Heli Turja works at Nextcon as a testing specialist. Heli has a long career in various roles in the IT sector, from training microsupport staff to project manager.
-Continuous training and updating your skills are very important in professional work. The pace of technological development is constantly accelerating and new learning must be continuous. However, it is one of the driving forces behind my work, says Heli.
Emerging technologies and projects have also provided learning opportunities.
–Testing currently focuses on automation, but with digitalisation, many new things need digital solutions and careful testing.
-Digital authentication and authorisation are currently at the heart of my work. For example, an elderly person could authorise their child to act on their behalf in certain matters. An electronic mandate is like an electronic power of attorney. When personal data is processed, the data used for testing must be anonymised. Anonymisation is the process of rendering the data anonymous so that it cannot be reconstructed as the original data using a value or, for example, an encryption key. Testing personal data requires the use of artificial IDs, which are generated using the same rules as real IDs,” says Heli.
Freedom to work
At Nextcon, all our experts work with customers. For most of them, telecommuting is possible, which gives them more freedom to work. Freedom to work is an important element at Nextcon, where all employees are experienced experts in their field.
-“Here, everyone is able to plan their own work within the framework of client projects, but is also responsible for their own work directly to the client,” says Heli.
At Nextcon, each expert will also be able to influence the project they want to go to. Commitment to the project and to the client is important.
As a testing expert, what kind of projects do you get to work on in practice?
– Right now, my job is supporting stakeholders in a major public administration project. Stakeholders include software houses, municipalities and many other organisations that we assist in testing.
In her own work, Heli is inspired by ensuring and improving the efficiency of social functions.
-The fact that the authorities have access to the information they need quickly and automatically speeds up the payment of subsidies, for example. In the future, it will also be possible to ensure that all parts of society fulfil their obligations as they should, thus creating a fairer society.
At the moment, Nextcon is being actively developed and there is plenty of work to do.
-“In a dispersed organisation like Nextcon, it is always challenging to find your own culture, but meeting together and hearing about each other’s projects builds a sense of community,” says Heli.