Game changers: Career switching to DevOps takes courage – and brings joy
Polar Squad’s Katariina “Kata” Vakkuri tells us how (and why) she hopped industries
One of the hardest things to do in life is change course after you’ve invested years building up a career, from earning degrees to building up your experience, expertise and network. It’s even harder to take that leap if you have a good job.
But what if there’s a small voice inside you that grows louder over the years reminding you of your curiosity and interest in pursuing what seems like a totally different path?
One of Polar Squad’s newest DevOps consultants, Katariina “Kata” Vakkuri listened to that voice and made the career switch when she left behind the world of HR and higher education to embark on a new career in IT.
“This is the first time in my working life that I’ve experienced a state of flow,” says Kata. “I’d heard about it before, but never experienced it. Now, some days I’m at my desk working away and I’m so engrossed in my job that I suddenly look up at the time and realize that it’s late and time to go home!”
Kata is part of the global trend of industry hopping or reshuffling, which has people around the world looking for careers that offer greater purpose. According to a recent BBC Worklife article, a July 2022 global McKinsey & Company survey of nearly 2,000 workers found that 48 percent of those who quit their jobs in the past two years moved to an entirely different sector.
“Learning geek”
In her previous career, Kata, who has a master’s degree in Education from the University of Helsinki, worked for many years as a talent and people manager and recruiter for companies including Accenture, a Fortune Global 500 company.
“I liked my job and the people I worked with, but I have always loved technology since I was a child and first started playing video games,” says Kata.
“Previously, I was curious about and envious of people working in tech, even when it meant leaving and quitting a good job and going back to school. It was also a monetary decision – Am I foolish to leave my current job and start again as a junior? But I wanted to try, to learn something new,” says Kata, who describes herself as a “learning geek.”
Being a lifelong learner is a big asset for entering DevOps as a junior, says Polar Squad’s co-founder and managing partner Teemu Korpela. “We greatly benefit from people such as Kata who come to us from other fields and bring expertise that complements our work,” he says.
Developing core DevOps expertise
DevOps, one of the hottest job titles in IT right now, requires many transferable skills such as the ability to problem solve, trouble shoot and collaborate. Compared to traditional IT Ops, where being an expert in a few core systems may suffice, in DevOps it’s vital to be learning new systems all the time with new DevOps tools being released weekly.
Korpela acknowledges that there are challenges associated with hiring juniors, as tech companies and their clients often want senior DevOps people. In order to nurture future generations of seniors, bringing juniors on board now is relevant.
One idea to address the situation is “bundling juniors and seniors together,” says Korpela. “Part of the incentive could be financial, for example, a project or client would be charged the price of one and a half DevOps people instead of two people when taking on a junior and senior,” he says.
Kata joined PS’s Helsinki team in April 2022, when she came to Polar Squad through AW Academy Finland, where she completed the Azure Cloud Engineering Program.
What brings her joy these days?
“Building cloud solutions that save time and resources is what really motivates me,” she replies with a smile.
She credits her husband who works in IT with encouraging her to pursue her dream.
A lifelong learner, Kata is currently a student at Finland’s Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, where she’s working towards a BA in IT on the weekends and in the evenings.