Tampere-based Shikha Varshney, 38, found a new job in the software industry through a recruitment training program. The new job came after an 8-year-long break from work. In 2019, Shikha and her husband moved from Dubai to Finland. As Tampere seemed to present interesting opportunities in the software industry, she decided to return to the field.
”I am a software professional with around 10 years of experience. In 2012, when our daughter was born, I took a break in my career to take care of our newly born. While it originally was intended to be a short break, we kept moving from one place to another due to my husband’s job. Until I came to Finland, I had not been working since the break. But looking at the technical community in Tampere, I felt that this was the right place for me to get back to my root profession”, Shikha explains.
Saranen’s Software Academy seemed like the perfect way to find work in the field. Shikha saw the recruitment training program as an opportunity to get her foot in the door in her new home country. An important reason for applying to the training program was also updating her skills.
”Due to my long career break, I needed to follow a guided path to get acquainted with the latest trends and technology in the tech industry. The technical training in the program provided the right mix of theoretical and practical learning, which was exactly what I needed”, Shikha says about her motives for applying to the recruitment training program.
Surveypal was the right match for Shikha
In a recruitment training program, professionals apply to be matched with suitable roles in partner companies participating in the program. If the parties connect over a professional role, the applicant is admitted to a five- to six-month recruitment training program. Over the course of the program, the professional works closely within the company with real work tasks. The participants also complete ca 25 days of high quality, in-class expert training, that support the professionals in their new jobs.
Shikha found her match at Surveypal, as Project Manager in Surveypal’s office in Tampere. Surveypal is a company that provides feedback management solutions designed to improve experiences. Shikha was very excited to enter her new tasks when admitted to the training program.
”Surveypal is a company with a very talented team, that is aggressively working to deliver world-class customer experience and is eagerly working to expand its business in the Nordics. It provided me with an excellent opportunity to learn and contribute positively at the same time. It was certainly the best start I could have hoped for.”
Due to the coronavirus, Shikha started working in her new job and work community entirely remotely. Yet, according to her, everything has run smoothly from the orientation onwards. She has also enjoyed her new and varied work tasks.
“In my job, I am required to manage the deployment tickets for a release and track them till completion. My responsibilities also include issue management and resolution, identifying areas of improvement in the system, the assignment of responsibilities, and monitoring and summarizing the progress of a project.”
"The program helped me bring back my confidence"
The Software Academy recruitment training program is specifically targeted to foreign unemployed job applicants. In addition to software training, the program also teaches soft skills needed in Finnish companies.
”The trainings provided the right mix of deep training on latest technologies, while putting equal emphasis on honing my soft skills to ensure that I had the opportunity to fit into the professional needs of the industry. The trainers had real-world experience of working with the technologies, which made the learning substance-based, instead of just theoretical understanding”, says Shikha, praising the content of the training days.
In the end of the training program, Shikha signed a permanent employment contract with Surveypal, and nowadays her title is Project Manager. We finally asked Shikha, if she would recommend a recruitment training program, and if so, to whom. Her positive reply came without a blink:
“Definitely a big yes. Software Academy was well structured with a very detail-oriented guided path. It allowed someone like me, who had a long break, to get back into the industry in a fairly short period of time. In my opinion, the program benefits both experienced job seekers, as well as people looking to get into the technology industry without any prior experience. The program helped me bring back my confidence. The entire program was great.”
