Mikael is a senior software engineer in Tuxera’s Embedded File Systems team and has been working at Tuxera since his days as a computer science major at the University of Helsinki. In his free time he enjoys playing video games, particularly EVE Online, painting miniatures, and staying active in the office gym.

A company that truly matched my interests

In August 2016, a blog post was published on the Tuxera website about my summer internship in Tuxera’s QA team. It ended with me sharing that I’d enjoyed my time at Tuxera so much that I’d decided to continue working as a part-timer. Nine years later and I’m still here!

Learning and growing in a supportive environment

A lot has happened since that first summer. I worked mostly part time until I graduated from university in 2021 with my master’s degree, except for when I took a year off to focus on my thesis. Tuxera were very supportive during my studies and took me back afterwards and let me do my thesis for the company.

Until 2018 I was in the QA team, then I switched to the development team, developing products further instead of just testing them. In the last nine years I’ve contributed to almost all our Espoo-based repositories in one way or another.

Balancing work with extracurriculars

It’s not all been about developing; I’ve also helped with many extracurricular activities at Tuxera, from parties and events to designing cool stickers and t-shirts. I’ve particularly enjoyed helping organize the student excursions, where university student associations come to the office to find out more about what we do.

I had the idea to organize an escape room where we ask visiting students to solve a problem they won’t have seen before. It’s fascinating to see how they go about finding a solution – especially when we’re thinking about potential hires – and it’s also fun for them to have an activity while they’re at the office.

There are also lots of other ways to take time for yourself at the office: ping pong, a pool table, game consoles, a gym, and a sauna. We have hobby clubs too, like the tabletop wargaming club I started with a few colleagues. Every club is given a small budget to get started, so there’s lots of scope to find your people and spend time doing the things you enjoy.

Working at Tuxera – a typical day

Most days I walk the 4km to work and arrive very early, usually around 6–7am. I find I do my best work in the morning when it’s quiet and I can focus and get things done. If it’s a gym day I then go and work out sometime between 8–10am – we’re lucky to have all the gym equipment I need upstairs in the office. After that it’s time for me and my trusted lunch gang to head out for food.

Once we’re back, we have a coffee get-together with the rest of our colleagues and talk about anything we’re stuck on, or even just what’s happening with the weather. Then I have my second period of focus time and leave for the day at about 3pm. Although I can work from home, I prefer to come into the office where I can focus on work and nothing else.

Trust the process – and yourself

I’ve learned a lot in my time at Tuxera, both domain-specific knowledge about C programming and about Linux Kernel – evidenced by the fact I recently submitted my first patch to the mailing list! I’ve also learned just how patient you need to be in this job. I consider myself a patient person, but our work typically doesn’t bear any visible fruit until a lot of hours have been spent. I’ve learnt to put the work in, be patient and trust the process. This has also helped to improve my self-esteem and self-confidence because, while our work isn’t easy, we always get there in the end.

To any other engineers out there thinking of joining Tuxera, I’d say go for it.

While what we do is quite niche and complicated, it’s not rocket science. There are no extra-special qualities you need to work here – I felt like I wouldn’t be good enough to join, but I was and you can be too if you set your mind to it. We all set barriers for ourselves and we shouldn’t; I’d love to meet you here if you’re up for the challenge.
We’re always keeping an eye out for talent, so drop your info into our open applications today.