My Blue Harvest Journey
You might wonder what it’s like working for a company like Blue Harvest that puts a tremendous amount of emphasis on investing in individual growth and personal development. Or maybe you heard “We invest in our people” before, thinking that Blue Harvest is like any other software consultancy company. In this article, I hope to share what it really is like working at Blue Harvest through my own journey and my experience working in this incredible organization, showing what makes Blue Harvest such a special place to work.
How it all started
In May 2021, when I finally graduated from Uppsala University after 5 years of studies, I was not sure what I wanted to do with my career. After all these years of studies that resulted in a master’s degree in Sociotechnical Systems Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics, I felt overwhelmed and stressed to find my dream job. I had some prior work experience as a software engineer during my studies, but I specifically wanted to find a place where I would get the opportunity to grow and develop both personally and professionally in different areas.
During the summer of 2021, I got contacted by a recruiter at Capgemini. After a few interviews she asked me to meet with Blue Harvest, a company they believed would be a perfect fit for what I was looking for. My first impression of Blue Harvest was that this is a place where I can grow both personally and professionally, as they from the beginning showed me how they prioritize individual growth and personal development. In order to foster more well-rounded professionals. Blue Harvest also focuses on both technical abilities and soft skills, something that is increasingly important and often overlooked by software engineers. With all of this in mind, I could not have been more thrilled to find out I would be joining Blue Harvest in September 2021.
My experiences
The first weeks of joining Blue Harvest brought a steep learning curve and I was faced with several challenges. There were several new processes, skills, and customers to get to know which at times felt overwhelming. However, throughout my initial time at Blue Harvest, I always felt that my new Blue Harvest colleagues were there to help and support me. What stuck out immediately, which is also one of the aspects of Blue Harvest I value the most is the incredibly supportive culture. Blue Harvest creates an environment where I was able to learn, quickly start taking initiative and grow as a person. I was welcomed with open arms from day one.
Blue Harvest adopts an 80–20 business model, a unique way of working which shows the company’s commitment to the individual growth of their employees. At Blue Harvest, Monday-Thursday we are working alongside our clients on a variety of projects to meet their digital needs and help them with their business challenges. On Fridays, which has quickly become my favorite day of the week, we focus on “the harvest”, which is a platform for individual and company growth outside of client projects. Every Friday is different, whether I am working with our social media, developing my managerial skills, or taking the time to develop my technical skills through a variety of certifications. I am currently working towards increased certification within Azure. Being so early in my career, this really gives me the opportunity not only to learn more but also to find out more about where my passions as a professional lie.
Of course, the Blue Harvest Fridays are incredible, but let’s talk about what I do for the rest of the week. One month after joining, I got the opportunity to start my first client project as a DevOps engineer, for a large financial multi-national corporation. In this project, I work alongside 5 Blue Harvest colleagues from Belgium and Netherlands. It’s been an amazing experience for me as a junior software engineer to work on this challenging project together with my highly skilled colleagues, from different cultures and backgrounds.
Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to attend a Women in Tech conference in Amsterdam together with my Blue Harvest colleagues from across Europe. During this conference, we networked with other women in technology and attended a variety of sessions on business, tech, and career development. It was an amazing experience to listen and learn from leading women in technology and I traveled home feeling inspired and excited about the future. I am very happy to work for a company that supports learning and self-development by encouraging everyone to join various trainings, conferences, and other events.
When I look back at the last 8 months, I am incredibly proud of how much I have learned and grown as a person, and I must thank all of my team members at Blue Harvest for that. It is the culture within Blue Harvest that promotes knowledge sharing, growth, and empowerment, that has allowed me to come so far in such a short period of time.
