What is a typical week at work like for a developer trainee at Exove?

A trainee’s week includes very different kinds of tasks, starting with software development itself and ending with training of job skills and meetings with the team. A former trainee Iiris found some time to share her Exove trainee story, how she ended up with Exove and what was on her plate work-wise as a trainee.

Journey to working as a Developer

Iiris’s journey as an Exove employee began in the Trainee Program in spring 2021. Iiris studies information technology at Aalto University and was interested in working as a software developer. Iiris got acquainted with Exove at a career fair but was already familiar with the company and the Trainee Orogram because some friends had attended the program the year before. The stories told by her friends and the real, authentic meeting with the Exove’s employees made an impact on Iiris.

After Iiris was approved into the Trainee Program, she and the other trainees embarked on a three-month traineeship. But what happens during the traineeship and what does a typical work week look like?

Training, mentors and a client project

A trainee’s week consists of training on the Drupal content management software, service design and accessibility, and also sparring with mentors and participation in a project for a real client. Iiris logged their typical week during the traineeship day by day:

In addition to sparring with the mentors and attending trainings, the weeks are spent mainly doing front-end developer tasks and Drupal. The trainees naturally also have a say on what their work week looks like, depending on how often they need sparring time with the mentors or what kind of Guild activities are of interest to them.

The people make Exove a great place to work

“Having close colleagues is important, and I get along with them well”, Iiris says. Taking initiative is also encouraged in Exove; if you are active, you get answers actively. Even though the trainee period was mostly done remotely, there wasn’t a day in it when Iiris wouldn’t see a colleague’s face or hear their voice. The daily meetings with mentors made sure that there was no danger of being left alone.

Iiris’s words clearly show that the personal interests of employees are taken into account at Exove. For example, Iiris was interested in security tasks, and because of that, the trainees reactivated Exove’s Security Guild. Some of the more experienced developers also got involved.

Growth from a Trainee to a Developer

All in all, the traineeship was great, and we were happy to hear that Iiris wanted to work with Exove part-time alongside their information technology studies. It was easy to arrange the workdays so that studies and work went hand in hand. Even if there were fewer working days, we were able to include certain important meetings in the weekly routines, such as the mentors who are always available to help with development tasks and discuss internal matters. The Security Guild, which Iiris led, also became a part of daily life, because the Guild activities support their personal interest in information security and cloud services.