Development opportunities bring developers to Valamis

Lack of career development is the number one reason listed why employees quit their jobs. In fact, it’s been this way for 10 years in a row.

The Work Institute’s research for the 2020 Retention Report states that every five employees who chose to accept a new job with a different employer in 2019 did so because of career development concerns.

At Valamis, we get it. Why commit yourself to an organization that is not committed to you by helping you learn and develop? We value our employees, and we want to help them thrive. That’s why development is one of our core values.

Not that long ago we wrote about How Valamis Supports and Encourages Employees to Learn. So, it’s obvious that we make learning happen both with our clients and internally in our company.

According to our 2021 wellbeing survey results, the effort we put into employee development is visible to all Valamisians in their everyday work. Our survey results show that of all Valamisians:

• 79 % feel they have the opportunity to use their skills and knowledge at work
• when asked about development possibilities, 72 % agreed that they have enough opportunities to develop in areas that interest them
•  76 % feel like the company encourages them to learn and develop professionally.

Even though employee views on development related support from the company and opportunities to develop were overall high, our employees in Jaipur, India had the most positive views on the professional career development related questions.

Compared to all other countries where Valamis has offices:

• as many as 90 % of Jaipur office employees feel like the company encourages them to learn and develop professionally.
• a whopping 87 % of Jaipur employees feel like they have developed professionally during the last year, compared to the 78% average of the whole company.

Our Jaipur office opened in 2019, the newest addition to our multinational company, and since then the number of Jaipur employees has grown by 60 %. From HR’s point of view, high scores in the wellbeing survey were a victory that made us wonder what our Jaipur employees had to say about our efforts and investments in their learning and development.

And so, we asked them their thoughts on the matter. I discussed with three of our Jaipur employees how they feel about their professional and career development during their time at Valamis. I had the pleasure to get to know the following Valamis developer talents:

• Harish Bhardwaj, Software Developer, at the time of writing this, Valamisian for 3 months
• Nasir Hussain, Lead Software Developer, Valamisian for approximately 2 years
• Nakul Saini, Lead Mobile Developer, Valamisian for approximately 2,5 years

_{Software Developer Harish Bhardwaj joined Valamis to grow his skills in Java and cloud technologies.}

“You’ll have more opportunities to learn”

Harish is a new member of our Jaipur office and his attitude is admirable, he has a passion for learning. Why did someone who recently graduated with a major in electronics and communication, then spent a year as a Java software developer, decide to join Valamis?

”I was not getting the right opportunity there, which my aspirations were, especially in Java and in cloud. So I made my plan that I have to switch. I have to go in a company where I can be recognized with my skills and where if I say something – that is heard. So that was the basic agenda.

And the reason why I selected this particular company is because of the technology. I heard a lot of reviews. Former Valamis employee told me this is the company where you can grow yourself since I’m just a fresher, honestly speaking. And at this point of time, I’m open to technologies, I’m open to learning. So I wanted to explore myself and get this opportunity where you do have Java, where you have cloud, where you have your DevOps in use.” – Harish

So professional and career development were the reasons Harish decided to join Valamis. And it’s not like Harish doesn’t agree that all companies might be able to offer possibilities to develop, but the thing Harish appreciates most is that he’s being listened to. He is ready to put in the hours and learn new skills. To be able to discuss on a regular basis the progress he is making with his learning and his aspirations for the future is something that he values greatly.

“You might be given more load, but at the same time, you’ll have more opportunities to learn, especially when you are a fresher, when you are in a learning phase. And what I expected was correct. Still there are few things which I always want to correct myself and keep on trying to address to my HR what I want. And the best point about the company is my voice is heard. If I need anything, I say and people respond. That is the best part I feel about the company.” – Harish

“New opportunities within the company”

As Harish has noticed during his first months at Valamis, employees do, have support, and they are encouraged. One way we do this is by asking employees to evaluate their skills regularly in our Valamis Learning Solution because it helps both the employee and the company to see how they have developed.

Some might think it’s just for the sake of monitoring employees, but that’s not the case. For example, our resourcing, sales and management teams use our Skill Matrix tool to find talents for both projects and new roles. Therefore, keeping skills up to date is beneficial for our employees’ career development.

At Valamis all open positions are announced internally, and all employees have the opportunity to apply. In fact, some positions are opened and advertised only internally to our existing employees. And openness is something we rely on.

For example, every employee can read the different Valamis role descriptions from our Intra, so they know which skills are important if they wish to take the next step in their Valamis career.

”I have seen my colleagues also grow faster and better. And we have a lot of opportunities in Valamis. What happens is if there is some internal vacancy in your team or any other teams, so first the company tries to reshuffle the employees if anyone is interested and that’s where people can upgrade their skillset and also find new opportunities within the company. So that’s a positive thing that really I find in Valamis.” – Nasir

_{Lead Software Developer Nasir Hussain has seen professional growth both in himself and his colleagues during his time at Valamis.}

“I’ve been able to improve myself and upgrade my career“

Nasir, our Lead Software Developer, joined Valamis two years ago. Just like Harish, Nasir was also looking for new opportunities and was eager to learn new skills. He had worked with his previous employer for almost twelve years, working his way up from Software Junior to Senior Developer.

”I joined Valamis as I thought there were more opportunities there and also for learning new things. And also as I checked the websites about Valamis, there were a lot of good things and I wanted to be a part of it. So it was a combination of diversifying my skills and also trying new things that brought me to Valamis.” – Nasir

Not only has Nasir witnessed his colleagues career growth, but he has also been able to develop professionally himself. Since starting his Valamis career a few years ago he has gained experience in the services team and has now moved to the development team where he has been promoted from Senior Developer to his current role as a Lead Software Developer.

“I’ve been able to improve myself and upgrade my career during this time. I started in Valamis as a senior developer and now I am working as a lead developer.” – Nasir

“I can see a long way ahead for me and for my career”

And what about Nakul, our Lead Mobile Developer who has been part of our Jaipur office since the beginning?

“I was in same industry, so I have somewhere around 13 years of experience. My career was in good shape initially, everything was going well.” – Nakul

Even though everything was going well career-wise, Nakul was looking for a new opportunity that might lead to a different role with responsibilities better suited for him. Luckily, someone Nakul knew recommended Valamis.

“So I thought that because if a good multinational company is starting office in your home city, in your hometown, then why work far away from your home. And if you are getting like same good benefits and, well I just know what I heard from others that time, but that time I think that it’s going to be a very good option. So I left the company on that note.” – Nakul

Even though Nakul’s path when joining Valamis is not your typical one, it made me happy to hear his point of view because it came obvious that he has learned a lot during his years at Valamis. He joined our Jaipur office during corporate reorganizations and the process of getting things up and running at Jaipur office was challenging. Previously Nakul had been working as a Lead Developer and now he was asked if he would feel comfortable stepping down one position when joining Valamis. Naturally, the decision was not an easy one.

”I know that this company is very good. They have good standards, they are following all policies, all these good things. I saw many possibilities to improve the thing I was working on and to improve myself. And basically I can see a long way ahead for me and for my career. So I thought okay, it’s fine, I can now step down for a lower position because I wanted to stay here. I wanted to improve me. I wanted to improve this product as well which I’m working on right now. So then I stayed and I stepped down on lower role.” – Nakul

But because Valamis supports employee development there was a personal development plan laid out for Nakul. He really took the time and put in the effort to develop himself. And it seems like it was totally worth it, now he feels that he is up to the level a lead role takes and has truly earned his position through hard work.

”I kind of developed this mindset. It’s kind of ongoing journey, I can also say endless journey. But the good thing, and the great thing of this journey is that you will not only improve the product, but you will also improve yourself. It’s not that you are just doing your work and you are just giving yourself and you are not getting something. I can say that I actually improved more as a person. I got some good knowledge, I know how to interact with people and I know different cultures. There’s that the main thing which I learned in Valamis about a career – what’s the purpose of development.” – Nakul

_{Lead Mobile Developer Nakul Saini sees professional growth as a neverending journey.}

“There is always something new we can learn from our colleagues”

As Nakul points out, at Valamis one truly learns how to interact with different personas and people from different cultures. Thanks to its Finnish heritage, Valamis culture is rooted in Nordic values with the importance of work-life balance, equality, and transparency at the core. These themes came up in our discussions but what really stood out was the Valamisians themselves. Here you get to know all these amazing personalities from all over the globe, to learn with and from them.

“In here, I see the seniors are helping. If you ask them something they don’t take it in a bad way, they take it in a very good way. They see that the person is trying to learn something so they help you. And for that I’m really thankful to my mentors. So whenever I have doubt, I just post in the group. Any one of them who’s free – they just respond to my queries or my doubt. And they take it positively. That is the best part.” – Harish

“When we work with different teams, there is always something new we can learn from our colleagues.” – Nasir

This in fact blends development well with one of our other core values – sense of community. At Valamis, you will be supported no matter where you are, there will always be someone ready to stop what they are doing and be there for you. When I thanked Nakul for his time in talking to me on this subject, his response summed up everything that I wanted to say:

”I can say that for example, that we are talking the first time, right. But I’m not hesitating anything I can say. I can openly discuss about my feelings and what I’m thinking or what I have experienced in past. If I’m talking to a Valamisian, it feels like a family.” – Nakul