An absolute stroke of luck as a workplace
04 | 2023 Sanna Valkeejärvi & Erkka Korpi, Senior Software and Cloud Engineer
Erkka Korpi joined Kipinä in February 2022 as Senior Cloud Engineer. The journey has been rewarding and interesting, even unique.
Erkka has enjoyed working at Kipinä for many reasons, with Kipinä's unique partnership model being a major factor, alongside the community:
"We're all on the same wavelength and we're all on Kipinä for the same reasons. People on Kipinä don't categorise others because of their background. When you are accepted as a member of Kipinä, you are accepted as equal to everyone else, and people are not categorised in any way. Everyone is allowed to be who they are."
Erkka had been in his previous job for only four months when the opportunity to discuss moving to Kipinä arose. He hesitated and wondered if he should take the leap, but more experienced friends encouraged him to be bold because of Kipinä's unique model.
"I would have regretted it if I hadn't joined Kipinä that day." says Erkka now.
“Everyone at Kipinä is free to be themselves.”
Erkka describes himself as lucky and privileged to be part of the Kipinä community. After more than a year as a Kipinä employee, he still thinks that his current job has been "a stroke of luck."
"I'm really committed to the company. Not just because I own part of the company. Sure, that's part of the commitment, but mostly because it's so good to be in the moment. The sense of community is much better than anywhere else I've seen. Even though we're distant from each other, and from the customers physically, Kipinä has a strong presence in everyday life and that's a good thing."
Personal growth is extremely important to Erkka, and he always strives for it. In the past, changing jobs often meant he had outgrown his role and could no longer develop himself.
"Now there is no need for me to go to other places because of the development of the Kipinä. Because here you can talk openly about your own needs and desires and develop yourself in other ways. Before I came to Kipinä, I had the principle that if someone approached me with a job offer, I would go and talk to other companies. Now I turn everyone down because I'm more than an employee and I don't think I can find anything better."
Kipinä Code retreat was a competition for problem-solving skills.
Erkka says he was really impressed when experienced long-liners saw potential in him and accepted him to work at Kipinä.
"Overall, one of the biggest things I appreciate about Kipinä, apart from the community, is how I've been welcomed and treated as an equal, even though my own experience in the industry is shorter than many others. There are no unnecessary structural levels here, and there is no separation between juniors and seniors. Here I have learned to see more clearly what I value and what kind of working life I want for myself. People are treated so well that you don't want to give that up."
Treating people well extends to client relationships, and Erkka feels that chemistry between the consultant and the client is also essential. Honest and open communication, both within Kipinä and toward clients, is important to him.
With more than a year of experience as a Kipinä employee, Erkka has also been involved in interviewing potential new shareholders.
"Quite a few interviewees have asked about presence—whether you end up isolated here. It's easy to answer that you don't; at Kipinä, people always help each other, whether the challenge is big or small. Interviews also emphasize whether new candidates have that certain spark. Personally, I want to highlight soft skills alongside hard skills. We'd rather hire good people whom we actually want to work with, because then clients will enjoy working with them too."
One conversation with a prospective shareholder has stuck in Erka's mind in particular. The candidate asked Erkka what he would like to change in Kipinä.
"It may sound unreal, but the answer was that nothing. Kipinä is exactly what we all wanted, and how it was built."