beautiful code at lightning speed, while others know how to tell the customer and other important parties how beautiful that code really is and how useful it is for you. Others, on the other hand, know how to understand different points of view, are skilled at the ways of respectful interaction and thus keep the whole group together. We should continue to take into account how important different backgrounds and skills are for the organization.

 

 

About the author:

Perttu Pakkanen is the Talent Acquisition Lead at Codento. Perttu is eager in making sure that people joining Codento will fit with the values of Codento and enjoy the ride with us. Perttu’s passion is to understand what drives people in their career decisions.

 

Contact us regarding our open positions:

Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers Part 5 – Know-how and work tasks

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY: Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers

Part 5 – Know-how and work tasks

NOTE: If you wandered into this blog series for the first time, I recommend first reading my first post that elaborates on the whole series here

 

The importance of meaningful work cannot be forgotten. In my analysis of an employer’s important characteristics, the answers in the Know-how and work tasks category summarize the technical professional’s desire to be useful and develop their skills when working on sufficiently challenging puzzles.

In fact, the challengingness and interestingness of the work tasks emerge as the most essential aspect of the employer’s offer as a single factor of a category, even though the category of skills and work tasks as a whole remains the second largest of the six larger categories. It is therefore clear that it is not at all secondary to think about what work tasks are done for pay, but rather that getting access to the strangest things and gimmicks can very well be a critical question when choosing a job.

 

Searching for meaning

Meaning in working life can come from simply being able to use the skills you know to solve various difficult problems. The concept of meaning does not necessarily have to be viewed as a plan of a higher power or through finding the purpose of life, but it may well emerge in a short moment as a result of a single success. However, I am not saying that meaningfulness in (working)life cannot also be found at a higher level.

In many cases, interesting and meaningful tasks mean being concretely helpful. For many experts, it is important that the solution made serves some person or group of people in a concrete problem. Preferably in one that is as revolutionary as possible. So, although coding is, in general, a very fun job, we hope that it also has real benefits for real humans.

 

Development in professional skills

In addition to solving real problems, the development of professional skills is important. Based on the data of my analysis, for a technical professional, trudging in place is often unpleasant, while learning new things is extremely meaningful.

Skills can be developed in many ways. The ways include courses online, courses in your own studies, certificates, internal company projects, sparring with colleagues, and of course, learning through your work. The organization should be able to offer a balanced package, for example, built from these pieces, sufficiently pre-chewed.

Of course, the aspect of psychological safety must be remembered in this package. Although learning something new requires (and is often desired on behalf of the expert) a suitable challenge, a hard challenge does not always lead to an optimal learning result. The best outcome in learning comes from supporting emotionally and providing enough information and support while the level of challenges is optimal. Not always an easy equation, but if prioritized it’s certainly doable by everyone!

 

Summary

The meaningfulness of work tasks can even be thought of as self-evident, especially when the issue has now been juggled a bit between my synapses. However, sometimes it may be forgotten or overlooked, even though it is a very simple matter. And as seen in the data, experts do not take it for granted. If it was already in mind beforehand, there would be no need to mention it separately in the conversation.

Where technology and customer choices are important in terms of strategy and business, current and potential employees must also not be forgotten. What I mean with this is that the maximum possible involvement of experts in these processes will certainly not go to waste but will be an asset to the company.

 

 

About the author:

Perttu Pakkanen is the Talent Acquisition Lead at Codento. Perttu is eager in making sure that people joining Codento will fit with the values of Codento and enjoy the ride with us. Perttu’s passion is to understand what drives people in their career decisions.

 

Contact us regarding our open positions:

Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers Part 4 – Processes and organization

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY: Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers

Part 4 – Processes and organization

NOTE: If you wandered into this blog series for the first time, I recommend first reading my first post that elaborates on the whole series here

 

For a knowledge worker, the brain is the single most important organ in the human body, so in a well-functioning organization, its optimal ability must be maintained. One way to achieve this competitive advantage is to make processes, ways of working, and work tools as functional as possible. Even though the process and organization category was the second least prominent of the six categories in the minds of experts in the IT field in my analysis, it is still an important topic to discuss.

 

What processes?

I know I risked losing most of my readers when I mentioned the word process. I’ll make the situation even worse with a definition. Wikipedia defines the word as follows: “A process is a series of actions to be performed that produces a defined end result”. The first thing that comes to mind is that aren’t algorithms to some extent part of the definition of a process, in which case processes should be a matter of the heart for a software developer.

However, it has been proven that this is not always the case, so the topic requires clarification. The important difference here is probably between software and relationships between people. Processes and algorithms are therefore needed in well-functioning software, but interaction cannot always be reduced to the sum of its parts. Of course, machine learning algorithms are also working in this field (too), which have come quite far in the subject, but the HR department cannot be replaced with a software robot at least yet.

 

Processes in the right place

Processes must therefore be found in the right place in the organization. In general, employees appreciate when things work, so easy forms and timely surveys are working processes. When you pour your morning coffee not only on your lap but also on the computer and you need to quickly get a new one, it’s lucky if this happens with a pleasant form found in an intuitive place. Also, if you didn’t have to wait four days for your supervisor’s approval via e-mail to fill out the form, this sounds like an effective process!

 

Processes in the wrong place

What about the wrong kind of processes we talked about? They can likely be found where the matter would be more easily handled with normal interaction skills and the ability to take others’ emotional states into account. From where the process has been forced into place for the joy of creating the process instead of interaction.

For example, if an employee’s motivation and emotional state are measured with a multi-phase survey, we may have gone a little too far, if the same thing could be done in a more nuanced way by means of a short conversation. There is of course a place for a personnel survey, but not everything has to be in a numerically measurable form, but qualitative and informal discussions often lead to a better result. In organizing these, some kind of process is again good, so that the discussions will definitely be held!

 

Processes and ways of working as a hygiene factor?

In one of my previous posts, I wrote that, in my view, salary is in several cases a so-called hygiene factor, where lack of it evokes a negative emotional state/image, but at an appropriate level it does not evoke particularly positive emotions. The functioning of processes in the organization falls into this same pattern of thought, which certainly explains why it also came up relatively little as a category.

If something is not working in the organization, it is often noticed by the employees very quickly. If, on the other hand, things go smoothly and as promised or assumed, the days go on normally without any praise for the organization.

 

Summary

Processes can make an organization’s operations efficient and enjoyable at best. When they are found in the wrong place, they are irritating when, for example, the much-needed human dimension of working life is not realized in places where it could be realized. In management work, it is therefore good to understand this relationship, and no matter how much one would like to make everything efficient, as if computer-like automated, one should not forget the beauty of wandering and aimlessness.

 

 

About the author:

Perttu Pakkanen is the Talent Acquisition Lead at Codento. Perttu is eager in making sure that people joining Codento will fit with the values of Codento and enjoy the ride with us. Perttu’s passion is to understand what drives people in their career decisions.

 

Contact us regarding our open positions:

Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers Part 3 – Autonomy and flexibility

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY: Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers

Part 3 – Autonomy and flexibility

NOTE: If you wandered into this blog series for the first time, I recommend first reading my first post that elaborates on the whole series here

 

We who do knowledge work are often in such a fortunate position in working life that we can influence our working hours and habits ourselves. For example, I may go mountain biking in the central park of Helsinki in the middle of a sunny working day, if only there is nothing agreed on the schedule and the work can be completed in the evening. This is just one example of a privileged position where I can define my working habits.

 

Forced to the office?

In various social media, in the “post-corona” era, there has been talk of a regression back to previous ways, when employees have been very strongly asked to go to the office just because that’s how it’s always been done. As if nothing had been learned from the corona era and all the lessons about hybrid and remote work had been forgotten. This is a negative example of the realization of autonomy and flexibility, although of course it must be understood, especially in relation to larger organizations, that some kind of policies must be made and also considered so that some employees do not end up in a non-equal position due to the nature of the work.

 

Community

One important aspect of visiting the office is of course community spirit, which actually also touches on my second category, community and empathy. Can a clear policy of visiting the office be justified by the promotion of team spirit? Do you have fun together when you are told to have fun together? Could be, but probably not.

Community spirit is built on voluntary togetherness and enabling. When a framework is created for a convenient trip to the office and being there, people will start to be seen there too. Of course, things are not that simple in reality, but please allow a little verbal jab at the old worlds of thought.

 

Trust

Fundamentally, enabling autonomy and flexibility starts from the image of human. For example, is it assumed that the employee will basically do what has been agreed upon and in the timeframe that has been talked about? Is it assumed that a person is fundamentally reliable and efficient even without supervision? Through trust, it can be assumed that internal motivation increases when the responsibility for doing things lies with oneself, and no one dictates the way things are done.

 

Responsibility

As a counterweight to trust, responsibility remains in the employee’s account, compared to a strong culture of supervision. This can also be seen as difficult in some situations when in addition to the more precisely defined work tasks, the employee’s day includes so-called meta work, i.e. preparatory work so that the work itself can be done well. No one tells you where to be, how to be, what to do, and what to look like anymore. You have to think about it yourself. Among other things, prioritization is ultimately a very difficult and time-consuming task at worst.

As I mentioned above, trust and responsibility increase internal motivation through the experience of autonomy, but tasks traditionally more aimed at managers spill over a little more into the everyday life of a knowledge worker. Knowledge work is thus always a balancing act with regard to optimal responsibility.

 

Foreperson work

The subject also touches my second category at least a little. In the category “Professional skills in the organization”, one subcategory is the competence of supervisors. For supervisors to make autonomy and flexibility possible they need to adopt a position where they know how to talk more deeply with those they manage and act more as an enabler than a director of work. This is not easy.

 

Summary

Autonomy and flexibility was, by the way, the third most prominent category when considering important factors in the workplace for software professionals. It fights in fairly similar ranks with other top-ranked categories of my analysis and is thus a very important part of the workplace culture in knowledge work. At least in software development and related tasks, enabling autonomy and flexibility has come to stay in those workplaces that want to compete for the best workers.

 

 

About the author:

Perttu Pakkanen is the Talent Acquisition Lead at Codento. Perttu is eager in making sure that people joining Codento will fit with the values of Codento and enjoy the ride with us. Perttu’s passion is to understand what drives people in their career decisions.

 

Contact us regarding our open positions:

Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers Part 2 – Salary

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY:  Six fascinating wishes for choosing employers

Part 2 – Salary

 

NOTE: If you wandered into this blog series for the first time, I recommend first reading my first post that elaborates on the whole series here

 

More or less surprisingly, salary was the category that came up the least in the answers. The same phenomenon can also be noticed, for example, in an informal conversation with a group of friends or on social media platforms. Led by the thinking and influencing work of millennials, meaningful work tasks has become one of the most important areas, leaving purely material aspects behind.

 

Is salary an insignificant factor in today’s working life?

From the above, can it be assumed that salary is a completely irrelevant factor in choosing an employer? Absolutely not. From my non-scientific research, it must naturally be taken into account that even though the answers related to salary were the fewest in number, in my classification it fights against entire categories compiled from several answers. As a single, precisely defined theme, compared to, for example, self-directedness or the functionality of teamwork, it came up in reasonably big amounts.

Similarly, the design of questions must be taken into account. They ask about the most important aspects of what the employer offers, which does not bring up all the assumptions at a level deeper. In many cases, it can therefore be assumed to be self-evident.

In view of these circumstances and considering the emphasis on importance in the meaning-speech of current working life, salary was mentioned surprisingly often.

 

Salary as an enabler of meaning

In my opinion, salary is often seen as a kind of hygiene factor. It is supposed to be high enough to focus on pursuing more important things in (working)life, but it does not add much value to most people unless the number to the assumed median/average is particularly high. Thus, when the salary is too low, it is seen as a negative thing, but when it is just high enough, there is no added value in the employer’s brand.

 

Work just for pay?

One point worth noting is also the view that arose as a kind of antithesis to the speech of meaning, that one goes to work only for the salary and that employment is seen as a completely instrumental means of accumulating financial capital. In this case, meaning in life is often found somewhere else, such as family, free time, and hobbies.

However, human nature is such a complicated thing that in the ideal scenario of meaningfulness of work, a person often also finds meaning elsewhere, just as in the scenario of completely instrumental work, there might also be moments of meaningfulness.

One can also consider whether doing work just for the sake of pay is really a swing of the pendulum to the other side or a fact that has always existed, which in our socially constructed reality has been forgotten in daily thinking.

 

Summary

Although salary does not appear as often as other things in the priority list of important things in the workplace, it must be at least at a reasonable level – even in those jobs that offer a strong sense of meaning. And for some, it’s still one of the most important things in the workplace, and there’s nothing wrong with that either!

 

 

About the author:

Perttu Pakkanen is the Talent Acquisition Lead at Codento. Perttu is eager in making sure that people joining Codento will fit with the values of Codento and enjoy the ride with us. Perttu’s passion is to understand what drives people in their career decisions.

 

Contact us regarding our open positions:

Six Fascinating Wishes for Choosing Employers Part 1 – Where it all started

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY:  Six fascinating wishes for choosing employers

Part 1 – Where it all started

 

Hello! Perttu here.

I work at Codento, a consulting company specializing in cloud technology, software development, and data/AI topics, and my job description includes, among other things, finding the right talent for our clients. Everyone who works in the field knows that the experts are sometimes a bit hard to reach, and thus I also need to be able to justify what is so special about us so that it is worth joining our growth journey. 

 

How can I better understand what interests experts in the workplace?

The easiest way to start this reasoning would be if I could get a larger sample of information that I could analyze and find some kind of categories and indicators of what the people who talk to us are looking for from an employer. Of course, many parties have already done this and I have read through reports like this, but it is always more fun with your own material.

 

My own research starts to form

I started collecting thoughts about important issues in the workplace from all the conversations I had with experts – of course completely anonymously already at the level of raw data. Not surprisingly, the thoughts start to form categories, and by classifying the answers, an overall picture of what technical professionals want from an employer begins to emerge. To freshen up my sunny June days, I spent some time wrestling with spreadsheet software and breaking down smaller areas or themes into larger bundles.

 

Six fascinating wishes when choosing employers

I created six categories, which are ranked in order of importance based on the number of answers. According to my unscientific interpretation, these categories are the following in random order:

  • Salary
  • Autonomy and flexibility
  • Processes and organization
  • Knowhow and work tasks
  • Professional skills in the organization
  • Community and empathy

 

Come along for my series of blog posts!

In the following blog posts, I will discuss these categories, present my thoughts related to them and reveal which categories emerged as the most important in the discussions and thus at the highest ranks in the analysis. The purpose of these posts is above all to stimulate thoughts and discussion. So I am very happy to receive criticism, thoughts, experiences, praise, and objections! 

Can you guess what emerged as the most important category among experts? 

 

 

About the author:

Perttu Pakkanen is the Talent Acquisition Lead at Codento. Perttu is eager in making sure that people joining Codento will fit with the values of Codento and enjoy the ride with us. Perttu’s passion is to understand what drives people in their career decisions.

 

Contact us regarding our open positions:

Cloud Digital Leader Certification – Why’s and How’s?

#GOOGLECLOUDJOURNEY: Cloud Digital Leader Certification – Why’s and How’s?

Author: Anthony Gyursanszky, CEO, Codento

 

Foreword

As our technical consultants here at Codento have been busy in completing their professional Google certifications, me and my colleagues in business roles have tried to keep up with the pace by obtaining Google’s sales credentials (which were required for company-level partner status) and studying the basics with Coursera’s Google Cloud Fundamental Courses. While the technical labs in latter courses were interesting and concrete, they were not really needed in our roles, and a small source for frustration.

Then the question arose: what is the the proper way to obtain adequate knowledge of cloud technology and digital transformation from the business perspective as well as to learn latest with Google Cloud products and roadmap?

I have recently learned many of my  colleagues in other ecosystem companies have earned their Google’s Cloud Digital Leader certifications. My curiosity arose: would this be one for me as well?

 

Why to bother in the first place?

In Google’s words “a Cloud Digital Leader is an entry level certification exam and a certified leader can articulate the capabilities of Google Cloud core products and services and how they benefit organizations. The Cloud Digital Leader can also describe common business use cases and how cloud solutions support an enterprise.”

I earlier assumed that this certification covers both Google Cloud and Google Workspace, and especially how the cultural transformation is lead in Workspace area, but this assumption turned out to be completely wrong. There is nothing at all covering Workspace here, it is all about Google Cloud.  This was good news to me as even though we are satisfied Workspace users internally our consultancy business is solely with Google Cloud.

So what does the certificate cover? I would describe the content as follows:

  • Fundamentals of cloud technology impact and opportunities for organizations
  • Different data challenges and opportunities and how cloud and Google Cloud could be of help including ML and AI
  • Various paths how organizations should move to the cloud and how Google Cloud can utilized in modernizing their applications
  • How to design, run and optimize cloud mainly from business and compliance perspective

If these topics are relevant to you and you want to take the certification challenge  Cloud Digital Leader is for you.

 

How to prepare for the exam?

As I moved on with my goal to obtain the actual certification I learned that Google offers free training modules for partners. The full partner technical training catalog is available for partners on Google Cloud Skills Boost for Partners. If you are not a Google Cloud partner the same training is also available free of charge here.

Training modules are of high quality, super clear and easy to follow. There is a student slide deck for each of the four modules with about 70 slides in each. The amount of text and information per slide is limited and it does not take many minutes to go them through.

The actual videos can be run through in a double-speed mode and one requires passing rate of 80% in quizes after each section. Contrary to the actual certification test the quizes turn out to be slightly more difficult as multi-choice answers were also presented.

In my experience, it will take about 4-6 hours to go through the training and to ensure good chances of obtaining the actual certification. So this is far from the extent required to passing  a professional technical certification where we are talking about weeks of effort and plenty of prerequisite knowledge.

 

How to register to a test?

The easiest way is to book online proctored test through Webasessor. The cost is 99 USD plus VAT which you need to pay in advance. There are plenty of  available time slots for remote tests with 15 min intervals basically any weekday. And yes, if you are wondering, the time slots are presented in your local time even though not mentioned anywhere.

How to complete the online test? There are few prerequisites before the test:

  • Room where you can work in privacy 
  • Your table needs to clean
  • IDs to be available
  • You need to install secure browser and upload your photo in advance (minimum 24h as I learned)
  • Other instructions as in registration process

The exam link will appear at Webassessor site few minutes before the scheduled slot. Then you will be first waiting 5-15 minutes in a lobby and then guided through few steps like showing your ID and showing your room and table with your web camera. This part will take some 5-10 minutes.

After you enroll the test, the timer will be shown throughout the exam. While the maximum time is 90 minutes it will likely take only some 30 minutes to answer all 50-60 questions. The questions are pretty short and simple. Four alternatives are proposed and only one is correct. If you hesitate between two possible correct answers (as it happened to me few times) you can come back to them in the end. Some sources on web indicate that 70% of questions need to be answered correctly.

Once you submit your answers you will be immediately notified whether you pass or not. No information of grades or right/wrong answers will be provided though. Google will come back to you with an actual certification letter in a few business days. A possible new test  can be scheduled earliest in 14 days.

 

Was it worthwhile – my few cents

A Cloud Digital Leader certification is not counted as a professional certification and included to any of the company level partner statuses or specializations. This  might, however,  change in the future.

I would assume that Google has the following objectives for this certification:

  • To provide role-independant enrty certifications, also for general management,  as in other ecoystems (Azure / AWS Fundamentals) 
  • To bring Google Cloud ecosystem better together with proper common language and vision including partners, developers, Google employees and customer decision makers
  • To align business and technical people to work better together to speak the same language and understand high level concepts in the same way
  • To provide basic sales training to wider audience so that sales people can feel ”certified” like technical people

The certification is valid for thee years, but while the basic principle will apply in the future, the Google Cloud product knowledge will become obsolete pretty quickly. 

Was it worth it? For me definitely yes. I practiclally went through the material in one afternoon and booked a cert test for the next morning so not too much time spent in vain. But as I am already sort-of a cloud veteran and Google Cloud advocate I would assume that this would be more a valuable eye-opener for AWS/Azure lovers who have not yet understood the broad potential of Google Cloud. Thumbs up also for all of us business people in Google ecosystem – this is a must entry point to work in our ecosystem.

 

 

About the author:

Anthony Gyursanszky, CEO, joined Codento in late 2019 with more than 30 years of experience in the IT and software industry. Anthony has previously held management positions at F-Secure, SSH, Knowit / Endero, Microsoft Finland, Tellabs, Innofactor and Elisa. Gyursanszky has also served on the boards of software companies, including Arc Technology and Creanord. Anthony also works as a senior consultant for Value Mapping Services. Anthony’s experience covers business management, product management, product development, software business, SaaS business, process management and software development outsourcing. And now Anthony is also a certified Cloud Digital Leader.

 

 

Contact us for more information about Codento services:

Certificates Create Purpose

#GCPJOURNEY, Certificates Create Purpose

Author: Jari Timonen, Codento Oy

What are IT certifications?

Personal certifications provide an opportunity for IT service companies to describe the level and scope of expertise of their own consultants. For an IT service provider, certifications, at least in theory, guarantee that a person knows their stuff.

The certificate test is performed under controlled conditions and usually includes multiple-choice questions. In addition, there are also task-based exams on the market, in which case the required assignment is done freely at home or at work.

There are many levels of certifications for different target groups. Usually they are hierarchical, so you can start with a completely foreign topic from the easiest way. At the highest level are the most difficult and most respected certificates.

At Codento, personal certifications are an integral part of self-development. They are one measure of competence. We support the completion of certificates by enabling you to spend your working time studying and by paying for the courses and the exam itself. Google’s selection has the right level and subject matter certification for everyone to complete.

An up-to-date list of certifications can be found on the Google Cloud website.

Purposefulness at the center

Executing certificates for the sake of “posters” alone is not a very sensible approach. Achieving certifications should be seen as a goal to be read structurally when studying. This means that there is some red thread in self-development to follow.

The goal may be to complete only one certificate or, for example, a planned path through three different levels. This way, self-development is much easier than reading an article here and there without a goal.

Schedule as a basis for commitment

After setting the goal, a schedule for the exam should be chosen. This really varies a lot depending on the entry level and the certification to be performed. If you already have existing knowledge, reading may be a mere recap. Generally speaking, a few months should be set aside for reading. In the longer term, studying will be more memorable and thus more useful.

Test exams should be taken from time to time. They help to determine which part of the experiment should be read more and which areas are already in possession. Test exams should be done in the early stages of reading, even if the result is poor. This is how you gain experience for the actual exam and the questions in the exam don’t come as a complete surprise.

The exam should be booked approximately 3-4 weeks before the scheduled completion date. During this time, you have time to take enough test exams and strengthen your skills.

Reading both at work and in your free time

It is a good idea to start reading by understanding the test area. This means finding out the different emphases of the experiment and listing things. It is a good idea to make a rough plan for reading, scheduled according to different areas

After the plan, you can start studying one topic at a time. Topics can be approached from top to bottom, that is, first try to understand the whole, then go into the details. One of the most important tools for cloud service certifications in learning is doing. Things should be done by yourself, and not just read from books. The memory footprint is much stronger when you get to experiment with how the services work yourself.

Reading and doing should be done both at work and in your free time. It is usually a good idea to set aside time in your calendar to study. The same should be scheduled for leisure, if possible. In this case, the study must be done with a higher probability.

Studying regularly is worth it

Over the years, I have completed several different certifications in various subject areas: Sun Microsystems, Oracle, AWS, and GCP. In all of these, your own passion and desire to learn is decisive. The previous certifications always provide a basis for the next one, so reading becomes easier over time. For example, if you have completed AWS Architect certifications, you can use them to work on the corresponding Google Cloud certifications. The technologies are different, but there is little difference in architecture because cloud-native architecture is not cloud-dependent.

The most important thing I’ve learned: Study regularly and one thing at a time.

Concluding remarks: Certificates and hands-on experience together guarantee success

Certificates are useful tools for self-development. They do not yet guarantee full competence, but provide a good basis for striving to become a professional. Certification combined with everyday life is one of the strongest ways to learn about modern cloud services that benefit everyone – employee, employer and customer – regardless of skill level.

The author of the blog, Jari Timonen, is an experienced software professional with more than 20 years of experience in the IT field. Jari’s passion is to build bridges between the business and the technical teams, where he has worked in his previous position at Cargotec, for example. At Codento, he is at his element in piloting customers towards future-compatible cloud and hybrid cloud environments.