I’m Oskari Mantere, a second year physics student at Aalto University. I had an internship at Netmedi this summer as a software developer. The experience was a really positive one, and I’d like to share some thoughts about my time there.
Background
Netmedi is a health technology company developing solutions for the future of health care. The company was founded in 2012 on the basis of a research project at Aalto university, where the founders recognized a need for a modern solution to patient communication during cancer treatment and follow-up afterwards. The company has since grown to a team of 19 employees, and has clients in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.
Why Netmedi?
I was introduced to Netmedi by one of their developers. The company seemed really interesting, and I applied for a summer internship. The interview confirmed my expectations. The office atmosphere was really good, and people were genuinely enjoying working here. The company had just recently raised a new round of funding, and it really came across as an energetic startup with a motivated team, determined to make a difference in health care.
Working at Netmedi
A Netmedi, I was tasked to build a content management system to the Kaiku Health service and the Netmedi platform. The software service is deployed separately for each client, and as the number of clients grew, managing the service content had become a challenge. The content management system would streamline the process of updating and creating new data on the platform and across all deployments.
This being my first software engineering job at an established company, I didn’t quite know what to expect. At the very least, I expected to learn, because I didn’t really have experience with all the technologies used at Netmedi. I quickly found out that not only did I manage to get to grips with the tools, I found myself positively surprised by the openness and sincerity of my new colleagues. Everyone is invited to share their views on current issues, and the company culture promotes open discussion around ideas, as well as asking for advice. This was especially good in my case as I was essentially starting from scratch with the content management system project, and there were many design decisions to be made.
At growth companies there aren’t much of time for mentoring, so at times I really had to take responsibility, face issues head-on and come up with solutions. It felt a bit stressful at times, but to be honest it was just the kind of experience I needed, and at the end of my trainee period it was rewarding to look at the results.
What I learned
I didn’t have much previous experience of being part of a software development team, so it was amazing to have a close look at how a fast paced early stage startup like Netmedi is run. I learned a lot about communication and teamwork. Obviously I also learned a lot about software technology, and even more importantly, about how that technology is actually used and maintained by people over the lifecycle of a project. Learning about the pure technology is always great, but teamwork and collaboration is something you’ll only learn in a real environment.
I’m grateful for the opportunity and of the memorable experience of working at Netmedi, as well as for getting to know all the awesome people in the team. If Netmedi sounds like the place for you, don’t hesitate to apply! There is a lot of work to do and Netmedi is always looking to hear from talented developers, designers and salespeople.
