#1 People are here to help
This is one of the first things I noticed when I joined Futurice from another company that has a very different culture. During my first project here I remember feeling frustrated because I couldn’t get the software I was using to work, and I was complaining out loud about it. I was just talking to myself really and I would have been ignored in my old job, so it was a complete surprise when two people came straight over offering to help! I immediately realised that the culture here is very much focused around how we can support each other, and this moment has really stayed in my mind ever since.
#2 Soft skills are essential
Despite being consultants who spend a lot of our time at our customers’ offices, our work isn’t all about technical and project skills – there’s so much more to working with other people than being good at programming, or whatever they’ve hired you for. You also need to be very aware of the people there and adapt to their culture, as well as interacting with the people in your team, so the softer skills such as listening, open communication and awareness of others’ feelings are often more important in this work.
#3 We can achieve more as a team
Our teams always focus on working together towards a common goal – we simply couldn’t accomplish the same results if we were all working on our tasks separately. In the project that I’d say I’m proudest of overall, we set up a few ground rules from day one, including that we would never work on anything alone; when you’re working that way there’s always someone backing you up, so if you’re unavailable your teammates can ensure that the project is progressing and the customer isn’t kept waiting. As a result we were always prioritising the most important work, and the difference was clear compared to projects where we sometimes needed to stop and wait before continuing with urgent tasks.