Antero’s story
The first time I heard about Citrus was during an IT-week morning seminar in April 2008. The company must left a positive impact since the same evening, I checked Citrus’ home page and sent my CV and application. Saku called the very next morning as I was driving to work.
We arranged a meeting and an appointment to take a test. Having worked in the IT-field for over 25 years, I had of course been occasionally required to participate in some kind of test or another. The duration of the tests were usually half and hour with a full eight-hour workday between. To my recollection, Saku’s tests lasted a couple hours. We reviewed the test results together. I brought with me some test results from a large ‘testing agency’ that were slightly over a year old for the sake of comparison. I was mildly surprised that despite working primarily as a project manager for over 15 years, I had a crisp, clear ‘IT-coder’ profile!
Luckily I did not need to think about changing my career. As Saku stated immediately, I was one of those who had begun my career as a coder and designer and had then landed in / progressed to the position of project manager. And so it was, despite an academic background having nothing to do with coding, I did actually begin my career as a coder before becoming a project manager. Saku and I concluded that I had performed the role of a certified project manager quite successfully over the years. I am not by nature the kind of person who would answer affirmatively to the classic test question, “Do you feel you are the center of attention at a cocktail-party and the leader of the discussion?”
Immediately after the test, we made an employment contract. We agreed that I would begin working at Citrus at the end of summer, and I resigned from my previous position immediately after the first of May.
Antero Karjalainen
Project Manager
Ossi’s story
Saku called me once years ago and talked me into coming for an interview. Who knows where he got my contact information from. I came to the interview anyway, but when the discussion turned to IT-consulting, well “thanks, but no thanks.”
Of course Saku didn’t leave it at that. Three years passed before I agreed to a meeting and Saku’s recruiting process. I learned from Saku’s example and guidance how to work as an IT-consultant, among other things, and it didn’t turn out to be so bad after all. It was actually a good experience when Saku gave me the test. Or it not quite a test, more like a feedback discussion, where we used test results to determine my traits and characteristics. There were no surprises there, but it was nice to learn how each of my characteristics supported exactly what I wanted to do. And it was also good to hear words of warning where I had obvious room for improvement.
I found it helpful that Saku followed up on me. A great job was arranged at Citrus Oy. Citrus Talent Management will continue in the same fashion, so I highly recommend ICT professionals to join the Citrus Talent Pool. And jobs are now also available from places other than Citrus.
Ossi Vartiainen,
Software Engineer
